BY Argie Simonis
There are doctrines saying that the Holy Spirit is simply a force. They don't think He is a person.
We made this clear in previous messages. Jesus himself refers to the Comforter as Him, as a person.
It is very important to understand this, because if you do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a person, how can you have a personal relationship with Him? How will you be able to talk to Him?
It is impossible to have a personal relationship with a force!
Do you know His name is NOT "Holy Spirit"? It is His attribute, His function in the Godhead.
- God the Father,
- God the Son,
- God the Holy Spirit.
His name is God!
His attribute is the Spirit, who dwells within us, guides us, comforts us, and strengthens us.
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---- WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A PERSON?
Is a chair a person? Of course not.
What defines a person? If you think about life, then even a tree has life, but it is not a person. You can't even talk to a tree. You can talk to a tree, but be sure it won't answer you. And yet it has life.
A PERSON HAS A PERSONALITY.
I will explain it.
A person has a soul. Long-term theological studies that have been done on this subject have decided that the soul consists of MIND, WILL and EMOTIONS. We think with our mind, desire with our will and feel with our emotions.
"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1Thes. 5:23)
There is only one thing that can seperate the soul from the spirit:
"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Heb. 4:12)
So it is possible that the Holy Spirit helps us to - think like God,
- to desire like God and
- to feel like God?
Of course yes!
And according to the Scriptures, He lives within us.
So if you want to know what God thinks, what he desires and what he feels, you have him living in you and he can tell you, because the Holy Spirit is God.
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MIND, WILL AND EMOTIONS
1. He has a mind.
"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." (John 16:13)
How can the Holy Spirit lead you into all truth if He does not know all truth? He is Omniscient.
I insist so much on this because we get many benefits when we recognize that the Holy Spirit is a person.
~~ The first and greatest benefit is that within us lives the One who knows everything and whose mission it is to teach us so that we too can learn it. ~~
How many times have you been stuck on a verse and as soon as you pray it all suddenly makes sense? ~~
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2. HE HAS A WILL
"Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia," (Acts 16:6)
"After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not." (Acts 16:7)
To forbid means to exercise my will.
"But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." (1Cor. 12:11)
So since the Holy Spirit has a will and you want to know what God's will is for your life, who are you going to ask?
~~ There is the general will of God, and the personal, or specific will of God for our lives. The first is revealed to us in the Scriptures, the second we learn by listening to His voice. ~~
If you want to learn how to pray, the Holy Spirit will show you that. None of us know how to pray by ourselves.
"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 groanings which cannot be uttered." (Rom. 8:26)
"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." (Rom. 8:27)
When you know what to pray, it's because the Holy Spirit told you!
So in order to know the mind of God and His will, you must know the Holy Spirit who lives within you who knows BOTH the mind AND the will of God.
That is why Peter on the day of Pentecost referred to the prophecy of Joel.
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:" (Acts 2:17)
"And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:" (Acts 2:18)
How can you prophesy if you cannot hear God?
We live in the most terrifying time in human history because God speaks to us personally through the Holy Spirit.
That was why Jesus came. So that we can have a personal relationship with God.
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3. HE HAS FEELINGS
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith," (Gal. 5:22)
All these are characteristics of a person.
"And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." (Eph. 4:30)
"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:" (Eph. 4:31)
"And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." (Eph. 4:32)
"Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:" (Eph. 4:26)
"Neither give place to the devil." (Eph. 4:27)
"Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." (Eph. 4:28)
"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." (Eph. 4:29)
What grieves the Holy Spirit is sin, because He loves us and when we walk in sin we get hurt.
When we sin we do not lose our salvation; we lose our relationship with Him. That's why He is grieved. We go to Heaven by Grace, not by works.
The Holy Spirit, wants a deep and personal relationship with us and that is exactly what Jesus and the Father want. That is why God became a man, died and rose again. To bring us back into the arms of the Father and restore our relationship that was broken because of sin.
Amen!
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