The evangelist Paul Washer once said this, “I used to tell young preachers, in order to preach you've got to have the power of God on your life. Now I tell them, in order to tie your shoes you've got to have the power of God on your life.” The Power of God. You need the power of God to do anything as a believer. Why? Because when you gave your life to Jesus, you gave Him your entire life! Whether you realized it or not, when you said “yes” to Jesus, you were signifying that you were no longer going to live life on your own terms, but only by what God’s plan was and what direction He led you in.
So, when you became a believer, you were stating that from that point on, you were only going to try to live life by the power of God, which is the Holy Spirit given to you and all believers by the Father. You could live life in your own power, but you, believer, really shouldn’t. That’s not what you signed up for! You signed up for a life full of power and that power is the Spirit of God living in you.
Unfortunately, many Christians, and maybe you find yourself in this group, many Christians don’t rely on the Spirit for anything. Not for tying their shoes and not for anything else either. They don’t rely on Him to make their decisions. They don’t rely on Him to guide them or teach them or change them. In fact, many Christians continue to live life just the same way they did before they came to Christ because they have neglected the Spirit living in them. When you as a believer, neglect the Spirit in your life, you neglect God.
The next few weeks, I’m going to be preaching a sermon series called “The Forgotten God”. It’s a series about the Holy Spirit, who for many Christians, is the forgotten God. He’s neglected, ignored, and misunderstood in the church in North America, and if we’re to have any hope of continuing to be a church in this country, we need to stop forgetting God the Spirit.
So let’s talk about the Holy Spirit. In your bulletin, you’ll notice the question near the top that asks, “What is the Holy Spirit?” The first thing I want you to do is to cross out the word “what” and write “who”. This might be the biggest misunderstanding about the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is not a what, or an it. The Spirit of God is a He. He is a person. He is the third person of the Trinity, the third person of the Godhead.
This morning, as I preach about the nature of the Spirit, it is my desire that you will see that the Spirit is a person, a being. That might not seem like a big deal, it might not seem like a big distinction, but when it comes to how we relate to God and how we understand His place in our life, it’s very important that what we believe about the Spirit is in line with what God’s Word, the Bible, says about who He is. The Spirit of God is a He, a person, a being, just as important as God the Father and God the Son. To neglect or misunderstand the Spirit, we neglect part of who God is.
Look at John 14:17 to see the words the Bible uses to speak about the Spirit, “the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you.” (NASB) This is just one of many examples throughout the Bible, but anytime when Scripture speaks about the Spirit, it uses terminology that describes a person, not an idea, not a thing, a person!
He is the Spirit of TRUTH, John says. That means that the Spirit can and will only do what is true and say what is true. The Spirit will never speak something that isn’t true, or do something that isn’t true. He is the very embodiment of truth and truth can only be defined by the Spirit of God. This is also important for us to understand as we seek to understand our relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Bible was inspired by God to be written, so the things contained in it are truth because they are inspired by the Holy Spirit, and He only speaks truth. What He says about Himself is true because He only speaks truth.
Now, since we know that the Holy Spirit is a person, a being, that means that He is available for a personal relationship with believers, just like the Father and the Son. In fact, John 7:39 assures us that the Holy Spirit is given to every person who believes in Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Every person who believes receives the gift of the Spirit to remain in them and be in them. In the next few weeks’ sermons, we’ll explore what the Spirit does in the life of each believer, but quite simply, none of those things happen if we’re not having a personal relationship with Him.
We can think of our relationship with the Holy Spirit like a marriage, or a very close friendship. Those types of relationships must be carefully and intentionally cultivated and cared for. Those types of relationships require a lot of time spent together. So it is with the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer. You can have a personal relationship with Him, one that will undoubtedly change your life, but you must spend time with Him. You must care for that relationship and intentionally grow it.
2 Corinthians 13:14 says that we can have FELLOWSHIP with the Holy Spirit. Think about the word fellowship. What does it mean to you? I think of friends, especially close friends. I think of my church family, and opportunities that we have to sit and share our common interests with one another in conversation. This is how we’re meant to be with the Spirit. He isn’t meant to be neglected in our lives. We are meant to be in constant fellowship with Him, in friendship, sharing our common interests and learning from Him as He speaks to us what He hears from the Father. Fellowship is part of our personal relationship with the person of the Spirit.
