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The Holy Spirit
Bible understanding of God’s power
WHO or what is the Holy Spirit? What part does the Holy Spirit occupy in the work of God? These are serious and deep questions. We must conduct our inquiry with reverence because we are searching into the things of God. All of our searching would be useless if God had not encouraged us to find out as much as we can by means of the Bible, which is His authoritative word. Let us discover what He has told us about His Spirit.
At the outset let us clarify whatever mystery or confusion may lie behind the word “Ghost” in the expression “Holy Ghost” in the King James (Authorised) version of the Bible. In Shakespeare’s day “ghost” was a current word for “spirit” and a spiritual adviser was called a “ghostly confessor”. Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit are translations of the same original words. The strange notions which now attach to our word “ghost” are not what the translators intended to convey. Later translations uniformly render the words, “Holy Spirit”.
Several expressions are to be found in the Bible which are descriptive of the Holy Spirit and these include: “The Spirit of God” (Genesis 1:2; Matthew 3:16); “The Spirit of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2; Acts 8:39); “Thy good spirit” (Nehemiah 9:20); “The Spirit of the Lord God” (Isaiah 61:1); “His holy Spirit” (Isaiah 63:10,11); “The Spirit of your Father” (Matthew 10:20); “The Spirit” (John 1:32); “The holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30); and “The power of the Lord” (Luke 5:17). The terms God the Holy Ghost, or God the Holy Spirit, are not to be found in the Bible. Nevertheless, there is clearly a very strong link between God and the Holy Spirit. (We shall not deal here with the doctrine of the Godhead. A very useful treatment of that subject will be found in Jesus – God the Son or Son of God?.) Indeed, the Spirit is said to be “of God”, “of the Lord”, “of the Lord God”, and “of your Father”, in the list of expressions given above. If we make this the starting point of our journey through scripture we shall find that progress is not difficult.
Look at the following descriptions of creation:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth … And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1,2)
“The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7)
“The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” (Job 33:4)
“He hath made the earth by his power … established the world by his wisdom … stretched out the heavens by his discretion.” (Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15)
God’s power in creation
These are but a few of the many evidences in the Bible about the work of God in creation. He alone by His wisdom conceived the wondrous plan, and it was executed by His Almighty power, His Spirit. God is Spirit (John 4:24, RSV), and whatever He does is by His Spirit.
How is creation sustained in existence? Is it a huge clock, wound up by the Almighty and left gradually to run down? Or is the Lord God still involved and concerned with what He has made? The Bible in all its parts tells us that creation is upheld by God and He is everywhere present throughout and within all that He has made. Without Him nothing could exist or continue to exist:
“God that made the world … giveth to all life, and breath, and all things … in him we live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17:24-28)
“If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.” (Job 34:14,15)
“Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.” (Amos 5:8)
God fills His creation. All of its activity is because of His wise and sustaining Spirit, the divine energy working out His gracious purpose. The Spirit is not a “separate” or “other” person. It is God’s own radiant power, ever outflowing from Him, by which His “everywhereness” is achieved. The Spirit is personal in that it is of God Himself: it is not personal in the sense of being some other person within the Godhead.
Writers inspired by God’s Spirit
The scriptures teach us that God has a redemptive purpose for man and for the earth on which he lives. It will come as no surprise to learn that the revelation of that will has come about by God Himself through His Spirit:
“We have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it . No prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:19-21, NIV)
The message is simple. God has revealed His will infallibly by the Holy Spirit upon chosen men called prophets. It was by this means that the scriptures came into existence. Those who wrote were inspired by God’s Spirit and what they set down upon the written page was inspired by God. Therefore, although all the prophets have long since died, we have a totally reliable and wholly inspired word of God in our hands. God still speaks to us therein as surely as He spoke by the mouth of the prophets:
“The holy scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God … that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:15-17)
The word of God provided in this way carries to us the mind of God and all of the glorious attributes associated with His holy name. To resist the message and command of the word of God is to resist God Himself. Indeed, it is to resist the Spirit of God in every sense of that word, including that broader meaning which we imply when we talk, for example, of the “spirit” of an agreement. This is how the Bible describes the resistance of the children of Israel to God’s word through the prophets:
“Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear …” (Nehemiah 9:30)
“In all their affliction he (God) was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them … he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit.” (Isaiah 63:9,10)
“Ye stiffnecked … ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye.” (Acts 7:51)
Clearly, it was not simply the naked power of God that the rebels resisted. They resisted the redeeming love and righteousness of God whether in His prophets or later in the Christ. They refused to humble themselves to serve God. This was the evil spirit of man contesting the Holy Spirit of God.
