"Acts as a Person" l HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l Chuck Smith l Living Water l l Utah VidDevo l VidDevoChurch

The Spirit Acts as a Person

The Holy Spirit speaks. 

Again, it's hard to think of something other than a person speaking. 

Yet Acts 13:2 says, "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, 'Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."' 

And in I Timothy 4:1, Paul writes, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith." 

Revelation 2:7 likewise says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Second, the Spirit intercedes.

 Paul writes in Romans 8:26, "Likewise the Spirit
also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." 

And in John 15:26 Jesus tells us, "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me."

So the Spirit testifies of Jesus.


Third, the Spirit of God teaches. 

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you," says John 14:26. 

And Nehemiah 9:20 tells us, "You also gave Your good Spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold Your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst."

Fourth, the Spirit communes with us. 

Paul said, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen" (II Corinthians 13:14).

Fifth, the Spirit strives with men. 

Genesis 6:3 says, "And the LORD said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever."'

Sixth, the Spirit works miracles. 

Paul wrote that the gospel was proclaimed "in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ" (Romans 15:19).

Last, the Holy Spirit guides us. 

What a wonderful, glorious truth this is! 

We can know for ourselves the divine guidance of the Spirit, even as Paul and his companions experienced it: "Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in
Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them" (Acts 16:6,7).

Only a person could do all these things. 

But this is not a matter for mere intellectual speculation. Because the Holy Spirit is a Person, we can enjoy a relationship with Him graced with all of these loving, personal attentions!