Romans 8:14, 16-17 says this, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God. 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (NASB)
Having a personal relationship with the person of the Spirit allows us to be sons and daughters of God, heirs of all that He has to give, just as Christ is an heir of all that God has to give. The privileges afforded to the sons and daughters of God become ours when we walk in that personal relationship with the Spirit. The Spirit reveals God the Father to us. It is through the Spirit that we know the Father and know what the Father desires. Without the Spirit, we cannot know the Father or the Son. This is the importance of having a personal relationship with the Spirit.
John 14:25-26 tells us about another reason to intentionally grow your relationship with the Spirit, “These things I have spoken to you while remaining with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you.” (NASB) Have you ever had one of those moments in Scripture, when you know you’ve read a passage a dozen times before and you understood it just fine, but that one time you read it, it just really grabs you and changes you and you know it’ll be one of those verses that you’ll never forget because of its impact on you? That’s the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. He is the one who teaches you and opens Scripture to you, and reminds you of all that Christ has spoken through the Word of God. This is why a personal relationship with the Spirit is so important. He makes God’s Word alive and active.
Then we are reminded again of Matthew 28:19, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” (NASB) If you’re not actively walking with the Spirit on a day to day basis, you don’t have the power needed to make disciples. And since this is the one thing Jesus told us to do, it’s of vital importance! We must make disciples. This has to be at the core of how we interact with the world around us, it always must be at the forefront of our minds because it is our purpose! We make disciples in the name of the Father, Son, and the Spirit, because without the Spirit, the work of making disciples is impossible.
See? Not only is the Holy Spirit available for a personal relationship with believers, but without each believer cultivating a vibrant and active relationship with the Spirit, you miss out on the sweet fellowship you could have with Him, you miss out on closeness with the Father and the Son, you miss out on living in step with God’s Word, and you miss out on the power to do as Christ has commanded you. We need the Spirit, and we need to walk closely in step with Him each and every day. Living a Christ-like life without the Spirit is impossible.
That’s because the Holy Spirit is GOD, the Spirit. He is the very Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is the Father’s Spirit. We must know this, and our theology, what we believe about God, and how we live our lives, but revolve around this knowledge. We have been given an incredible gift, that we should have the very Spirit of God living in each of us who believes. This is amazing! This is something that was completely impossible even to people like King David, or Jeremiah, or Isaiah, or Abraham. They only experienced the Holy Spirit like we do when the Spirit came upon them for a specific time and purpose, but we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us at all times, from the moment we first believe!
The Spirit is God, He is God the Spirit. Look at these verses in Acts 5:3-4, “But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.” We can know through the New Testament that the Spirit is God, part of the Godhead, because all throughout the New Testament, the terms “Spirit” and “God” are used interchangeably. Here, we see that Peter has the understanding that lying to the Spirit is lying to God, because they are one.
Romans 8:9 teaches us that the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” (NASB) and Galatians 4:6 teaches us that the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!” (NASB) This is one of the foundational teachings of Christianity, that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are all one, all equally God, all equally important. One is not lesser than the others. Yet, we consistently forget the God the Spirit every single day. I believe it is so incredibly important for us to remember that if we forget the Spirit, we forget God.
Though they can have different roles in the life of the Christian, they are still one. John 16:13-15 shows us how the Spirit and the Father relate to one another as they exist as one, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take from Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; this is why I said that He takes from Mine and will disclose it to you.” (NASB) The Spirit speaks for the Father, and speaks only what the Father says. Why? Because the Spirit of God is God, part of God, one with the Father.
Like 1 John 3:24 says, “The one who keeps His commandments remains in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He remains in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” (NASB) The Spirit in each of us gives us the assurance that we need to know that we are in God, and that He remains in ME, you, each of us. How can the Spirit give that assurance? Because the Spirit is God. We neglect growing our relationship with Him and walking closely with Him to our own detriment.
Questions to form your quiet times this week:
1. Do you ever fall into the trap of seeing the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force instead of a person? Have you tried to “harness” Him instead of having a relationship with Him?
2. Do you treat the Holy Spirit as God, or do you treat Him as lesser than the other two persons of the Godhead? How can you be sure to treat Him as God?
3. Reflect on what the Nicene Creed says about the Spirit, “And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.” How have you experienced the Spirit giving you new life every day as He works in you and you submit to Him?