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SUBJECT: 01- The Personality of The Holy Spirit
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Ch 01 The Personality of the Holy Spirit
BEFORE one can correctly understand the work of the Holy Spirit, he must first of all know the Spirit Himself. A frequent source of error and fanaticism about the work of the Holy Spirit is the attempt to study and understand His work without first of all coming to know Him as a Person.
It is of the highest importance from the standpoint of worship that we decide whether the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, worthy to receive our adoration, our faith, our love, and our entire surrender to Himself, or whether it is simply an influence emanating from God or a power or an illumination that God imparts to us. If the Holy Spirit is a person, and a Divine Person, and we do not know Him as such, then we are robbing a Divine Being of the worship and the faith and the love and the surrender to Himself which are His due.
It is also of the highest importance from the practical standpoint that we decide whether the Holy Spirit i$
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
pirit has hands and feet and eyes and ears and mouth, r and so on, but these are not the characteristics of per- * sonality but of corporeity. % All of these characteristics - or marks of personality are repeatedly ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments. We read in i Cor. ii. IQ, n, "But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth ail things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God/' Here knowledge is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. We are clearly taught that the Holy Spirit is not merely an influence that illu- minates our minds to comprehend the truth but a Being who Himself knows the truth.
In I Cor. xii. 1 i, we read, " But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will", Here will is ascribed to the Spirit and we are taught that the Holy Spirit is not a power that we get hold of and use according to our will but a Person of sovereign majesty, who uses us according to His will. This distinction is of funda- mental importance in our getting into right relations with the Holy Spirit. It is at this very point that many honest seekers after power and efficiency in service go astray. They are reaching out after and struggling to get possession of some mysterious and mighty power that they can make use of in their work according to their own will. They will never get possession of the power they seek until they come to recognize that there is not some Divine power for them to get hold of and
The Personality of the Holy Spirit
majesty and glory dwells in my heart and Is ready . use even me.
It Is of the highest Importance from the standpoint of experience that we know the Holy Spirit as a person. Thousands and tens of thousands of men and women can testify to the blessing that has come into their own lives as they have come to know the Holy Spirit, not merely as a gracious Influence (emanating, it is true, from God) but as a real Person, just as real as Jesus Christ Himself, an ever-present, loving Friend and mighty Helper, who is not only always by their side but dwells in their heart every day and every hour and who is ready to undertake for them in every emer- gency of life. Thousands of ministers, Christian workers and Christians in the humblest spheres of life have spoken to me, or written to me, of the complete transformation of their Christian experience that came to them when they grasped the thought (not merely in a theological, but in an experimental way) that the Holy Spirit was a Person and consequently came to know Him.
There are at least four distinct lines of proof in the Bible that the Holy Spirit is a person.
L All the distinctive characteristics of personality are ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the Bible.
What are the distinctive characteristics, or marks, of personality ? /Knowledge, feeling or emotion, and wilh Ariy entity that thinks and feels and wills is a person* When we say that the Holy Spirit is a person, there are those who understand us to mean that the Holy
A 'he Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
has hands and feet and eyes and ears and mouth, and so on, but these are not the characteristics of per- sonality but of corporeity. \ All of these characteristics or marks of personality are repeatedly ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments. We read in I Cor. ii. 10, 11, "But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God/' Here knowledge is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. We are clearly taught that the Holy Spirit is not merely an influence that illu- minates our minds to comprehend the truth but a Being who Himself knows the truth.
In i Cor. xii. n, we read, "But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will", Here will is ascribed to the Spirit and we are taught that the Holy Spirit is not a power that we get hold of and use according to our will but a Person of sovereign majesty, who uses us according to His will. This distinction is of funda- mental importance in our getting into right relations with the Holy Spirit. It is at this very point that many honest seekers after power and efficiency in service go astray. They are reaching out after and struggling to get possession of some mysterious and mighty power that they can make use of in their work according to their own will. They will never get possession of the power they seek until they come to recognize that there is not some Divine power for them to get hold of and
The Personality of the Holy Spirit 1 1
use in their blindness and ignorance but that there is a Person, infinitely wise, as well as infinitely mighty, who is willing to take possession of them and use them ac- cording to His own perfect will. When we stop to think of it, we must rejoice that there is no Divine power that beings so ignorant as we are, so liable to err, to get hold of and use. How appalling might be the results if there were. But what a holy joy must come into our hearts when we grasp the thought that there is a Divine Person, One who never errs, who is willing to take possession of us and impart to us such gifts as He sees best and to use us according to. His wise and loving will.
