Unfortunately there is some confusion about who and what the
Holy Spirit is. People sometimes refer to Him as a “thing” that you can get…. I
have heard people ask others, “Have you got it yet?” referring to receiving the
Holy Spirit. Likewise others boldly claim, “I got it!” believing they have
received a certain blessing from God connected with the Holy Spirit.
Without being harsh, I wish to say the Holy Spirit, The Holy
Ghost, The Spirit of the Lord, The Comforter, and the Spirit of God is NOT a “thing,”
“force,” “influence,” or “it.” He is a Person just like the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. I intend to demonstrate this from the Scriptures throughout this
article. So if you hold the Word of God in high regards, then you will
appreciate the wonderful truth that the Holy Spirit is an awesome divine
Person.
Why Believe the Holy Spirit Is a Person?
I have yet
many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13 Howbeit when
he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he
shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak:
and he will shew you things to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall
receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15 All things that the Father
hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it
unto you. 16 A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little
while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. (John
16:12-16)
The Scriptures reveal the Holy Spirit as a
person, with all the characteristics of a living, personal being. Thus He is
not a force or a mere moving, but a divine Person!
The Lord Jesus clearly portrays the Holy Spirit
as a Person through the titles, ministries, activities, and pronouns He
used. Christ taught the Spirit would continue His ministry in the life of
the apostles after His ascension (John 14:16, 26).
And I will
pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide
with you for ever; (Jn. 14:16)
But the
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (Jn. 14:26)
The Holy Spirit is Not an
Influence or Force
One of the keys to our understanding
about the Holy Spirit lies in our recognition that the Holy Spirit is not an
“it”; He is a person. Have you ever been asked, “Do you have the Holy
Spirit? Do you have it?” Perhaps the following explanation will shed some
light on why some believers have made this mistake:
The acts and workings of the Holy
Spirit are so secret and mystical,
so
much is said of His influence, graces, power and gifts, that we are prone to
think of Him as an influence, a power, a manifestation
or influence of the divine nature, an agent rather than a Person.
–Evans:
The Great Doctrines of the Bible
Some People confuse the Holy Spirit with a
force, a power, an event, an experience, or a manifestation. I also made this mistake early on in my Christian
experience. When I was younger in the Lord and before preparing for the
ministry, I can recall referring to the Holy Spirit as “It”.
Through careful Bible study I soon discovered that the Holy Spirit is not an
“it” in the purest since, but a “He” —a person, a member of the Trinity. Like
the Father and the Son are divine Persons, so is the Spirit.
Resultantly, my entire perspective changed. When
I begin to see the Holy Spirit as a person —not as a power, mere influence,
impersonal force, a “moving” or an experience —I developed a far different
perspective on the Holy Spirit’s ministry in my own life.
Before Jesus’ passion, he promised
that the Father and He would send his disciples “another Comforter” (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7).
The Comforter or Paraclete…
(meaning one who gives support), is a helper, adviser, strengthener,
encourager, ally, and advocate. “Another” points to the
fact that Jesus was the first Paraclete/Comforter and is promising a
replacement who, after he is gone, will carry on the teaching and testimony
that Jesus started (John 16:6-7).
Paraclete ministry, by its very
nature, is personal, relational ministry, implying the full personhood of the
one who fulfills it. –Packer, J.
I.: Concise Theology
[Modified]
The Holy Spirit is Far More Than
His Manifestations
Are there other reasons for this
false understanding of the Holy Spirit as an “It”? In many cases, a misunderstanding of Acts 2 where we read about the filling of the Holy Spirit in the
lives of the first Christians and the first church:
Acts 2:1-4, And when the day of Pentecost was
fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. [2] And suddenly there
came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they were
sitting. [3] And there appeared unto them cloven
tongues like as of fire,
and it sat upon each of them. [4] And they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
People tend to confuse the sights and sounds present at the Holy Spirit’s filling
of the early church. They read of a rushing wind-like
sound from heaven. They read of a mass of fire that seems to
divide into tongues that touch
each person. They read of the people speaking in languages (tongues) they
didn’t previously learn through study. And they assume that the sound, the fire, and the unknown tongues are the Holy Spirit.
