The Person of the Holy Spirit

John 16:5-15

Christians vary widely in their opinions about the Holy Spirit. Some
churches make Him their main focus, and others ignore Him. Many individuals
view Him
as a power to draw on or a source of controversy to be avoided. We should
turn to Scripture for an accurate and truthful description of Him.

First, the Holy Spirit is a person. We know this because the Scriptures tell
us He has four important qualities of a person-knowledge, will, emotion, and
activity: the Spirit knows God's thoughts and reveals them to Christians (1
Corinthians 2:10-11); He exercises His will in the distribution of spiritual
gifts to believers. (1 Corinthians 12:7-11); He is also full of love (Romans
15:30) and acts as our comforter, helper, teacher, and guide.

Secondly, God the Spirit is co-equal to God the Father and God the Son. The
attributes of each member of the Trinity are true of all three. Therefore,
the
Holy Spirit is both omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipotent (all-powerful).
To accomplish man's redemption, the Father sent His Son Jesus to earth to
take
on human form and become our Savior. After returning to heaven, Jesus
dispatched the Holy Spirit to live within believers. The Helper's indwelling
presence
identifies us as God's own, separates us from the unbelieving world, and
serves as a divine guarantee that we belong to Him forever. The Spirit's
work
is to conform us to Christ's image (Galatians 5:16) and to live Jesus' life
through us. (John 15:5)

What do you believe about the Holy Spirit's nature and character? Do your
beliefs match the truth of Scripture?


-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.10.9/416 - Release Date: 8/10/2006