Because we want you to have a personal encounter with the Holy Spirit, we will next show that the Scriptures
teach that the Holy Spirit is a Person, rather than merely an essence, force, or power.
You can have raw power without personality, such as electricity, but it is difficult to have an intimate, close relationship to such impersonal power.
The word spirit in Greek is “pneuma,” which is in the neuter gender. Because of this, in early church history a brilliant theologian named Arius began to promote the idea that Jesus was less than God, having been created by God, and that the Holy Spirit is just the “essence” of God.
This became known as the Arian heresy, and it still exists and attracts a wide following.
The Nicaean Counsel stripped Arius from his position and branded his teachings as heresy.
The Holy Spirit is more than just an essence or force; He is a Person. You shouldn’t worship a force or essence. Can you imagine singing the doxology, “Praise Father, Son, and Essence”?
He is a Person, and as one of the Persons of the Godhead He is worthy to be praised. If we do not believe in
the personality of the Holy Spirit, we deny Him the praise and worship due Him. If we do not realize that the Holy Spirit is a Person, we find ourselves in the position of seeking to relate to a force or essence. We would be saying, “I need to yield my life to it,” or, “I need more of it in my life.”
Knowing , Acting , Feeling
Characteristics are ascribed to Him that can only be ascribed to persons. A person is a being with a mind, will, and feelings. If in the Scriptures these characteristics are ascribed to the Holy Spirit, then it must be concluded that the Spirit is a Person.
In 1 Corinthians 2:10–11 we read, “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God. 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.”
Here reference is made to the Spirit possessing knowledge. Raw force or power possesses no knowledge.
It would be absurd to replace the word essence for Spirit in the text, for you would have the “essence” searching all things!
In Romans 8:27 Paul says, “And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
Here reference is made to the mind of the Spirit, a characteristic not associated with just an essence. In 1 Corinthians 12:11 Paul, concerning the gifts of the Spirit, says, “But all these worketh that one and selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”
So the Holy Spirit possesses a will, a trait associated with personality.
In Romans 15:30 Paul associates the emotion of love to the Spirit. A force or power cannot love. You do not
associate love apart from personality.
It is interesting that, although I have read or heard scores of sermons on God’s love, or the love of Jesus Christ for us, I have yet to hear a sermon on the love of the Holy Spirit. Yet this must be one of the chief characteristics of the Spirit, as this is the fruit He produces in our lives. The Holy Spirit does possess feelings
and can be grieved, because Paul in Ephesians 4:30 admonishes the church not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Think how foolish it would sound to say you have grieved the essence.
The Personal Words
In that same passage Jesus went on to say that the world could not receive the Spirit because they did not see Him or know Him; Jesus said that you know Him, for He dwells with you.
Notice how many times Jesus uses the personal pronoun for the Holy Spirit. In John 16:7–14 Jesus repeatedly uses the personal pronoun to refer to the Holy Spirit.
“NeverthelessI 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.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 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. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.”
Inthe Greek, the personal pronouns “he” and “him” are usedfor the Spirit over and over in Scripture.
The Spirit in Action
In Romans 8:26 we are told that the Holy Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannotbe uttered. Again, try to conceive a mere force making intercession!
If the Holy Spirit were just an essence or force where He is mentioned in Scripture, you should be able to
insert the words “force” or “essence” and do no damage to the meaning of the text. But such a thing is obviously impossible, because the Holy Spirit is a Person.
The Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus Christ in John 15:26, and He teaches the believers and brings things to their remembrance in John 14:26. In Acts 16:2, 7 the Holy Spirit forbade Paul and his companions to go into Asia and would not allow them to go into Bithynia. In Genesis 6:3 we find that the Holy Spirit strives with man.
The Holy Spirit can receive treatment as a Person.
He can be offended. It is impossible to conceive of offending “the power” or “the breath.” Your breath can be offensive, but you can’t offend your breath! In Ephesians 4:30, Paul exhorts, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” The Holy Spirit can be lied to.
This is the accusation that Peter brought against Ananias: “You have lied to the Holy Spirit.” It is also
possible to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that this was such a heinous sin that there was no forgiveness for the person who did it.
He said, “You can blaspheme me and be forgiven, but not the Holy Spirit.” Here Jesus makes the distinct
separation between Himself and the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is identified with persons.
Paul said, “It seemed good to the Holy [Spirit], and to us” (Acts 15:28). Try making sense by inserting wind or power in this verse! The Holy Spirit is a Person; He is not just the essence of God.
