What we Know About the Holy Spirt Lesson 3
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of wisdom and understanding in Isa. 11:2
“And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.”
The significance of the name is so plain as to need no explanation. It is evident both from the words used and from the context that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to impart wisdom and understanding to those who receive Him.
Those who receive the Holy Spirit receive the Spirit “of power” and “of love” and “of a sound mind” or sound sense
XVII. The Spirit of Counsel and Might.
We find this name used of the Holy Spirit in the passage given under the preceding head. The meaning of this name too is obvious, the Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of counsel and of might” because He gives us counsel in all our plans and strength to carry them out
It is our privilege to have God’s own counsel in all our plans and God’s strength in all the work that we undertake for Him. We receive them by receiving the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of counsel and might.
XVIII. The Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of the Lord.
The significance of this name is also obvious. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to impart knowledge to us and to beget in us a reverence for Jehovah, that reverence that reveals itself above all in obedience to His commandments. The one who receives the Holy Spirit finds his delight in the fear of the LORD.
XIX. The Spirit of Life.
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of life in Rom. 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of life because it is His work to impart life
XX. The Oil of Gladness.
The Holy Spirit is called the “oil of gladness” in Heb. 1:9, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Some one may ask what reason have we for supposing that “the oil of gladness” in this passage is a name of the Holy Spirit.
The answer is found in a comparison of
In Acts 10:38 we read “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power,” and in Luke 4:18, Jesus Himself is recorded as saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor,” etc. In both of these passages, we are told it was the Holy Spirit with which Jesus was anointed and as in the passage in Hebrews we are told that it was with the oil of gladness that He was anointed; so, of course, the only possible conclusion is that the oil of gladness means the Holy Spirit.
What a beautiful and suggestive name it is for Him whose fruit is, first, “love” then “joy” (Gal. 5:22). The Holy Spirit becomes a source of boundless joy to those who receive Him; He so fills and satisfies the soul, that the soul who receives Him does not thirst forever
No matter how great the afflictions with which the believer receives the Word, still he will have “the joy of the Holy Ghost”
On the Day of Pentecost, when the disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit, they were so filled with ecstatic joy that others looking on them thought they were intoxicated.
They said, “These men are full of new wine.” And Paul draws a comparison between abnormal intoxication that comes through excess of wine and the wholesome exhilaration from which there is no reaction that comes through being filled with the Spirit
When God anoints one with the Holy Spirit, it is as if He broke a precious alabaster box of oil of gladness above their heads until it ran down to the hem of their garments and the whole person was suffused with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
