10 Things The Bible Teaches About The Holy Spirit That Every Christian Needs To Understand

If you are anything like most Christians, you probably know a lot more about God the Father and God the Son than you do about God the Holy Spirit.  Am I correct?

The Holy Spirit has been almost completely forgotten or, at best, relatively ignored in most Christian circles today.  Oh, we probably wouldn’t want to admit that publicly but the fact is we often don’t think about Him as much as we ought.

Let me first begin by saying that the Holy Spirit is definitely a “He” and not an “it.”  The Holy Spirit is a Person of the Godhead and not some whimsical force that is relatively unknown in the universe.  He is God and is to be worshiped as such.

If I were to ask you to give me five things that the Holy Spirit does today, what would you say?  Could you list five things?  How about four?  Three?  You see, I think that contemporary Christians know a lot more about social media than we do about the third Person of the Trinity.

Do you agree?

The Holy Spirit’s Main Ministry On Earth

I love what Jesus Christ said the Holy Spirit would do in John 16:8-11.  Jesus gave us a clear indication of the primary role the Holy Spirit would take once He was sent into the world, after Jesus left the world.  He said,

“And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come.  And if you look around the world in general, He has been very busy in this work.

But what else does the Holy Spirit actually do?  What are some of His revealed characteristics and/or attributes?  I’m glad you asked.  Here are 10 things the Bible tells us about the Holy Spirit.  What else am I missing?

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1. I believe that the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Triune Godhead, is coequal, consubstantial, coeternal with God the Father and God the Son (Matthew 28:19; John 14:16; Acts 5:3-4, 28:25-26; 2 Corinthians 13:14), and is the supernatural and sovereign Agent in regeneration, baptizing all repentant believers into the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13).
2. The Holy Spirit also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, empowers them for service, and seals them unto the day of redemption (Romans 8:9; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Ephesians 1:13).
3. I believe that although the Holy Spirit was actively present in the world in the Old Testament, He became resident in the world on the day of Pentecost having been sent by God the Father as promised by God the Son (John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26), to initiate and complete the building of the Body of Christ, which is His church (1 Corinthians 12:13).
4. I believe that as a divine Person of the Triune Godhead, the Holy Spirit possesses all the attributes of personality and deity, including intellect (1 Corinthians 2:10-13), emotions (Ephesians 4:30), will (1 Corinthians 12:11), eternality (Hebrews 9:14), omnipresence (Psalm 139:7-10), omniscience (Isaiah 40:13-14), omnipotence (Romans 15:13), and truthfulness (John 16:13).
5. The Holy Spirit convicts the unsaved of their need of Christ. He regenerates, baptizes, indwells, and seals all those whom He brings to repentant faith.
6. He teaches the believer, whom He leads into spiritual maturity through the knowledge of Christ and empowers through His filling ministry (John 16:7-11; Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 3:16; 4:30; 5:18; 1 John 2:27). He effectually calls and regenerates the elect, enabling them to exercise the gift of repentant faith and to receive Christ in all His offices as both Savior and Lord (Philippians 1:29; Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 10:9; 2 Corinthians 4:5; John 1:12; 3:3-5;Titus 3:5; 1 John 5:1).
7. I believe that the Holy Spirit is the divine Teacher, who guided the apostles and prophets into all truth as they committed to writing God’s revelation, the Bible.
8. Every believer possesses the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit from the moment of salvation, and it is the duty of all those born of the Spirit to be filled with (controlled by) the Spirit (John 16:13; Romans 8:9; Ephesians 5:18; 2 Peter 1:19-21; 1 John 2:20, 27).
9. I believe that the Holy Spirit administers spiritual gifts to the church. The Holy Spirit glorifies neither Himself nor His gifts by ostentatious displays, but He does glorify Christ by implementing His work of redeeming the lost and building up believers in the most holy faith (John 16:13-14; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 2 Corinthians 3:18).  In this respect, God the Holy Spirit is sovereign in the bestowing of all His gifts for the perfecting of the saints today and that speaking in tongues and the working of sign miracles in the beginning days of the church were for the purpose of pointing to and authenticating the apostles as revealers of divine truth, and were never intended to be characteristic of the lives of believers (1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 13:8-10; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 4:7-12; Hebrews 2:1-4).
10. I believe that the moment the repentant believer places his faith in Christ he is baptized with the Holy Spirit and becomes a functioning member of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13,18; Acts 11:16; Romans 12:4-6). As a result of this baptism, the Holy Spirit imparts a spiritual gift; the Lord Jesus Christ assigns a ministry for which that gift is to be utilized; and God the Father guarantees supernatural effects as the believer fulfills that ministry (1 Corinthians 12:4-6; Ephesians 4:15-16). I believe some of the spiritual gifts given in the church during the ministry of the Apostles were directly related to the founding of the church and the completion of the New Testament and are thus no longer given, such as the gifts of prophecy, tongues, knowledge, and healing (Ephesians 2:20-3:4; Hebrews 2:3-4; 1 Corinthians 14:37-38; 2 Corinthians 12:12). I believe, however, that God continues to work supernaturally among His people. For example, those who have a debilitating sickness are to call for the elders who are to pray and expect supernatural healing as a part of their present-day ministry (James 5:16).

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QUESTION FOR COMMENTING:  What do you think about how we have forgotten about the Holy Spirit?  What do you think God thinks about that?  What can we do to change this mindset?

* Photo credit: Fr. Stephen, MSC (Creative Commons)