You need to come into a personal relationship with Him so that you might begin to experience His love and His power working in your life as He guides you in your spiritual walk.
The Power of the Spirit
To Peter, who denied his Lord on a one-to-one basis with the young maid, and to the rest of the disciples (who fled when the going got tough) the commission of Jesus to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature must have seemed a totally impractical as well as an impossible command, and indeed it was.
There is no way that eleven insignificant men from Galilee could reach the world for Jesus Christ.
That is why Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem until they received the power of the Holy Spirit, for it was by this power that they were to be witnesses to the uttermost parts of the world.
Is this experience of the power of the Holy Spirit something that God intended only for the early church? Do the Scriptures indicate that the time would come when we did not need to depend on the power of the Spirit, but through our perfected knowledge of the Scriptures we could do God’s work on our own? Is the church that was begun in the Spirit now to be perfected in the flesh? What is the answer to the church’s impotence? Why has the church failed to stop the mad downward plunge of the corrupted world around us?
Paul warns us in Hebrews 4 to fear that we do not come short of receiving the promise of God to enter into His rest. Is it not also appropriate for us to fear that, if God has given us a promise of power in our personal lives and power in the corporate body of the church, we might come short of it?
The Promise of the Father
In Acts 1:4 Jesus told them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, He said, “Ye have heard of me.” In Luke 24:49 Jesus said, “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”
In both places Jesus referred to the promise of the Father, which is no doubt a reference to Joel 2:28–29, where God promised, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.”
This is confirmed in the second chapter of Acts, when the crowd that had assembled as a result of
the supernatural phenomena accompanying the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was asking the question, “What does this mean?” Peter in explanation replied, “This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel,” and he quoted the prophecy of Joel. The promise of God was that the day would come when He would pour out His Spirit, not just upon special individuals, but upon all flesh.
The Promise of the Savior
Jesus had also promised the Spirit to His disciples in John 14:16–17, where He said, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” When Jesus promised the Holy Spirit, He referred to Him as “another Comforter.”
The word translated comforter comes from the Greek word parakletos, which literally means “to come alongside to help.”
This is the basic ministry of the Holy Spirit to the believer.
He is there to help us. Up to this time Jesus had been alongside His disciples, helping them. They had rightly come to depend upon His help. He was the Master of every situation.
When the storm threatened to sink their little boat, Jesus rebuked the winds and the waves, and there was a great calm. When the tax collector was demanding unjust taxes, Jesus told Peter to go down and catch a fish and take the coin out of its mouth and pay the taxes. No matter what situation arose, Jesus was always alongside to help.
Now He has told them that He is leaving them. He won’t be with them as in times past. Their hearts must have been troubled by His words, and they were afraid to face the future without Him. So He promised that He would not leave them without help, that He would ask the Father, and He would send them another Comforter or Helper to abide with them forever: the Spirit of truth. For our Christian walk, we are completely dependent upon the help of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to do any worthwhile Christian service apart from His help.
Waiting in Jerusalem
Because the words “tarry in Jerusalem” are used in Luke’s Gospel, many Pentecostals have established “tarrying meetings” as the way by which the power of the Holy Spirit is to be received in the believer’s life. It should be noted that the command was to “tarry in Jerusalem,” so to be entirely scriptural, the tarrying meetings should all be in Jerusalem!
It is obvious that Jesus was not establishing a universal
method by which the Holy Spirit would be imparted to
believers in all ages. He was only encouraging them to wait
for just a few days in Jerusalem until He sent the Holy Spirit
as a gift to the church. Once the Holy Spirit was given on
the Day of Pentecost, it was never necessary to tarry for
Him again, and we do not find in the book of Acts any tarrying
meetings, nor are they advocated in the New Testament
as the method by which the gift of the Holy Spirit is to be
received.
Dynamic Power for You
In Acts 1:8 Jesus promised His disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit had come upon them, and that through this power they would bear witness of Christ to the uttermost parts of the earth. The Greek word translated power is “dunamis.”
Our English word dynamic comes directly from this word, and that describes what the Holy Spirit is to be in us—the dynamic by which we live and serve God. Without this dynamic the Christian life is impossible and service is fruitless.
What glorious new dimensions the power of the Holy Spirit brings into the believer’s life—the power to be and to do all that God wants!
It is not God’s will that your life in Christ be dull and drab, or that your service be a chore. God intends that your walk with Him be full of joy.
He wants you to have power and victory in your life.
If your life in Christ is not dynamic and victorious, God has something more for you. The promise
of the gift of the Holy Spirit is “to you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
