There are mysteries which a believer in Jesus Christ must accept by faith. Perhaps none of these is greater than that of the Trinity in general and the Holy Spirit in particular. The Israelites were a monotheistic society in biblical days, holding to the doctrine of a one true God. The ‘shema,’ repeated several times daily by the faithful, states “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD, is one” (Deut 6:4). Yet starting in the first book of Moses, the pluralistic nature of God is apparent. The Hebrew word Elohim translated as God in the first verse of Genesis is a plural (-im) form. The story of creation continues by God saying, “Let us make man in our image” (Gen 1:16), again referring to pluralistic nature. The NT revelation of God as a triune being, though One in essence, is much clearer with God manifested as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (see Mt 3:16,17 and Mk 1:11 where all three Persons are mentioned in single settings).
The Hebrew word for Spirit is ruah, often translated as “wind” or “breath.” So it is that references to the breath of God (Gen 2:7) or wind from God (Eze 37:9,10,14) are related to the working of the Holy Spirit. The OT describes several activities of the Holy Spirit, beginning in Genesis 1:2 where “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Before flooding the earth, the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever” (Gen 6:3). It was the Spirit of God who instructed the Israelites in the desert (Ne 9:20). And the psalmist says, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence” (Ps 139:7). When speaking about bringing a new covenant to replace the old covenant of the Law, God said, “And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Eze 36:27).
Apart from the empowering of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to have a victorious life in Christ and remain obedient to the ways of God. Even in speaking about the coming of the Messiah Jesus, God spoke through the prophet, “I will put my Spirit on him” (Isa 42:1). And Jesus Himself would later credit the anointing of the Holy Spirit for enabling His own earthly ministry (see Lk 4:18,19; Ac 10:37,38). When Moses chose the seventy elders to help with leading of the Israelites, God took of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the elders to enable their role as elders (Nu 11:16,17). The same Spirit would also come upon Samson (Jdg 14:6), Gideon (Jdg 6: 34), David (1 Sa 16:13) and others so as to equip them for God-ordained service.
In the OT, however, the Holy Spirit only came upon a small number of persons to empower them for service or prophecy. There was no general outpouring of the Spirit upon people such as took place on the day of Pentecost. The OT looks forward to the coming of the “ministry of the Spirit” under the new covenant brought by Jesus. The most prominent of all OT prophecies about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is found in the book of Joel (2:28,29), a prophecy quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost. Some additional prophecies are found in the books of Isaiah and Ezekiel where these prophets foresaw the time in the future when empowering by the Spirit of God would be available to all believers in Christ.
Scripture reveals the Holy Spirit as a Person with an individuality of His own. We must never think of Him as merely power or an influence. He has all the attributes of God and characteristics of a person. The Holy Spirit is referred to by Jesus using the masculine participle “he” and never as “it.” John tells of Jesus saying, “…when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you” (Jn 16:13,14). And when Peter accuses Ananias of lying to the Holy Spirit about his gift, he adds, “You have not lied to men but to God” (Ac 5:3,4).
The Holy Spirit not only has intellect and knows the things of God. He also has emotions and loves us in addition to being capable of being grieved (Eph 4:30). He has a will and gives spiritual gifts as He alone determines to those baptized in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:11). Yet God the Holy Spirit never says or does anything that is contrary to the other two Persons of the Trinity – God the Father and God the Son. Their harmony and unity is perfect in every respect, consistent with being one true God. While far beyond our human understanding in great measure, the doctrine of a triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - is intended to be accepted by faith.
The Holy Spirit has a specific role with regard to each believer in the Son of God. First of all, the Spirit is responsible for bringing conviction of sin (Jn 16:8) and creating the godly sorrow which brings repentance leading to salvation (2 Cor 7:10). Faith to believe in the Saviorhood of Jesus then comes to those who have repented as a gift (Eph 2:8,9), being brought by the Holy Spirit who creates new life in the spirits of men so they can receive His inswelling. As Jesus said to the Pharisee named Nicodemus, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (Jn 3:5).
It is the Holy Spirit who is responsible for revelation about Jesus and His will for our lives: “He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you” (Jn 16:14). Most of this takes place through the Word of God which has been written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16). Believers must maintain an uncompromising view of Holy Scripture as being inspired and given directly by God with men having written “as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:21). Without such a view of Scripture, believers have no certain foundation for determining absolute truth.
Not only is the Holy Spirit responsible for creating new life in dead spirits (being “born again”) and bringing revelation knowledge about Jesus to the believer. The Spirit has the responsibility for directing the walk of those submitted to the lordship of Christ: “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of a sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature” (Gal 5:16,17). It is only with the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit together with faith in Jesus that we can be saved (see 2 Thess 2:13). And it is only by the Spirit that we’re able to put to death the misdeeds of the body (Ro 8:13); and we must be led by the Spirit to qualify as true sons of God (8:14).
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Ro 8:26). Living in a world which is fallen and ridden with lawlessness, a Spirit-filled believer often finds himself challenged by the need to live as a stranger and pilgrim. At times, there is an inexpressible sadness over unsaved friends and members of one’s own family, yet without any clear direction as to how to intercede for them in prayer. On other occasions, there is a burden to pray for another person or situation without knowing the circumstances. Praying in the Holy Spirit at these times using one’s “prayer language‟ is then certain to be accordance with the will of God.
For the Holy Spirit to work effectively has the conditions of yielding control and the crucifixion of self. The moralistic way for godly living is that of reading the Bible and then attempting to do what is right; this is common among fundamentalist circles and is actually the old covenant approach. Fixing the past way involves trying to identify old problems and striving to change behavior as best as possible. A power way is hungering for power to change instead of hungering for Jesus and His righteousness. In contrast to these others, the Spirit-filled way is to let go and allow God to work within us so as “to will and to act according to His good purpose” (Php 2:13).
