THE PERSON OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

JOHN 14:16-18

Morning Meditation 10/8/17

"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."

There is probably no subject in Scripture more distorted from its true meaning more than the Holy Spirit. The subject is too large to discuss in one meditation but you have to start somewhere. So it will be my aim to at least introduce Him to you in this meditation.

May the Lord give me grace and illumination to carefully, tactfully, and as unoffensively deal with the person of the Holy Spirit as possible, and at the same time be bold to reveal the truth of Who He is and what He does. Sometimes the truth cuts through wrong beliefs so that people think of you as teaching the doctrine of the denomination to which one belongs.

Let me say this is my defense, that if my church happens to be right on the subject, I will teach that truth as coming from the Scripture and not the creed. I can't tell you how long it has been since I picked up the Baptist Creed and read it. I will teach the Bible and trust that any creed will be set aside if it does not harmonize with Scripture.

Let's look first of all at,

THE PERSON OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

One of the things that you can say about a person is that he has volition. Bu this I mean the power to make a rationalistic choice. There is a certain sovereignty about volition. This is the power to choose whether the choice is right or wrong.

To see this truth, let's look at 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will."

To be brief, let's look at what He says in this passage. The Holy Spirit divides Spiritual gifts in the local church and He does it by His infinite wisdom. He says:

1. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. This means everyone in the church has been given by the Holy Spirit at least one Spiritual gift to profit the other members of the church.

2. The word of wisdom is given to profit the other members. Wisdom is how to use the knowledge that you have. A lot of people have knowledge but they do not have wisdom to put it to work.. We have a proverb in the English language that might help you to understand what the Holy Spirit is saying by the use of this world. The proverb says, "That man has a lot of knowledge but he doesn't have any horse sense." That proverb is dealing with the application of truth after you get it.

3. The word of knowledge is given to another to profit the church. I have heard many church members over the years say something like, "Bro. So and So helped me tremendously to understand the actions of the church, etc.. When you find a man with a gift that enables Him to know what to do, don't accuse him of running the church. There are pastors who do not have this gift. You have a wise pastor will seek out the man with this Spiritual gift. It is good to see a pastor who will listen to what God's people have to say. God may just be answering your prayer through a gifted member of your church. Don't make the mistake of rejecting a man's ideas, it may just be the way God is getting the correct information to you. Meekness and humility will take suggestion and at least consider them.

4. Faith is also given by the Spirit. Now this is obviously not given for a person to be saved. The faith spoken of in this passage is faith to live by. It can also be faith for the local body so they will advance by faith. The church is the Lord's institution. We must have a collective faith as much as a personal faith. Say for instance, you want to build a new building, or add to the one you have. There are those in the church who will grab their billfold as soon as they hear this. The man with the gift of faith will respond positively and say, "Lets do it!!! It is God's will and we can step out by faith. The people would be wise to move by faith in the construction of a building. Or, as a matter of fact, anything one is undertaking. It will succeed if it is done by faith. It is impossible for God to fail. And faith brings the invisible God and all the host of heaven to work with that group of people. Paul told the Romans in Romans 14:23, "And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Then again Hebrews 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." If one desires to please God, he must be willing to walk by faith. Faith is believing in God though He is invisible, believing He will supply though He is invisible, and that He will be personally involved with us to do His will in the present tense of our lives.

I will not go down all the list that is in 1 Corinthians 12 but I wanted to go at least far enough to know that He gets personally involved with His children. He lifts their burdens and strengthens them in their weaknesses. He does this as He wills. This is sovereignty. God the Father is sovereign, God the Son is sovereign, and God the Holy Spirit is sovereign. The Trinity are One in distinction, direction, and distribution. This is the Trinity in action.

THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Acts 1:8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

The church had no power between the ascension of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was given to enable the church to accomplish it's mission of evangelizing the world. The power of the Holy Spirit is awesome. He can give revival, He can convict the backslidden, and He can illuminate truths that are not understood the way we normally go about understanding something. It is divine illumination.

1 Corinthians 2:14-15, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man."

The words "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God," refer to the brain and body we were born with. It can never be educated to know the things of God. I have personally had preachers saved after they had been to the seminary because they felt they had been called to preach. When they discovered that they were not even saved, God gave them grace to admit it, get saved, and get out of the ministry. God does not call lost men to preach. So whatever you were before you were saved, it changed the moment you were saved.

I saw a lady saved in our church who had been an organist for most of her life. She professed to be saved all that time. This lady came under conviction and was gloriously saved. She was kind of shocked when I told her that she would have to start learning all over again (the truths of the Bible). Because, even though she had a good knowledge of the Scriptures, she had to be spiritually ignorant of the meaning and application of the Scriptures. If the above passage is true, I have to be right in declaring this. "But the natural man (the adamic man, i.e., what you are by natural birth) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God . . ." That is an irrefutable truth. Faith trusts God's Word even though at times you don't understand it.

The Holy Spirit is powerful enough to overcome sin in the life. He is powerful enough to get us involved in world missions through giving to missions above and beyond the tithe. Satan has mighty power but he does not have unlimited power like Jesus has. Therefore Satan has an attribute that is close enough to God's power that He will many times lead a carnal Christian believing that he is receiving God's power even when it is Satan's.

Next,

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS PROPHETIC IN NATURE

The Holy Spirit in that He is all knowing, has and is God, He knows the future better than we know the past. Revelation 1:9-11, "I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea."