The Holy Spirit - A Divine Person

Intro

1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Holy Spirit

At the close of World War II, two pictures appeared in a magazine showing a soldier in conflict with a tank. The first showed a huge tank bearing down on a tiny soldier, about to crush him. The picture was proportioned to show the odds involved when a footsoldier with a rifle faced a tank. The next picture showed what happened to that soldier’s odds with a bazooka, or rocket launcher, in his hands. This time the tank appeared to be shrunken in size and the soldier at least equal in size, if not a little larger.

Without the power of God released in our lives, when in conflict with sin we are like an infantry soldier in the presence of a tank. We cannot do a thing. But by trust in the power of the living God at work in us, we can say no and make it stick. We can turn and begin to live as God intended us to live

My Favorite Illustrations The Holy Spirit and Prayer

The Holy Spirit and Prayer

Gardner Taylor is one of America’s greatest preachers. Many years ago I heard him say that words are vehicles by which to transfer ideas from one mind to another. However, some ideas are so heavy that the words break down in the effort.

What a blessed assurance it is to know that when words break down in our effort to transmit the deepest longings of our hearts, we have the Divine Helper through whom these yearnings find their way to the mind of our Heavenly Father.

According to

The Holy Spirit: A Pentecostal Perspective Reasons for Confusion

In Scripture the Spirit is the least mentioned member of the Godhead.

N.1 - The Importance of the Holy Spirit

1A. A Real Person

The Bible shows that the Holy Spirit has the qualities of a person. These are basically the following qualities:

1. Knowledge or intelligence

2. Feeling or affection

3. Will

Look up the following passages and write down which personality characteristics are mentioned in each one:

Romans 8:27 “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

1 Corinthians 12:11 “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.”

1 Corinthians 2:11 “For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”

Romans 15:30 “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.”

Another interesting thing that points to the personality of the Spirit is the way John uses a masculine pronoun in Greek to refer to Him.

John 16:7–8 “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:”

John 16:13–14 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the 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 glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.”

In the Greek language the word spirit (pneuma) is a neuter word (neither masculine nor feminine) and the laws of the language call for it to be followed by neuter pronouns. Instead, we find masculine pronouns, which emphasize that the Spirit is a person.

N.2 - The Nature of the Holy Spirit

2A. The word Spirit: breath, wind, spirit

The King James Version uses thirteen different English words to translate the Hebrew word for spirit (Holy Spirit) and four different words to translate the Greek word (pneuma). Sometimes the meanings are obvious, and sometimes they are not.

Compare Proverbs 16:2

English Standard Version Chapter 16

All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the

and Job 28:25 “When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters,” remembering that the same Hebrew word means either “wind” or “spirit.”

2B. Deity of the Spirit

The Holy Spirit: A Pentecostal Perspective Scriptural Evidences for His Deity

He is mentioned coordinately with the Father and the Son.

Look up the following Scripture verses and write the name which is given:

Genesis 6:3 “Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.””

Exodus 31:3 “and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—”

Job 32:8 “But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding.”

Judges 6:34 “Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.”

Matthew 10:20 “for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”

2C. Attributes of God

The Holy Spirit: A Pentecostal Perspective Scriptural Evidences for His Deity

For our purposes, the expression “divine attributes” refers to characteristics or qualities which God alone possesses.

Isaiah 40:13 “Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor?”: Omniscience (Knowing all things)

Psalm 139:7–8 “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”: Omnipresence (Being everywhere)

Zechariah 4:6 “So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”: Omnipotence (Being all-powerful)

Hebrews 9:14 “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”: Eternality (Having no beginning or end)

2D. His place in the Trinity.

1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching The Trinity

In his book The Joyful Christian, C. S. Lewis wrote: “I said … that God is a Being which contains three persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube contains six squares while remaining one body.”

Some have mistakenly supposed that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are on different levels within the Trinity.

This has often led to a further degrading of the Son and the Spirit. It is therefore important that we see how the Bible treats them.

Read Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”

and 2 Corinthians 13:14 “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

The Holy Spirit: A Pentecostal Perspective Prayer and Praise to the Holy Spirit

In the Book of Revelation, the four living creatures around the throne of God say, “ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty’ ” (4:8). This recalls the seraphs in Isaiah’s vision who also say, “ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty’ ” (

Questions

1 = D

2 = A

3 = C

4 = A

5 = B

6 = A