Who Is the Holy Spirit?

He is God Almighty, the third Person of the Trinity--One God in three Persons, Father Son and Holy Spirit.

Whatever God does, He does as a complete Trinity--all Three are involved at all times. They have to be since the three make up One God. But each Person seems to have some distinct functions with the unity of the Godhead.

Roles in Trinity1. God the Father is the Great Initiator. He begins everything. The Son

and the Spirit defer to Him.2. Jesus the Son is the Great Liberator of all creation from sin, death and

the devil.3. God the Holy Spirit is the Great Facilitator of all the Father wills and all

the Son has made possible in salvation.

Love in The Trinity1. God the Father loves to honor God the Son. The Father has honored

the Son above all else in creation. 2. God the Son delights to honor and do the will of the Father. 3. God the Holy Spirit loves to honor and serve the Father and the Son.4. The Father and the Son jealously guard the honor of the Spirit. 5. The Father and the Son honor the Holy Spirit by giving Him as a gift to

live within all followers of Jesus.

5.1. The Father loves to give the Spirit to us! Luke 11:13:

! If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, ! how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to ! those who ask him?”

Special Roles of the Holy Spirit1. God the Holy Spirit is the One Who interfaces with creation

most closely. Everything God does in creation goes through the Spirit. Whatever creation does with God goes through the Holy Spirit.

2. When we pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus, we do it by the leading and power of the Holy Spirit Who has made us alive in Christ, made us new creatures by faith in Jesus, Who has drawn us to Jesus

3. He is the God that we experience the most. Almost everything that the Father commands or the Son gives us in salvation is experienced by us through the work of the Holy Spirit.

3.1. The Holy Spirit is the Person in the Trinity we experience whenever The father or Jesus does something on earth.

3.2. The Holy Spirit is the Voice of God, the Power of God and the Presence of God we experience on earth.

4. The Holy Spirit is our main Teacher. The Holy Spirit wrote the entire Bible though about 40 different men over 1900 years. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the best interpreter and teacher of the Bible. The Holy Spirit loves to be asked what the Bible means.

5. He empowers and leads all true ministry

5.1. Jesus promised that He and the Father would send the Holy Spirit to empower & teach them for ministry. This happened on Pentecost, fulfilling a promise God has made in Joel 2:28.

5.2. The history of the early Church shows the Holy Spirit doing what Jesus used to do for His followers:

5.2.1. The Holy Spirit empowers & directs all ministry in book of Acts.

Analogies If Shakespeare was right and all the world is a stage, the Father is the Producer of all plays on that stage. He decides what the stage plays will be and He provides all the resources for their production.

The Son is the Star of all the Plays God produces. All of creation was made by Him and for Him. In Him, all things hold together. He is the Head of the Church. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus is the invisible God made visible. The Father made Jesus the Star of all creation!

The Holy Spirit is the Stage Manager. He makes everything happen to fulfill the will of the Father and to facilitate the works of the Son. ★He picks the actors and gives them the scripts to say, ★He trains them to act their parts★ He fills their lives with supernatural abilities to do their part in the play so that the Father is pleased and the Son is the Star. ★The Stage Manager never takes a bow to the audience. He pushes Jesus out there and all those who act with Jesus.

If life was a football game, the Father would be the owner of all the godly teams. ✦The Son would be the Star quarterback and Star Defensive Player for God’s Teams. ✦In fact, while He was on earth, Jesus would make the pass, take out all the defenders, catch the pass and make all the goals. On defense, Jesus would tackle all the other team members one by one before they scored.

✦In all those games after Jesus went back to heaven, the Holy Spirit would be the coach who trained each player on how to run plays according to God’s playbook. ✦The Spirit would also be on the sidelines on every game telling God’s players what to do moment by moment and then miraculously filling their bodies with the strength and agility to make the play! ✦At the end of each game, the Spirit would point to Jesus and give Him all the credit for the win.

I am learning more about the Holy Spirit now than I have in my entire life. Benny Hinn’s book, Good Morning Holy Spirit, has been a great help and inspiration to me. I highly recommend it. Travis’s class on the Spirit opened my eyes to how much I did not know about the Holy Spirit. That class moved me to seek to know the Spirit better and shortly afterward, I had my first encounter with the Holy Spirit as a full Person.

I have known the Father and the Son as full-fledged Persons for many years, but, I regret to say, I have treated the Holy Spirit more as a force or heavenly gift of power more than and real Person.

I have openly confessed that to the Spirit and asked for His forgiveness. I recommend that we all do the same.

Who enjoys being treated as less than a real Person when we are one?

He is the most sensitive, the most meek, the most humble and the most accessible

Extra Info:

Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

Holy Spirit Gives All Life• He helped create the world in Gen 1:2: “Now the earth was formless and

empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

• Job 33:4: “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

• In the OT, the Holy Spirit is described as creative, life-giving, and life-sustaining. Is it any wonder that in the New Testament He would be similarly described (cf. John 3:5-8; 6:63; 2 Corinthians 3:6)

The Holy Spirit is Our Teacher• “You gave your good Spirit to instruct them...” (Nehemiah 9:20)• But it is the Spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him

understanding (Job 32:8).• Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit

lead me on level ground (Psalm 143:10).• “By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets”. (Neh 9:30)

The Holy Spirit Was God’s Presence on Earth• Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me

(Psalm 51:11).• Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your

presence? (Psalm 139:7).

Disobedience Against God Was Against The Holy Spirit• By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord...for they rebelled against

the Spirit of God...” (Psalm 106:32-33).• Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So He [God} turned and

became their enemy and He himself fought against them. (Isaiah 63:10-14).

The Holy Spirit Filled People With Power in the OT• Bezalel: “And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and

knowledge in all kinds of crafts (Exodus 31:3).• So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is

the Spirit, and lay your hand on him (Numbers 27:18).• Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the Spirit of Wisdom because

Moses had laid his hands on him. (Numbers 34:9)• King Saul: “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power, and you

will prophesy with them...” I Sam, 10:10)• “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his

brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power. (1 Sam 16:13)

• The Judges of Israel: Othniel, Gideon, Jephthah & Samson. • The prophets of Israel: Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel & Michah• Joel 2:28-19: The verse that Pentecost fulfilled and we are heirs of it:

“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”