THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSON!

You can never begin to give the Holy Spirit the place that belongs to Him until you understand who He is. 

Once you can see who He is, you can appreciate what He does. There is nothing that God the Father or God the Son can do that the Holy Spirit cannot do.

So today, we want to look at another aspect of “WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?” – THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSON. He is not just an ordinary Person, but a divine Person.

When I say that the Holy Spirit is a Person, I don’t mean that He has a physical body as you and I know it. Yet He is not without form. And in a sense, we become His body when He lives within us in our spirit-man. Just as you have a unique personality, so does the Holy Spirit.

What is personality? Personality is somebody’s set of characteristics. It is the totality of your attitudes, interests, behavioural patterns, emotional responses, social roles, and other individual traits that endure over long periods of time.

Personality is the distinctive or very noticeable characteristics that make somebody socially appealing.

When you spend time with a person, the personality of that person will rub off on you. That also happens when you spend quality time with the Holy Spirit (1) in prayer and (2) in a diligent study of God’s Word.

Why is the Holy Spirit a Person? The Holy Spirit is a Person because:

1. The Bible refers to Him with personal pronouns (Jn. 15:26; Jn. 16:7-8; Jn. 16:13-15; 1 Jn. 4:4).

And you say Pastor, “What of Romans 8:16, 26? Here the Bible says, “The Spirit itself…”

Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”

Romans 8:26 says, “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.”

This is certainly a mistake due to olden days English. If not, the writers couldn’t have referred to the Holy Spirit with “He” in John 16:13-15.

2. He has intellect. Intellect is the faculty of reasoning, knowing, thinking, and understanding. It is your ability to think, reason, and understand.

Can the Holy Spirit think? Can He reason and remember things? Yes of course!

What is reason? “Reason” is the power of being able to think in a logical and rational manner. Reason is the voice of the flesh (soul). Feeling is the voice of the physical body. Conscience is the voice of your spirit-man. Only someone with an intellect has the ability to explore, examine and search. And that is exactly what the Holy Spirit does (1 Cor. 2:9-10).

The Holy Spirit doesn’t just help us testify, but He Himself testifies. This is an action that requires intellect (Jn. 15:26; Jn. 16:12-15).

Here Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as a guide. How does He guide someone? Jesus said that He will take of His and declare it unto you. He hears the things of God [the things that God the Father and the Son have decided to do] and speaks them to the believers in their spirit-man. And your spirit-man speaks it to your mind through your conscience, which is the voice of your spirit-man. This action of hearing and repeating requires an intellect (Rom. 8:14; Rom. 8:1-2).

The Holy Spirit has intelligence. “Surely, it is the Spirit of God within a person, the breath of the Almighty within him that makes him intelligent” (Job 32:8).

But there is a spirit in man, and the breath (the inspiration) of the Almighty gives him understanding (NLT).

The Holy Spirit has a mind of His own (Rom. 8:26-27). Notice three things in this passage:

• The Holy Spirit helps our infirmities (weaknesses, inabilities). Which infirmity? Our inability to pray, as we ought to. The Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be [uttered] expressed in words.
• The Holy Spirit searches the hearts [minds].
• The Holy Spirit has a mind [“mind of the Spirit”].

3. He has a will. When Christ returned to heaven, He placed the Holy Spirit in charge of the church. He has a will of His own and has decision-making responsibilities on earth (1 Cor. 12:11).

That is to say that it is only the Holy Spirit that distributes these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. One and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills [as He decides, as He determines]. It is therefore vital that you stay in tune with the direction of the Holy Spirit.

4. He has emotions. The Holy Spirit is a Person with feelings. His emotions are thus expressed:

• He can love: Love is the character of the Holy Spirit. Love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22). He is the one that imparts love into the hearts of men (Rom. 5:5).

• He can be provoked [made angry; incited; instigated; vexed; grieved]. He can be irritated (Isa. 63:10).

The Holy Spirit is so gentle and loving that He has been likened to a dove. He is easily wounded. He can be grieved by our actions and wrong attitudes.

Ephesians 4:30 says, “And do not grieve [torment, vex, provoke, cause intense sorrow] the Holy Spirit of God…”

Do not cause the Holy Spirit of God intense sorrow by the way you live. The heart of the Holy Spirit is so tender that He weeps so easily when He sees you living a life that is contrary to the Word of God.

Prior to the warning that we should not grieve the Holy Spirit we were told not to:

• Give place to the devil (Eph. 4:27);
• Take what is not ours (Eph. 4:28);
• Engage in corrupt communication (Eph. 4:29).

In Ephesians 4:31-32 the Bible goes on to tell us how to please Him rather than grieve Him. Indeed, God has emotions. He feels things very deeply. The Bible teaches that God grieves, gets jealous and angry, and feels compassion, pity, sorrow, and sympathy as well as happiness, gladness, and satisfaction.

God loves, delights, gets pleasure, rejoices, enjoys, and even laughs (Gen. 6:6; Ex 20:5; Deut. 32:36; Judges 2:20; 1 Kings 10:9; 1 Chron. 16:27; Ps. 2:4; 5:5; 18:19; 35:27; 37:23; 103:13; 104:31; Ezek. 5:13; 1 Jn. 4:16).

