Page 17 - Contact Spring 2021
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The Spirit of Life – Geing Serious about the Holy Spirit
The Personality of We also read that the Spirit: leads us in God’s
way (Gal. 5:18; Rom. 8:14), searches all things
the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10), knows the mind of God as well as
having his own mind (1 Cor. 2:11; Rom. 8:27),
dwells with believers (1 Cor. 3:16; Rom. 8:11; 2
How would you feel if I kept talking about you Tim 1:14), teaches believers (John 14:26; 1 Cor.
as ‘it’? At first, you’d likely be really annoyed and 2:13), cries out to the Father for us (Gal. 4:6),
then probably wonder why I was being so rude. intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26-27), strength-
By referring to you as ‘it’ I’m clearly denying ens believers (Eph. 3:16), bears witness with
your personhood. You’re a unique individual our spirits (Rom. 8:16), has desires (Gal. 5:17),
and not just a ‘thing’. Unfortunately, this is what helps us in our weakness (Rom. 8:26), he
many people do with the Holy Spirit – they forbids certain actions (Acts 16:6), warns
refer to ‘him’ as ‘it’. Now, in one sense I can believers (Acts 20:23), he speaks of himself in
understand why Christians do this. It’s much terms of ‘me’ and ‘I’ (Acts 13:2), he can be blas-
easier to think of the Father as a person and phemed (Matt. 12:32), and lied to (Acts 5:1-11).
the Son (Jesus) even more so, especially in All of these characteristics and actions are
the incarnation. The Holy Spirit however, that undoubtedly those of a person and not simply
seems a lot more difficult. Not only is the Spirit an impersonal force. Interestingly, many (if not
often spoken of with impersonal imagery all) of these are ascribed to the Father and the
throughout the Scriptures (wind, fire, water, oil, Son as well, demonstrating the full deity of the
dove) but we don’t often think of a spirit being Holy Spirit as well as his personhood.
a person. And yet, the Bible makes abundantly
clear that the Holy Spirit is a person and Why is this important you might say? Think
therefore we ought to relate to him as such. about it. How you relate to and what you
Think again about how my referring to you expect from a person is very different from
as ‘it’ would make you feel. You’d rightly be how you relate to or what you expect from an
grieved, and the very fact of this is evidence impersonal force. I remember leading a Bible
Understanding that you are a person because only a person study on one of the gospels when the topic of
can be grieved. In both the Old and New
Testaments, we are told that the Spirit can be the Holy Spirit came up. As I spoke of him as a
person that we could relate to, someone in the
the Holy Spirit’s grieved (Isa. 63:10; Eph. 4:3); one of several group admitted that they had never thought of
characteristics that point to his personhood.
the Spirit as a person. They had gone through
personhood makes years of thinking of the Spirit as a force from
God rather than a person with whom we have
a vital and intimate relationship.
all the difference in Understanding the Holy Spirit’s personhood
makes all the difference in the world. As we
the world. look further at what the Spirit does, it will be
vitally important to bear his personhood
in mind so that we understand that we are
not just being empowered by, filled with, or
equipped by a ‘thing’ but by a living and loving
‘person’.
