Who is the Holy Spirit – 2

In the first part of this Blog series, I focused on the Holy Spirit as a Person. A person as defined by dictionary is a Human being, as distinguished from an animal or a thing.  This definition does not even begin to do justice to who the Holy Spirit is. the Holy Spirit is a Spirit. Man is also a spirit, who has a soul and lives in a physical body- Your body is not the real you, the real you is a spirit that is not visible to the natural world. Similarly, the Holy Spirit is a SPIRIT personality. A person attracts personal pronouns like  I, you, he, she, we, they, me, him, her, us, and them. This list of pronouns shows or contracts gender, number and case. If someone says “him”, as opposed to saying “her”, you know they are referencing a male person ( vs a female person or a dog). this is important to know because many have been taught that the holy Spirit is a dove, or wind. let’s study this closely.

The Holy Spirit is a Dove?: this idea or perception came from when Jesus came out of the Jordan ( after John Baptized him). The 4 gospels recorded this event ( Mat 3;16, mark 1:10, Luke 3;22, and John 1:32).

• “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:” Mat 3:16
• “And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:” Mark 1;10
• “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.” Luke 3:22
• “And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.” John 1:32

The Scripture records, “out of the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses, let every matter be established ( Deut 19:15, 2 Cor 13;1), applying this to the subject above, we have 4 witnesses (Mathew, Mark, Luke and John), which settles the matter. I am not very versed in the US justice system, but I want to believe the requirement is similar or less.

So back to the texts, notice I underscore the phrase “like a dove”. This is where this error stems from. When many hear the words or name Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, they picture a dove in their mind, and this impedes us a lot. We have to see Him as a PERSON! before I share more bible proof, notice these 4 verses said The Holy Spirit descended like a dove. The verses did NOT say He was a dove. “Like” is a word used in the English language to show similarity- for example, “he talks like his father”. So in this case, the Holy Spirit descent from heaven was merely likened to a dove. You could say it another way  “the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus Christ is like what you would observe when a dove descends. This does not make Him a dove!

Other personal attributes that conclusively prove that the Holy Spirit is a person includes:

1. He can be pleased and make decisions: Notice the church was dealing with some discussion (I wont call it controversy) in Acts 15 regarding circumcision. notice in vs 28, the apostles wrote “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;”. The Apostles addressed the Holy Spirit like a person He is, they wrote “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit”, which implies He has opinion, He can be pleased.
2. He can reason : God the father called the other two members of the Godhead or trinity in Gen 1:26-28. God the father conference’d with the Son ( Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit to decide mans creation. the Holy Spirit is God!
3. The Holy Spirit speaks, Calls, and sends on assignments!: He is God and He Speaks. Note in Acts 13, when Paul and Barnabas were about to be released into their apostolic Ministry, (vs 2)“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” note that the Spirit said He called Paul and Barnabas to their apostolic assignment! (vs 5). “So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.” Paul and Barnabas were commissioned, sent forth by the person of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever been sent on errand by your chair or your bird? You will notice the partnership the Apostles had with the Holy Spirit. they confided in Him, ask for guidance and help.
4. He can be lied to: Ananias and Sapphira found this out in a rude way (Acts 5). In this story, each person in the church sold properties – land, real estate etc and brought the proceed to the church, since the church had one purse, for distribution as needed. But Ananias and Sapphira decided to sell the land and claim they brought all the proceed, even though they kept some back. keep in Mind, God or the leadership of the church did NOT demand “bring it all”. All they had to do was tell the truth and it would have sufficed. But the point here is not to focus on the lie, which is important message by itself, but notice what peter said in vs 5 “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?”. They lied to the Holy Spirit, not even the church or the apostles. You can only lie to a person or personality. when was the last time you lied to your table or your cat? silly right?
5. He can be grieved; Eph 4;30 encouraged us NOT to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Grief is not an everyday word, except maybe at funerals. grief is defined as “keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret”. Only a person or personality can display grief, which is an emotion. The Holy Spirit is not a dove!
6. The Holy Spirit helps us to pray: One of the top attributes of the Holy Spirit is plumbing the depth of the heart of the father and coming alongside of us to pray the Will of God for our lives! what a great benefit and help! Rom 8:28  said it this way “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groaning’s which cannot be uttered”. this verse shows us:
   1. The Holy Spirit helps our weakness or infirmities. This weakness is not relative to physical strength, but rather limitation in what we know. You cannot pray for what you don’t know. This explains why many believers (who don’t pray in the Spirit) are limited. No matter how verbose and Scripturally literate you are, you can only pray what you know in your language!
   2. We don’t know what we should pray for as we ought— on the surface, that may seems ridiculous right. Even the things we do know about, the Holy spirit is saying, we dont even know how to pray for those things as we ought to, in other words, if we limit to how we can pray, we will never do justice to it. for example, If I need $500, I do know that and I can pray for $500- but am I praying for it the right way? So, what the bible refers to here are things you don’t know about, and the limitations even in things we do know. Look at a plausible scenario – say the enemy has planned a car wreck for your family this week, how would you know that? however, the Holy Spirit knows!, so when we allow Him to pray for us in other tongues, He will pray those out and avert the danger. Bottom line, you cannot pray to the depth, breadth and height you should pray without the help of our great intercessor, Holy Spirit!
   3. The Holy Spirit makes intercession for us – intercede is a legal term ( defined as : to act or interpose in behalf of someone in difficulty or trouble, as by pleading or petition:), so the Holy Spirit takes our place and pleads our petition on our behalf, usually while praying in the Spirit – Glory to God!
   4. Finally, He does these with “groaning which cannot be uttered”. This is regarding praying in the Spirit, or in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance ( Acts 2;4)

As you can see from the verses we looked at today that the Holy Spirit is emphatically a PERSON, a spiritual personality and He loves and desire a relationship with you! We can also learn some of the benefits of active partnership with Him. never use the word “it” to refer to the Holy Spirit. He is a person!

In part 3, we will examine the Idea of the Holy Spirit as wind..

God bless you!