We read in Rom. viii. 27, " And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit^ because He raaketh intercession, for the saints accord- ing to the will of God." In this passage mind is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Greek word trans- lated " mind " is a comprehensive word, including the ideas of thought, feeling and purpose. It is the same that is used in Rom. viii. 7 where we read that " the carnal mind is enmity against God : for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.'* So then in this 'passage we have all the distinctive marks of personality ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
We find the personality of the Holy Spirit brought out in a most touching and suggestive way in Rom. xv. 30, " Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the lirue of the Spirit^ that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." Here we have " love " ascribed to the Holy Spirit,
11 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
The reader would do well to stop and ponder those five words, " the -love of the Spirit" We dwell often upon the love of God the Father. It is the subject of our daily and constant thought. We dwell often upon the love of Jesus Christ the Son. Who would think of calling himself a Christian who passed a day without meditating on the love of his Saviour, but how often have we meditated upon a the love of the Spirit " ? Each day of our lives, if we are living as Christians ought, we kneel down in the presence of God the Father and look up into His face and say, a I thank Thee, Father, for Thy great love that led Thee to give Thine only begotten Son to die upon the cross of Calvary for me." Each day of our lives we also look up into the face of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and say, " Oh, Thou glorious Lord and Saviour, Jesus Thou Son of God, I thank Thee for Thy great love that led Thee not to count it a thing to be grasped to be on equality with God but to empty Thyself and forsaking all the glory of heaven, come down to earth with all its shame and to take my sins upon Thyself and die in my place upon the cross of Calvary." But how often do we kneel and say to the Holy Spirit, u Oh, Thou eternal and infinite Spirit of God, I thank Thee for Thy great love that led Thee to come into this world of sin and darkness and to seek me out and to follow me so pa-* tiently until Thou didst bring me to see my utter ruin and need of a Saviour and to reveal to me my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, as just the Saviour whom I need." Yet we owe our salvation just as truly to the love of the Spirit as we do to the love of the
The Personality of the Holy Spirit 13
Father and the love of the Son, If it had not been for the love of God the Father looking down upon me in my utter ruin and providing a perfect atonement for me in the death of His own Son on the cross of Cal- vary, I would have been in hell to-day. If it had not been for the love of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God, looking upon me in my utter ruin and in obedi- ence to the Father, putting aside all the glory of heaven for all the shame of earth and taking my place, the place of the curse, upon the cross of Calvary and pouring out His life utterly for me, I would have been in hell to-day. But if it had not been for the love of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in answer to the prayer of the Son (John xiv. 1 6) leading Him to seek me out in my utter blindness and ruin and to follow me day after day, week after week, and year after year, when I persistently turned a deaf ear to His pleadings, following me through paths of sin where it must have been agony for that holy One to go, until at last I listened and He opened my eyes to see my utter ruin and then revealed Jesus to me as just the Saviour that would meet my every need and then enabled me to receive this Jesus as my own Saviour; if it had not been for this patient, long-suffering, never-tiring, infinitely-tender love of the Holy Spirit, I would have been in hell to-day. Oh, the Holy Spirit is not merely an influence or a power or an illumination but is a Person just as real as God the Father or Jesus Christ His Son.
The personality of the Holy Spirit comes out in the Old Testament as truly as in the New, for we read in
14 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
Neh. ix. 20, "Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not Thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst." Here both intelligence and goodness are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. There are some who tell us that while it is true the personality of the Holy Spirit is found in the New Testament, it is not found in the Old. But it is certainly found in this passage. As a matter of course, the doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit is not as fully developed in the Old Testament as in the New. But the doctrine is there.
^There is perhaps no passage in the entire Bible in which the personality of the Holy Spirit comes out more tenderly and touchingly than in Eph. iv. 30, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Here grief is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a blind, impersonal influence or power that comes into our lives to illuminate, sanctify and empower them. No, He is immeasurably more than that,, He is a holy Person who comes to dwell in our hearts, One who sees clearly every act we perform, every word we speak, every thought we entertain, even the most fleet- ing fancy that is allowed to pass through our minds 5 and if there is anything in act, or word or deed that is impure, unholy, unkind, selfish, mean, petty or untrue, this infinitely holy : One is deeply grieved by it. I know of no thought that will help one more than this to lead a holy life and to walk softly in the presence of the holy One. How often a young man is kept back
The Personality of the Holy Spirit 15
from yielding to the temptations that surround young manhood by the thought that if he should yield to the temptation that now assails him, his holy mother might hear of it and would be grieved by It beyond expres- sion. How often some young man has had his hand upon the door of some place of sin that he is about to enter and the thought has come to him, u If I should enter there, my mother might hear of it and it would nearly kill her," and he has turned his back upon that door and gone away to lead a pure life, that he might not grieve his mother. But there is One who is holier than any mother, One who is more sensitive against sin than the purest woman who ever walked this earth) and who loves us as even no mother ever loved, and this One dwells in our hearts, if we are really Christians, and He sees every act we do by day or under cover of the night ; He hears every word we utter in public or in private 5 He sees every thought we entertain, He beholds every fancy and imagination that is permitted even a momentary lodgment in our mind, and if there is anything unholy, impure, selfish, mean, petty, unkind, harsh, unjust, or in anywise evil in act or word or thought or fancy, He is grieved by it. If we will allow those words, " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God," to sink into our hearts and become the motto of our lives, they will keep us from many a sin. How often some thought or fancy has knocked for an entrance into my own mind and was about td find enter- tainment when the thought has come, "The Holy Spirit sees that thought and will be grieved by it " and that thought has gone.