These are merely manifestations of the Spirit’s coming to empower the church on the
day of Pentecost shortly after Jesus’ ascension. They are not the Holy Spirit Himself. The sound is as
of a rushing mighty wind. The glowing light seems like
as divided tongues of fire. The Holy Spirit is infinitely more
than any single manifestation of His presence.
Unfortunately many people see the Triune God, as
a He, a He, and an It.
I suspect another reason is that the King James
Bible actually uses “it” in reference to the Spirit (Rom. 8:16, 26). God is a masculine word in the original
language of the Bible, Jesus is a masculine word, but Spirit is a neuter word, a concept rather
foreign to English. The word “Spirit” is literally “breath” or “wind,” though
it was also translated “spirit” or “ghost” in a. d. 1611
when the King James Bible was translated. Sometime these serve as symbols of
the Spirit (John 3:8). As a result, occasionally the King James Version refers
to the Holy Spirit as “it.”
This, plus general theological uncertainty about
the Holy Spirit, has caused some to be confused as to whether He is a real
person. He is, of course, and many places in the KJV Bible refer to Him with a
masculine pronoun as “Him or “He” rather than “It,” helping to dispel the
impression that the Spirit is merely a force.
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.
8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness,
and of judgment: (Jn. 16:7, 8)
Howbeit when he, the
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not
speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he
will shew you things to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive
of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15 All things that the Father hath
are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto
you. (Jn. 16:13-15)
Notice in John
16:7, 8, 13–15, that twelve times in these
verses
…the Greek masculine pronoun ekeinos (that one, He) is used of the Spirit.
This is especially remarkable because the Greek word for spirit (pneuma) is neuter, and so should have a neuter
pronoun; yet, contrary to ordinary usage, a masculine pronoun is here used.
This is not a pictorial personification, but a plain, definite, clear-cut
statement asserting the personality of the Holy Spirit.—Evans: The Great Doctrines of the
Bible
The Holy Spirit Has the Characteristics of
Personality
One key reason why we believe in the
“personality” of the Holy Spirit is that He has the characteristics of a
person. He has intellect, emotion, and will.
Human Personality exists where there is intelligence, mind, will, reason,
individuality, self-consciousness, and self-determination. It is more than mere
consciousness—because animals have that—but self-consciousness. Personality
is more than determination—because animals have this, also, even though this
determination is the result of external influences—but self-determination, the power
by which man by his own free will determines his actions from within.
Divine Personality is reflected in human personhood—it is part of what it
means to be created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-28). We are persons
because God is three distinct Personalities.
Pantheism wrongly holds that this universe is
God; thus all, everything is God, and God is everything; God is all, all is
God. Accordingly God is identified with nature and not held to be independent
of and separate from it. God is, therefore, a necessary but an unconscious
force working in the world.
But this concept of God is not taught anywhere
in the Bible. No, God is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe; it
exists as an act of His intelligence, and will. The creation of the universe
and man proves the personality of the Creator—God (Gen. 1:1, 26; John 1:1-3 Col. 1:15-17; Psa.
104:27-30; 75:6, 7).
The three foremost qualities of personhood are
these:
a. Knowledge—an ability to know,
understand, recognize, and have meaning.
b. Will—an ability to make choices and
decisions on the basis of what one chooses to do, not as an instinctual
response to external stimuli.
c. Emotion—an ability to feel, both
to have and express feelings and to be aware of them.
The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person
like the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s take a look at
Scriptures that reveal these qualities associated with the Holy Spirit. An
example of His “intellect” is found in 1
Corinthians 2:10–11, where the Spirit is said
to know the things of God. 1 Cor.
2:11, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit
of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit is presented as searching the
deepest and profoundest truths of God, and possessing knowledge of His counsels
sufficiently to understand His purposes. Could a mere influence do this?
