8
Dec
2008
WHO THE HOLY SPIRIT IS, WHAT HE DOES
To understand the Holy Spirit I suggest It is best to read carefully the account that the Spirit Himself has given us of His actions. When we rely too much on abstract technical definitions of English words and syllogystic argumentations we cannot be sure our conclusions are accurate. The same procedure we use to find out the action of baptism is the best one here also. We find someone in scripture being baptized and look at what he does. This clarifies what baptism is. Even so we can get a picture of the Spirit’s actions when we read His own description of what He did as he Himself recorded it.
First, He is called “Holy” because He is God’s Spirit. Paul wrote that as such He knows what is in the mind of God just like my spirit knows what is in my mind. (1 Cor. 2:11) At the very beginning of His revelation the Spirit says that in the beginning “the earth was without form and void, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” Evidently God’s Spirit is to Him something like my hand is to me. When my mind tells my hand to pick up a certain object, it does so immediately. It is not necessary to do any physical gyrations or utter some incantations. It is a simple matter of the mind giving a command and the response is immediate.
This is the procedure pictured throughout the entire Bible. The Holy Spirit is a part of God. He has never been a wandering spectre roaming about and doing things randomly. He knows what is in the mind of God and He always acts accordingly. Neither was He ever given to be a “genie” for anyone’s personal use. He was sent to achieve different purposes at various times.
For instance, He communicated God’s will to Noah, along with instructions to build an ark. But He was not always an “ark preaching Spirit,” for that was not what God wanted Him to tell Moses. What He gave to Moses was the law. An ark of a different kind was involved and a certain kind of tabernacle. But that was not what He always gave to everyone. He gave the prophets an understanding of the law and commands relating to it. Peter wrote that they spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Throughout the scriptures we find that God gave special powers by His Spirit to the persons He chose to speak for Him, the prophets and the apostles. This was to confirm that what they spoke was from God. It was His “signature” on it. (Heb. 2:3-4) We need to think of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God, always executing what is in the mind of God.
New Testament activity of the Spirit
Through the prophet Joel God said, “It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” (Joel 2:28) Then He said the result would be that sons and daughters would prophesy and old men would dream dreams, etc On Pentecost day in Acts 2 Peter said “This is it.”
Notice the phrase “pour out my Spirit.” This is not the same terminology as the “gift of the Holy Spirit.” When this “pouring” happened they “spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Vs.4) In Acts 10, while Peter was speaking to Cornelius and his household, “The Holy Spirit fell on those who heard the word.” (Vs. 45) Here again the scripture uses that terminology, “The gift of the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the Gentiles also.” The next verse says they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.” Both on Pentecost day and at the household of Cornelius when the Holy Spirit was poured out on them they spoke with tongues.
Peter then said that since they had “received the Holy Spirit as well as we,” they should be baptized. Obviously then, the “gift of the Holy Spirit” one receives at baptism is not the pouring out of the Spirit Himself. Else why would these need to be baptized on whom the Spirit had already been “poured out”?
Another instance of this occurs in Acts 8, The Samaritans received the word Phillip preached and were baptized. Thus they received “the gift of the Holy Spirit.” But the Spirit Himself was not poured out on them. When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent Peter and John to them to pray for them, “that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” (Verses 14-17) In this case Simon saw some thing that we need to see. The text says, “Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles hands the Holy Spirit was given” and tried to buy that power.
We need to see the same thing. The Holy Spirit Himself was first given by a direct act of God. The sound of rushing wind came “from heaven.” (Vs. 2) After that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands. On Pentecost day the Holy Spirit was first poured out on the apostles and those with them. Then all the people were invited to be baptized and receive His “gift.” At the household of Cornelius, in the presence of an apostle, the Holy Spirit Himself fell upon them and then they were invited to be baptized. At Samaria they first obeyed the Gospel to receive His gift, and later, via laying on of the apostles hands, the Spirit fell on them.
A Biblical illustration about trying to shape God in our image is given in 2 Kings 5. Naaman the leper was told by God’s prophet to dip in Jordan seven times and his leprosy would be healed. But Naaman had his own ideas about how it would be done. He was angry and said, “I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of his God, and wave his hand over the place and heal the leprosy.” (vs. 11) But the prophet did no incantations. God had given the command and when Naaman finally obeyed it he found out that when God declares something it becomes a fact. His leprosy was healed. People do a similar thing with the command of Jesus, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” They say. “No. The way to get saved is to bow in prayer and ask Jesus to come into your heart.” They fail to understand that God simply commands and it becomes a fact.
Throughout the Old Testament God sent prophets to teach the people His will. The Holy Spirit was assigned to put that will into the minds of these prophets. Peter wrote that “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21) There was never a time when the Spirit roamed about and grabbed people at random and spoke to them. God gave specific messages to specific persons whom He had chosen and appointed. For example, Moses was God’s choice to give the law. In Numbers 12 we find Miriam and Aaron trying to claim a part of that. They said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses. Has He not also spoken through us?” Then the Bible says, “And the Lord heard it.” God then called them to the tent of meeting. Verse 12 says, “So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them.” Miriam was struck with leprosy. It was only after Moses prayed fervently for her that the leprosy was removed. It is a serious wrong to appoint yourself a prophet and claim that God spoke to you when He didn’t.
In the New Testament God chose certain men to be apostles and some to be prophets. Again, the Holy Spirit was assigned to place the will of God into their minds. At the house of Cornelius Peter said that the appearances of Jesus after His resurrection were ”Not to all the people but to witnesses chosen before of God. . . and he commanded us to preach to the people.” (Acts 10:41-42) The writer of Acts said that Jesus was taken up into heaven, “After He, through the Spirit, had given commands to the apostles whom He had chosen.” (Acts 1:2) As Christians each of us is authorized to preach the word. But we are not authorized to appoint ourselves as apostles or prophets.
Thus the Gospel of salvation was sent forth into all the world. The wise thing for all of us to do is to accept it as God gave it through His appointed spokesmen. It is not wise for any of us to claim that God has also spoken directly to us and to mix our own ideas in with God’s word. “Behold I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their tongues and say, ‘He said.’” (Jeremiah 23:31) If you think this article is wrong and you really are a prophet of God, let’s see your credentials, the kind of miraculous powers God always gave to His prophets.
But the New Testament says repeatedly that the Holy Spirit dwells in us and we need to understand this indwelling Biblically. In our next article we will put forth the Biblical explanation of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.