Sound The Trumpet : The Person of the Holy Spirit

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“The Person of the Holy Spirit”
by Hugh Davidson
October 11th, 2009

The person of the Holy Spirit

John 15:26-16:11,^”But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.”

Today, we’re looking at the ministry of the Holy Spirit and today there seems to be a lot of confusion about who He is and what He does. Most Christians understand Jesus the Son of God and God the Father as two very distinct Persons within the Godhead and yet there has always been a lot of confusion over the identity of the Holy Spirit and many people have always thought of the Holy Spirit as more of a thing or some kind of phantom than a Person.

Although the word trinity is not mentioned in the Bible, we know God is three in one and this means there are three very distinct Person’s that make up the Godhead and they are all equal in every way. They (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are all omnipotent which means they are all powerful. We have no problem with the Father and Son but we misunderstand the person of the Holy Spirit when it comes to these powers. We see the omnipotentence of the Holy Spirit in Luke 1:35 where it says, “And the angel answered and said unto her, (referring to Mary) the Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God.” Now, the power of the Highest is referring to the power of the Holy Spirit. And then second, the Holy Spirit is also omnipresent. And that means He is everywhere all at once. Psalms 139:7 says, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” The fact is, nobody can escape from the presence of God the Holy Spirit. I remember when the Russian cosmonaut came back from space and said, “I went right to the outskirts of the universe and I didn’t see God.” And W.A. Criswell said, “All he had to do was take his helmet off.” He is everywhere. And then third, the Holy Spirit is also omniscient which means He is all knowing. In other words, He knows everything. 1 Corinthians 2:10 tells us, “But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.” And listen, if He knows all the secrets of the Father and the Son then He obviously knows everything that’s in your heart and mine. And then fourth the Holy Spirit is eternal. He is from everlasting to everlasting. He has no beginning and He has no end. Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” He’s called the eternal Spirit because He is eternal.

It’s hard for any of us to imagine why the eternal God of the universe would be pre-occupied with the life of anyone on this planet whose lifespan is less than a hundred years. When I’m doing funerals I often use the analogy of life by comparing a person’s life to one of the large trees that we find in almost every graveyard. Some of those trees have been there for more than two hundred years and the people who are buried under them have only been on this earth for maybe seventy or even eighty years. This tells us that the gravesite is not the end for us but that God has an eternal purpose for ours lives that goes way beyond that of a tree.

And fifth the Holy Spirit is equal to the other two members of the Godhead. Acts 5:3-4 says, “But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own power? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied unto men, but unto God.” In the first part of the verse he says, you lied to the Holy Spirit and the last part he says, you lied to God. And in essence Peter is referring to the Holy Spirit as God and putting Him on the same level as the other two members of the Godhead.

And there are several other scripture references that show the co-existence of the three persons within the trinity. For instance, in Luke 3:22 it says, “And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” And here we see the evidence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and they’re all mentioned in the one verse and we can also see the same reference elsewhere in the New Testament.

And then there are four important principles to remember about the Holy Spirit. One, the Holy Spirit is God, and He is a Person or a personable God. In other words, He is not a force or simply an influence but He is a personality. Second, we aren’t to ignore the ministry of the Holy Spirit. After all, His mission is to reveal Jesus and Jesus’ mission was to reveal the Father. And the Father’s goal was to send Jesus and the Holy Spirit so we can come to Him. All three of them have perfect harmony in their efforts to redeem us and all three of them are working together to bring us to heaven. And then third, the Holy Spirit gives us gifts to use in ministry in order to enable us to be effective for God. So, anything we do in terms of leading others to Jesus or teaching the word, all the credit goes to the Holy Spirit who is working in us and through us. And let’s face it, if we were simply working in our own power or in our own strength we might accomplish an awful lot but there wouldn’t be any eternal benefits.

Now, there are those rare times when the Holy Spirit will honor the word of God and even work through those who don’t know Him. I heard the testimony of a Bible College teacher who came to Jesus as a young boy while listening to a couple of young men who were holding a tent meeting in his neighborhood. He said he heard the gospel and then went forward and accepted the Lord and when the tent meeting was over these men left the area and he joined a local church. Later on, he went to Bible College and spent the rest of his life in the ministry but one day he said he found out that one of the two preachers at the tent meetings where he was saved had come from a Christian home but neither of these men were saved and they had rented the tent and held the meetings until they could get enough cash to get home and when they did they left. The Holy Spirit obviously honored the word they preached but that doesn’t mean they’re going to get any rewards for preaching it. I think they got their reward when they got their money.

The first century church certainly lived out the meaning of Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me.” The key in any church that is going to have an impact on the world and move out to fulfill the great commission is that it’s going to be a Spirit-filled church. A Spirit-filled church is simply a church in which the people walk in consistent obedience to the will of God which is expressed in the Word of God. So we see that a Spirit-filled church is where people walk, talk, think and act in the energy of the Spirit of God because their hearts are given over to the saturation of the Word of God and this is the kind of church that God uses to change the world.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13