Receipt of the Holy Spirit is a gift of God’s grace to the disciples of Jesus. Basic trinitarian doctrine holds there is one God represented by three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A theology that does not recognize each person of the trinity as being co-equal departs from accepted Western Christian orthodoxy. The deity of the Holy Spirit, (Advocate, Comforter, Helper, Spirit of God, Spirit of the Lord, etc.) has been a core Christian belief from the beginning. Duffield and Van Cleve opine, “all three persons of the trinity work together for the accomplishing of the divine will.”1. There is little disagreement among most Christians regarding the Holy Spirit. He is considered the third person of the godhead. Being third does not make him less important than either God, the Father or God, the Son, although he proceeds eternally from both. He first appears in Scripture in Genesis 1:2 | ESV. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And we last encounter him in Revelation 22:17 | ESV. The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
Cummings2. lists eighty-six references to the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, OT. However, “The OT does not contain an idea of a semi-independent divine entity, the Holy Spirit.”3. Instead he is a source of God’s prophetic inspiration, creation and life. The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job 33:4 | ESV. The OT prophets anticipated a time when God would pour out his spirit on humankind. “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servant in those days I will pour out my Spirit.” Joel 2:28-29 | ESV
Although he enjoys varying degrees of acceptance in today’s churches, the Holy Spirit permeates the gospels. The New Testament, NT, word for him, pneuma, appears in 261 passages. John the Baptist prophesied Jesus would baptize believers with the Holy Spirit. “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Matthew 3:11 | NIV The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove at his baptism (Like 3:22) and he faced Satan’s wilderness temptation full of the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1 and 14).“Christ’s humanity was sustained and His actions empowered by the Holy Spirit.”4.
The public ministry of Jesus began with a reading from Isaiah 61. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19 | ESV Jesus, himself, prophesied the Spirit would be made available after his ascension. On the last day, the climax of the holidays, Jesus shouted to the crowds, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water shall flow from the inmost being of anyone who believes in me.” (He was speaking of the Holy Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him; but the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet returned to his glory in heaven.) John 7:37-39 | TLB
The promise was fulfilled on Pentecost, but we saw evidence of how he would work with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus promised “. . . no one who drinks the water I give will ever be thirsty again. The water I give will become in that person a flowing fountain that gives eternal life.” John 4:14 | CEV She was given faith with power in a testimony that drew many of her friends and neighbors to Jesus. He promised to send the Holy Spirit to indwell his followers. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. John 14:15-17 | ESV Perhaps evidence of the Spirit is lacking in many congregations today because Jesus is accepted as savior, but not lord. Belief makes Jesus savior. Obedience makes him lord.
Jesus told his listeners God would fill them with his Spirit if they asked him. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:13 | ESV We have access to God through the Holy Spirit. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. Ephesians 2:18 ESV And the Spirit even prays for us when we can’t find the words to pray according to God’s will. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:26-27 | ESV
The power of the Holy Spirit was made available to believers. He is God living inside the believer. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16 | ESV According to Erickson,“The Holy Spirit is the point at which the Trinity becomes personal to the believer.”5. The last instruction Jesus gave his disciples before returning to his father was to share the gospel. And he promised to empower them to do it. “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 1:4-5 | NIV The promise of Jesus and the prophets was realized on the Day of Pentecost following Jesus’s ascension. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:1-4 | ESV
They went out into the streets preaching the “mighty works of God” in the native language of the foreign Jews visiting Jerusalem for the holiday. As the crowd grew, Peter, who not too long ago cowered in fear, boldly stood to preach the crowd’s culpability in the death of Jesus. He went on to tell them Jesus was alive and sitting at the right hand of God. God had given his Son the Holy Spirit, which he poured out on his followers. The Spirit produced what the people were witnessing. It was proof, Peter said, God had made Jesus both lord and savior. Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:37-38 The church began with and continues through the work of the Holy Spirit. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians 2:22 | ESV
Hope is evidence of God’s love and the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:5 | ESV He is the source of resurrection hope. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Romans 8:11 | NIV Finally, the Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance as Jesus-followers. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him. Ephesians 1:14 | NLT
“The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.”6. Without his influence and conviction we would not recognize our need for a savior, and miss out on God’s gracious forgiveness. Jesus said, “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: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. John 16:7-11 | NIV Unbelief is the unforgivable sin. Those who do not avail themselves of God’s grace are destined to spend eternity separated from God in a place prepared for Satan and his angels.
Some believe that the initial evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues. There is no Scripture that asserts that is the rule, but that seems to have been the pattern in the 1st century church. Practically every time we read about people receiving the Holy Spirit, they spoke in tongues. (Acts 2:4, 10:46, and 19:6) The apostle Paul considered it important, “ I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” 1 Corinthians 14:18 | ESV
It is, however, possible that we are filled with the Holy Spirit the instant we place our faith in Jesus. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit . . . Ephesians 1:13 | NIV If it is the case, it would make speaking in tongues an option available that can remain untapped in the life of a believer. But that is an argument for a future post. One certain evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit is by exhibiting the Fruit of the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 | ESV
The misunderstandings surrounding the Holy Spirit today have to do with the gifts of the Spirit; how, or even if, they are available to the contemporary Church. There are two views on that: cessationism and continuationism. Cessationism holds that the “miracle gifts” have ceased—that the end of the apostolic age brought about a cessation of the miracles. In the late fourth century John Chrysostom could speak of the spiritual gifts as belonging to an age in the past.”7. Most cessationists believe that, while God can and still does perform miracles today, the Holy Spirit no longer uses individuals to perform miraculous signs. Continuationism is the belief that all the spiritual gifts, including prophesy, healings, tongues, and miracles, are still in operation today, just as they were in the days of the early church.
The reason we don’t hear much about spiritual gifts in many contemporary churches today is when it happens, God, not man, is in control. Consequently belief that they are no longer available results more from lack of experience, rather that solid exegesis. There is no biblical evidence that they ceased with the apostles or that they have even ceased at all. The apostle Paul took great pains to explain the importance of spiritual gifts to the Church in 1 Corinthians 12. In 1 Corinthians 14:1 | ESV, He encouraged believers to “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” There is so much more to be said about this topic, but that will have to wait. For now, I will end with this final blessing. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13 | ESV
Footnotes:
1. Guy P. Duffield and Nathan M. Van Cleave, Foundations of Pentecostal Theology (Los Angeles:Foursquare Medis, 2008), 272.
2. James E. Cummings, Through the Eternal Spirit (Stirling, Scotland:Stirling Tract Enterprises, 1937), 50.
3. Thomas S. Caulley, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Grand Rapids:Baker Academic, 2001), 568.
4. John F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids:Zondervan Academic), 27, Kindle edition.
5. Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids:Baker Academic, 1998), 862.
6. Duffield and Van Cleave, 273.
7. Caulley, 570.