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Challenges in Studying the Holy Spirit

Now, understanding the person and work of the the Holy Spirit is important, but it is not without some challenges and difficulties. There are many, but I will highlight a few reasons why it can be challenging:

1. We have less explicit revelation in the Bible regarding the Holy Spirit than the Father and the Son. Several scholars suggest that this is the case because a large share of the Spirit’s ministry is to glorify the Son:

14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.

There is no systematic discussion regarding the Holy Spirit. The only extended discussion on the Holy Spirit is found in .

2. The Holy Spirit is intangible and difficult to visualize (). See what Jesus said in :

Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.[c] 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You[d]must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

Jesus said in that the Spirit was like wind. We can see the effects of wind, but we cannot see the wind. We can understand the concept of Father (even you had a bad father), and we can understand the concept of son. But, the imagery of Spirit is challenging. When you throw in the old King James translation – The Holy Ghost – we create more problems for people who grew up with Casper.

3. The subject of the Holy Spirit is that it can be divisive.

12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles,[e] some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.[f] 14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. 15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? 18 But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. 19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part! 20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. 21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”

Quote: In his book I Believe in the Church, David Watson writes:

All Word and no Spirit, we dry up; all Spirit and no Word, we blow up; both Word and Spirit, we grow up.

Nothing is more dangerous than to put a wedge between the Word and the Spirit, to emphasize either one at the expense of the other. It is the Spirit and the Word, the Spirit upon the Word, and the Spirit in us as we read the Word.

The church is made up of all kinds of people – with different religious backgrounds. Some come from Charismatic backgrounds and others come from non-charismatic backgrounds. Those from charismatic backgrounds push and pray hard for the church to become more charismatic and the non-charismatic push and pray that the church would not become charismatic. What happens is you have a divided church. Satan loves it and the Spirit is grieved (). One of the greatest divisions is understanding and using spiritual gifts. Are all the gifts operative today or have some ceased? It depends on who you ask. Because of controversy and division, many people are somewhat reluctant to discuss the Holy Spirit. Millard Erikson says that in some circles the discussion about the Holy Spirit is a badge of prestige while others consider it a stigma.

4. The Holy Spirit can be viewed as of a lower essence.

15 “If you love me, obey[d] my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him.

A fourth challenge is seeing humble, voluntary, and temporary subordination in the Godhead as inferiority or of lower essence (: answers this question). Jesus said I will send you another Comforter – one of the same kind. So, we don’t treat the Holy Spirit as God. Thus, we don’t fully engage in a relationship with the Holy Spirit.