The statement “the
Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” means that only the Spirit can reveal to believers God’s
profound nature and wonderful plan, especially that formerly hidden mystery
that is now revealed—salvation through Jesus’ death and resurrection. That the
Spirit “searcheth” these things means that he penetrates and is part of all the
“deep things” of God (see 2:11).—The Life Application Commentary Series
Therefore, as diligently as the brightest among
us may struggle to know the deep things of God, we still must admit that if the
Holy Spirit knows the mind of God (the Father), He must have intellect (Ro. 8:26-27). The Spirit is
capable of knowledge, cognition, reason, and thought. Gravity or centrifugal
force do not think or meditate, but the Holy Spirit is a thinker!
An example of Him expressing “emotions” is found in Romans
15:30, where we read about “and
for the love of the Spirit,” and in Ephesians 4:30, we read Paul’s
words admonishing, “And grieve not the
Holy Spirit of God.”
We cannot grieve someone who does not love us.
Because the Holy Spirit has an emotional capacity, we can grieve Him. Yes, the
Holy Spirit has emotions. You cannot grieve an impersonal force.
The wind or fire has no feelings, but the Spirit does!
To grieve someone is to cause them to suffer; to
make them feel sorrow.
The utterance of evil or worthless words is
repugnant to the holiness of the Spirit, and is to be refrained from as
calculated to grieve Him. The injunction is made more solemn by the designation
as ‘the Holy Spirit’ and ‘the Spirit of God.’ The Spirit is here seen as
capable of feeling, and so as personal. In Isaiah 63:10 we have a similar idea,
following the statement that Jehovah was afflicted in all His people’s afflictions. –Wuest's Word Studies from
the Greek New Testament
The fact that He can be grieved shows that the
Holy Spirit is a Person, not a mere influence. It also means He loves us,
because only a person who loves can be grieved. The favorite ministry of God’s
Spirit is to glorify Christ and to change the believer into His likeness (2
Cor. 3:18). When a Christian sins, He has to turn from this ministry to one of
restoration. It grieves Him to see the believer’s spiritual progress
interrupted by sin. He must then lead the Christian to the place of repentance
and confession of sin. –MacDonald: Believer's Bible Commentary
Finally, an example of His “will” is found in 1 Corinthians 12:11, where
we read that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts “as He wills.”
1 Cor. 12:11, But all these worketh that one and
the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. (Ac.
13:2; 15:28)
Spiritual gifts are distributed to believers
according to the will of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12). Here is
wisdom, prudence and discretion, all of which are distinguishing marks of
personality. The Spirit not only bestows spiritual gifts, but bestows them discreetly
according as He thinks best. See John 3:8 also. –Evans: The Great Doctrines of the Bible
Animals function by means of
instincts, but human beings function by means of free will. We can decide or
determine what course of action we will take. Arguing to the greater, the same
is true of the Spirit of God. He makes
decisions and exercises the power of a definite will. When it comes to
spiritual gifts, He distributes them according to His will and not the appeals
of believers. He decides who will receive what gifts based on His plan and not
our desires or requests. Beloved, the Spirit is exercising volition in such
instances!
The importance of the personality of
the Spirit and of our being assured of this fact is forcibly set forth by Dr.
R. A. Torrey: “If the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person and we know it not, we
are robbing a Divine Being of the love and adoration which are His due. It is
of the highest practical importance whether the Holy Spirit is a power that we,
in our ignorance and weakness, are somehow to get hold of and use, or whether
the Holy Spirit is a personal Being … who is to get hold of us and use us. It
is of the highest experimental importance.… Many can testify to the blessing
that came into their lives when they came to know the Holy Spirit, not merely
as a gracious influence … but as an ever-present, loving friend and helper.” –Evans: The Great Doctrines of the Bible
The Holy Spirit Conducts Himself
Like a Person
This is in addition to His
possessing the characteristics of personhood—intellect, emotion, and will. The
Holy Spirit can do things that only a person would do (Jn. 14:17, 26; 15:26;
16:7-15).
John 14:16, And I will pray the Father, and he
shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide
with you for ever; (In this statement we see the Holy Spirit assisting,
helping, residing, and staying with Believers forever).
John 14:26, But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (According
to the words of our Lord Jesus, the Spirit is representing Him, teaching much
like Jesus taught, and reminding disciples of Christ’s teachings or directives).