1 6 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
IL Many acts that only a Person can perform are ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
If we deny the personality of the Holy Spirit, many passages of Scripture become meaningless and absurd. For example, we read in I Cor. ii. 10, " But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." This passage sets before us the Holy Spirit, not merely as an illumination whereby we are enabled to grasp the deep things of God, but a Person who Himself searches the deep things of God and then reveals to us the precious discoveries which He has made.
We read in Rev. ii. 7, " He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches j To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God/* Here the Holy Spirit is set before us, not merely as an impersonal enlightenment that comes to our mind but a Person who speaks and out of the depths -of His own wisdom, whispers into the ear of His listening servant the precious truth of God.
In GaL iv. 6 we read, a And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, cgying^ Abba, Father." Here the Holy Spirit is represented as crying put in the heart of the individ- ual believer. Not merely a Divine influence produc- ing in our own hearts the assurance of our sonship but one who cries out in our hearts, who bears witness together with our spirit that we are sons of God. (See also Rom. viii. 16.)
The Holy Spirit is also represented in the Scripture
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as one who prays. We read in Rom. viii. 26, R. V., u And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirm- ity 5 for we know not how to pray as we ought ; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." It is plain from this passage that the Holy Spirit is not merely an influ- ence that moves us to pray, not merely an illumination that teaches us how to pray, but a Person who Himself prays in and through us. There is wondrous comfort in the thought that every true believer has two Divine Persons praying for him, Jesus Christ, the Son who was once upon this earth, who knows all about our temptations, who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities and who is now ascended to the right 'land of the Father and in that place of authority sjjid power ever lives to make intercession for us ^fieb. vii. 25 j 1 i John ii. i); and another Person, just as Divine as He, who walks by our side each day, yes, who dwells in the innermost depths of our being and knows our needs, even as we do not know them our- selves, and from these depths makes intercession to the Father for us. The position of the believer is indeed one of perfect security with these two Divine Persons praying for him.
We read again in John xv. 26, " But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even* the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He ^UjestifjjQf Me."' Here. the. Holy Spirit is set before us as a Person who gives His testimony to Jesus Christ, not merely as an illumina- tion that enables the believer to testify of Christ, but
i8 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
a Person who Himself testifies 5 and a clear distinction is drawn in this and the following verse between the testimony of the Holy Spirit and the testimony of the believer to whom He has borne His witness, for we read in the next verse, cc And ye also shall bear witnes^ because ye have been with Me from the beginning. 5 ' So there are two witnesses, the Holy Spirit bearing witness to the believer and the believer bearing witness to the world.
The Holy Spirit is also spoken of as a teacher. We read in John xiv. 26, " But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." And in a similar way, we read in /John xvi. 12-14, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, . is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself ; but what- soever He shall hear, that shall He speak : and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me : for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you." And in the Old Testament, Neh. ix. 20, "Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them." In all these passages it is perfectly clear that the Holy Spirit is not a mere illumination that enables us to apprehend the truth, but a Person who comes to us to teach us day by day the truth of God. It is the privilege of the humblest believer In Jesus Christ not merely to have his mind illumined to comprehend the truth of God, but to have a Divine Teacher to daily teach him the truth he
The Personality of the Holy Spirit ig
needs to know (cf. i John ii. 20, 27). The Holy Spirit is also represented as the Leader and Guide of the children of God. We read in Rom. viii. 14, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God." He is not merely an influence that enables us to see the way that God would have us go, nor merely a power that gives us strength to go that way, but a Person who takes us by the hand and gently leads us on in the paths in which God would Have us walk.
The Holy Spirit is also represented as a Person who has authority to command men in their service of Jesus Christ. We read of the Apostle Paul and his companions in* Acts xvi, 6, 7, "Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they as- sayed to go into Bithynia : but the Spirit suffered them not." Here it is a Person who takes the direction of the conduct of Paul and his companions and a Person