5. The Holy Spirit has mouth because He can speak. The Holy Spirit fills us to speak with intimacy to the Father (Gal. 4:6; Rev 2:7; Acts 8:28-29; Acts 10:19-21; Acts 13:1-2; 1 Tim. 4:1).

6. The Holy Spirit has eyes because He can see (Ps. 94:9).

7. The Holy Spirit has ears because He can hear (Ps. 94:9; Jn. 16:13).

8. He can be insulted (Heb. 10:26-29).

The word “insult” carries with it the idea of “treating with utter contempt.” When you fail to recognize and appreciate the significance of the death of Christ on the cross for us, you insult the Holy Spirit. Why is insulting the Holy Spirit such a serious matter?

What happens when you insult the Holy Spirit? When you insult Him you lose His presence. When you lose His presence you’ll become spiritually dry and life will become hard for you. When you lose His presence you lose the joy of the Holy Ghost because “in His presence there is fullness of joy” (Ps. 16:11). When you lose His Presence you also lose His provisions.

9. He can be quenched. The world resists the Holy Spirit, but believers can actually quench Him.  An unbeliever resists Him by rejecting the message of the Gospel thereby judging themselves unworthy of eternal life. But the child of God quenches the Holy Spirit by putting off a flame that has already been burning. Remember that when you quench Him you deny Him the opportunity to touch and bless your life, and to touch the lives of others through you.

1 Thessalonians 5:19 says, “Do not quench the Spirit.” Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. The imagery used here is that of putting out a fire. Here the Bible was not talking to sinners, but to brethren.

How important is this instruction? It follows a list of commands:

• Recognize those in ministry (v 12),
• Live at peace with each other (v 13),
• Warn the idle (v 14),
• Encourage the timid or comfort the faint-hearted (v 14),
• Help the weak (v 14),
• Be patient with everybody (v 14),
• Do not return evil with evil,
• Pursue what is good – for you and for everyone else (v 15),
• Rejoice always (v 16),
• Pray without ceasing (v 17), and
• Give thanks to God for everything (v 16-18).

After this list of instructions the Scriptures say, “Quench not the Spirit” (v 19).

10. He can be resisted. To resist someone is to fight against that person. It means to oppose and stand firm against that person (Acts 7:51).

Here the Bible was not talking to the saints but to the unbelievers – those who appeared to be religious but are actually rebellious. Although these religious men were physically circumcised, they were behaving like the pagans in the uncircumcised nations surrounding them. They hated Christ and fought everything He stood for. Now Stephen, defending his faith in the face of death, looked his accusers in the eye and said, “You always resist the Holy Ghost.”

For those that resist the Holy Spirit God has warned saying, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever” (Gen. 6:3).

God is long-suffering but there is a limit to His dealings with man. Whoever stubbornly refuses to accept correction [positive criticism] will suddenly be broken beyond repair (Prov. 29:1).

11. He can be lied to. One of the Commandments God gave to Moses to give to Israel was “Do not lie” (Lev. 19:11). This decree was not to guide our dealings with man only, but also with the Spirit of God.

Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead because they lied to the Holy Spirit. The couple had sold a piece of property and had pretended that they gave the entire amount to the Lord when in fact they had only given a part. When you lie to the Holy Spirit He can strike you dead (Acts 5:3-11).

12. He can be tempted. Each member of the Trinity can be tempted (Acts 15:10; 1 Cor. 10:9; Acts 5:9).

13. He can be blasphemed. To blaspheme means to treat God or sacred things disrespectfully through our words or action. When you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, it is said that you’ve committed the unpardonable sin (Matt. 12:31-32).

Jesus had just cast out demons from a demon possessed man, and in the process healed him of the blindness and the dumbness that afflicted him (Matt. 12:22). A demon-possessed man, who was both blind and dumb, was brought to Jesus. He healed the man so that he could both speak and see. The reaction of the crowd that witnessed these miracles was amazement, saying, “Could this be the son of David?” (v. 23).

But the Pharisees had a different reaction. They said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons” (v 24). Please understand how deliberate this action was. They were students of the Law, rulers of the people, and eyewitnesses to the miracles of the Lord Jesus. In their anger, knowing exactly what they were doing, they attributed the miracles to Christ to the working of Satan. They attributed the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the life of Jesus Christ to the infilling of the evil one. This act is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. It is an eternal sin.

In Mark 3:29 Jesus said, “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."

Blasphemy is a willful act and not a mistake. Paul’s rejection of Christ and his persecution of the church, for instance, were accidental as opposed to willful (1 Tim. 1:13).

Even though Paul used to scoff at the name of Christ, he hunted down His people, harming them in every way he could. But God had mercy on him because he did those things in ignorance and unbelief. He experienced full forgiveness for his unintentional sin and became one of the greatest apostles in the history of the church.

If therefore, the Holy Spirit is a Person, equal in all respects to the Father and the Son, then He ought to be worshiped as the Father and the Son. They are Three in One.

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.

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

• Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor)                24.06. 2018