John 15:26,
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:
John 16:8, And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment: (In these two passages, it can clearly be seen that the
Spirit is testifying of Jesus, reproving the world, and deeply convicting
sinners of sinfulness).
Take another look at the Spirit’s behavior; He
is helping, comforting, teaching, calling to remembrance, testifying,
convicting—these are all actions of a person. In this case they describe some
of the conduct of the holy Person of the Spirit of God.
Yes, the Holy Spirit teaches us, He
prays for us, He performs miracles, He comforts us and guides us. These are
things a person, not an impersonal force, would do.
Again, though the word spirit is neuter in the original language of
the Bible, sometimes when a pronoun is employed to refer to the Holy Spirit,
the pronoun He is used (John 16:13–14) instead of
the expected It. This was no mistake on the part of the
writers of the Bible. It was a deliberate reference to the Holy Spirit as a
person.
The Holy Spirit conducts Himself like a Person,
therefore we must conclude that He is indeed a person and not a mere force or
power. He as a person exercises power! He exerts an influence, but He is
a Divine Person. Remember, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims
like a duck, and flies like a duck…it is safe to conclude, based on the
evidence, that it is indeed a duck!
The Holy Spirit Has the Names and
Titles of Personality
The Comforter: John 14:16; 16:7. “Comforter” means one who is
called to your side—as a client calls a lawyer. That this name cannot be used
of any abstract, impersonal influence is clear from the fact that in 1 John 2:1 the same word is used of Christ (see Rom. 8:26).
Again in John 14:16 the Holy Spirit, as the Paraclete, is to take the place of a
person—Christ Himself, and to personally guide the disciples just as Jesus had
been doing. No one but a person can take the place of a person; certainly no
mere influence could take the place of Jesus Christ, the greatest personality
that ever lived.
Again, Christ, in speaking of the
Spirit as the Comforter, uses the
masculine definite article, and thus, by His choice of gender, teaches the
personality of the Holy Spirit. There can be no parity [correspondence] between
a person and an influence. –Evans: The Great Doctrines of the Bible
The Personality of God has
immeasurable significance to the Christian Faith. Consider this
explanation from William Evans,
True religion may be defined as the communion
between two persons: God and man. Religion is a personal relationship between
God in heaven, and man on the earth. If God were not a person there could be no
communion; if both God and man were one there could be no communion, and,
consequently, no religion. An independent personal relationship on both sides
is absolutely necessary to communion. Man can have no communion with an
influence, a force, an impersonal something; nor can an influence have any
moving or affection towards man. It is absolutely necessary to the true
definition of religion that both God and man be persons. God is person, not
force or influence.—The Great Doctrines of the Bible
Today, those who do not believe the
Holy Spirit is a person usually believe that He is merely a force emanating
from God the Father. This position can be held only by mentally ripping some
verses out of the Bible, pretending they are not there. A high view of all of Scriptures will lead a person
unfailingly to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit is a Person. If we believe the Word of God above the teachings of mere men, then we must regard the Holy Spirit as a Person--A divine Person! He is God, the Spirit and not God the force! A force may be good enough for Star Wars, but it will not suffices as an appropriate address to the Most High God. God requires that we worship Him in spirit and in truth. He will not receive worship that completely ignores who and what He actually is. In addition, no human being would appreciate being addressed as "hey dog," "hey you, chicken," or "look here mule"! We would be insulted by such misrepresentations of our humanity! Likewise, it is an afront to the Lord God to refer to one Member of the Godhead as an it, a thing, a force, or an influence. He is infinitely more than what He does or the impact He has. God deserves to be honored, worshiped, and adored for who and what He actually is. Perhaps some regard Him as an influence because they are looking for something to use.... Too many want to use the Holy Spirit to make themselves appear more spiritual or more spiritually accomplished than others. This is nothing but ugly pride and it is condemned by the Lord of glory. One can use a force or influence to their advantage, but one cannot use the Person of God the Spirit in any fashion! No, God requires adherence to His will and He will not merely do our will! He is God and we are mere sinners saved by His infinite grace. It is time for all genuine Believers in Christ Jesus to recognize the true and living God for what and who He truly is. As we do so, regard the Holy Spirit as a Person.
