THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD!

Last Sunday, we saw that the Holy Spirit is a Person. Today, we want to look at another aspect of who is the Holy Spirit: “THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD!”

He is the third Person of the Godhead distinct from God the Father and the Son. He is one of the Trinity – three Persons in one God. He is not just an ordinary Person, but a divine Person.

a) The Holy Spirit is God because the Bible calls Him God.

        i.          In baptism (Matt. 28:19; Lk. 3:21-22).

       ii.          In Creation (Gen. 1:1-3; Job 33:4; Gen. 1:26-27; Ps. 104:30).

      iii.          In benediction (2 Cor. 13:14; Acts 5:3-4). 

b) The Holy Spirit is God Almighty equal to God the Father and the Son in all respects: He is divine because He possesses all the divine attributes. Just as the Father (Jn. 6:27; Eph. 4:6) and the Son (Heb. 1:8) are divine, so is the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4).

If the Holy Spirit is not divine, we will not find Him linked equally with God the Father and the Son in the same Scripture as in Matthew 28:18-19 which says, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

c) Are there other reasons why we maintain that the Holy Spirit is God? Yes! The Holy Spirit is God because:

1. He is eternal: He has no beginning, and He has no end. He lives forever. He is the same today, yesterday, and forever (Heb. 13:8; Mal. 3:6; Heb. 9:13-15).

2. He is omnipresent (Ps 139:7-9). He is present everywhere. Listen friend, you can never escape from the Spirit of God. You can never get away from His presence! If you go up to heaven, He is there! If you go down to hell, He is there! If you ride on the wings of the morning, if you dwell by the farthest oceans, even there His hand will guide you and His strength will support you.

3. He is Omniscient (1 Cor. 2:9-11). He knows everything. He is all-knowing. He has all knowledge. He has an infinite and an unlimited knowledge. He knows the past, the present and the future. He knows what will happen in the next one million years. The Holy Spirit knows what you did in your house today’s morning.

4. He is omnipotent: He is all-powerful. His power has no boundary. He can do all things. Nothing is too hard for Him to do (Jer. 32:27). The Spirit of God can reverse the power of nature. He can raise the dead, cut off cancer, make what is not existent to appear. He can do anything.

He even impregnated Virgin Mary without a human sperm cell. Jesus was conceived in the fallopian tube of Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Luke 1:35 the angel answered and said unto Mary, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and THE POWER OF THE HIGHEST shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”

Jesus lived and worked on this planet in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Luke 4:18-19 Jesus declared His mission statement saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed [empowered] Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Acts 10:38 says, “How God anointed [empowered] Jesus of Nazareth (1) with the Holy Ghost and (2) with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.”

Jesus Christ rose from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:11). And He ascended into heaven by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the source of the power of the Most High God.  The Bible has an eight-fold description of the power of the Holy Ghost:

1) This power is GREAT (Acts 4:33);

2) This power is MIGHTY (Eph. 1:19);

3) This power is EXCEEDING GREAT (Eph. 1:19);

4) This power is EXCELLENT (2 Cor. 4:7);

5) This power is ETERNAL (Rom. 1:20);

6) This power is GLORIOUS (Col. 1:11);

7) This power is DIVINE (2 Pet. 1:3).

8) This power is UNLIMITED (Eph. 3:20).

In Luke 10:19 Jesus said, “Behold, I give unto you POWER to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

In Mark 16:17-18 Jesus said, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Peter and John realized the presence of this power within them as New Creations and they quickly used it to enforce their authority over the spirit of infirmity in a man that was cripple from birth (Acts 3). Beloved, allow this Holy Ghost power to touch your life and begin to manifest through you as from today!

d) The Holy Spirit is God because He does things that only God can do. For instance, in salvation the Holy Spirit is the One that sanctifies and justifies us.

1 Corinthians 6:10-11 says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”

In John 3:5-6 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the [Holy] Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  Why? Because that which is born of the flesh [man] is flesh [man], and that which is born of the [Holy] Spirit is spirit.”

But flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50). So you must be born of the Holy Spirit to inherit the kingdom of God.

Not only is the Holy Spirit divine, He is also Lord. In 2 Corinthians 3:17 the Bible says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

Knowing the Person of the Holy Spirit is a must for everyone who wants to succeed in life. I challenge you to get to know Him better and make Him your senior partner and your life will never remain the same again.

Watch out for the next edition of Good news from the Pulpit!

• Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor)                01.07. 2018