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Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Who Is the Holy Spirit?

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Charles Stanley

John 14:16-18

If you were asked who the Holy Spirit is, would you say He’s a ghost, a power, or a person? The Bible clearly teaches that God’s Spirit is a person, and He . . .

• Is a member of the Godhead. The Trinity includes God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

• Acts like a person. He lives, testifies, teaches, convicts, guides, and speaks.

• Has a personality, shown by knowledge, thoughts, will, and language (1 Cor. 2:13).

• Has many names, including Spirit of Holiness, Spirit of Christ, and Spirit of God, which all indicate His divine nature.

• Can be treated—or mistreated—like any person: He can be lied to, resisted, obeyed, and called upon.

Yet many believers don’t think of God’s Spirit as someone they can know. Perhaps these Christians have misconstrued verses that speak of the “Holy Ghost,” or received incomplete teaching about Him. Or maybe, when reading about His power, they assume “power” is all He is. It could even be that their church may have focused on the Father and/or Son to the exclusion of the Spirit.

If we believe anything less than what Scripture teaches about the Holy Spirit, then we will experience far less of the victorious Christian life than God intended. That would delight Satan, because he doesn’t want us to know the whole truth.

The remedy is easy: Ask the Spirit to illuminate the Scriptures about Himself so you can know Him in all His fullness. He’s the one who will help you find in Christ a life that is radiant, powerful, fragrant, satisfying, and victorious. What are you waiting for?

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Progressive Revelation – John MacArthur

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John MacArthur

“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2).

When Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets [the Old Testament]; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17), He was affirming that Scripture progressed from promise to fulfillment, from partial to complete. We call that progressive revelation.

For example, the Old Testament anticipated Christ’s coming; the New Testament records His coming. The Old Testament writers didn’t understand everything they wrote because it didn’t always apply to their day. That’s why Peter said, “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit” (1 Pet. 1:10-12).

Progressive revelation doesn’t at all imply that the Old Testament is inaccurate. The distinction isn’t in the rightness or wrongness of the revelation, but in its completeness. Just as a child progresses from letters to words to sentences, so God’s revelation progressed from types, ceremonies, and prophecies to final completion in Jesus Christ and the New Testament.

Thought incomplete by New Testament standards, the Old Testament is nonetheless fully inspired by God. That’s affirmed often in the New Testament. Peter tells us that no human writer of the Old Testament wrote of his own will, but only as he was directed by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). Paul added that “all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, [and] for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16, emphasis added).

The Old Testament isn’t all of God’s truth, but all of it is true. And as you progress from the Old to the New, you see God’s character and redemptive plan unfolding in greater detail.

Suggestion for Prayer: Praise God for the fullness of revelation you enjoy in Scripture.

For Further Study:  Memorize 2 Timothy 3:16-17.