Let me give an overview of who the Holy Spirit is and what He does.

• Holy Spirit is a Person—has intellect, emotion and will. He talks to us (Acts 13:2; 16:6; Rev. 2:7). He can be grieved (Eph. 4:30; Heb. 10:29)
• Holy Spirit is God. His name is interchangeable with God (Acts 5:3–4; Luke 1:35). He knows everything (1 Cor. 2:10–11) and does only what God can do (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 104:30).

• He is a member of the Trinity. He is distinct from the Father and Son (Rom. 1:4; Matt. 28:19). He is not another name for God. He talks to the father (Rom. 8:26), and is sent from the Father and Son (John 14:16, 26; 16:7).He inspired Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16) and reveals truth.
• Transformation only happens through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8–11).Helps us speak in difficult situations to bear witness (Mark 11:13; Luke 12:12).
• As Paraclete he gives us strength (John 14–16; Acts 9:31; 13:2; 15:28; 1 Cor. 2:9–10; 1 John 5:6–8) in times of trials and tempations.
• Holy Spirit gives us power to witness, draws people to God through conviction of sins, and believers closer to Jesus (Acts 1:8; John 16:7–11; 1 Thess. 1:5; Rom. 8:26; Eph. 3:16–19).
• By his power, we abound in hope (Rom. 15:13).
• By his power, we exercise spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:7).
• Has made our hearts his home (1 Cor. 3:16).

The Significance of Spirit in Scripture

The Spirit was involved in creation, in extraordinary works through ordinary leaders, in the preaching of the prophets, and in the birth, life, and ministry of Christ (e.g., Preaching, Healing, and Deliverance [PhD]). “Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region” (Luke 4:14). Not forgetting on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) when the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples, powerful preaching and church growth happened.

Indeed, we cannot read the Scripture especially the New Testament without encountering the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the believers. In the book of Acts (often called Acts of the Spirit) interruptions and disruptions (used in a positive sense) took place that made people “sigh and wonder” because of the work of the Disruptor we call Holy Spirit. “One quickly gains a sense from the Bible that wherever the Holy Spirit is found in the lives of people, strange and wonderful things are likely to happen at any moment” (Gordon McDonald).

No other religion has anything that corresponds to the Christian doctrine of the Spirit. “He who does not know God the Holy Spirit cannot know God at all,” said Thomas Arnold. The Holy Spirit has been given as a present down payment (Eph. 1:14) of God “which is the present experience of divine glory and presence, to be fully shared in the final consummation of eternal glory.” J. Robertson McQuilkin makes an excellent observation when he remarked,

To neglect the Spirit is sad. He’s the source of all spiritual blessings! The Spirit is the administrator, the executive officer, of our triune God. He’s the one commissioned to take a broken piece of humanity like me and transform it into the likeness of God Himself, a fit companion for the Holy One.^[1]

O Holy Spirit come upon me,

Pour Your grace and Your glory all around,

Now as at Jesus’ feet I am bowing,

Let the fire of heaving flood this holy ground.

As I lift my hands in full surrender,

Fill my life and lips with highest praise:

Come fill me now! Come fill me now!

Holy Spirit come upon me,

That my Jesus—my Lord and Savior, Jesus–

Fill all my ways, all my days.^[2]

The Work of the Holy Spirit

Spirit in the New Testament was an experience before it became a doctrine. The absence and presence of the Holy Spirit can be felt. . . . The Holy Spirit is not a dispensable extra [donum superadditum]. (James Dunn)

No one can do anything Christian . . . except by the Holy Spirit. (John Stott)

You might as well try to hear without ears, or breathe without lungs, as try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God in your heart. (D. L. Moody)

The Christian is a Spirit-anointed, Spirit-dipped, Spirit-saturated, Spirit-dominated man. (William Barclay)

The Christian living and ministry (be it living above circumstances, witnessing, mentoring, preaching, teaching, or leading) is dependent on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. When we face difficulties, discouragement, and disappointments in the ministry, we need the Empowering Spirit to encourage us.

Why is acknowledging the Holy Spirit and work of the Holy Spirit and appropriating his power important for Christians? Let me give you a few compelling reasons.

One, the word “Spirit” is ruach (Hebrew) and pneuma (Greek) which means wind or breath. The Spirit is the breath of life. Without breath, there is no life. Without it, we die. Spiritual life is not a natural achievement but a result of the activity of the Holy Spirit. “For the Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4).

Two, all Christians are recipients of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; cf. Acts 10:45). “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ” (Rom. 8:9).

Three, the mark of a New Testament church is the presence of the Holy Spirit. The churches in Judea walked in the fear of the Lord and comfort of the Holy Spirit (Act 9:31). In Antioch, believers were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:52). “All spiritual blessings which come into the life of the believer or the church are by the agency of the Spirit.”^[3] This means that the “true test of a church is not statistics but absence or presence of the Holy Spirit.”

The church tends to become institutionalized, formalized, and secularized. For many people, joining a church is on the same level as joining a club, and may be done for business and social advantages rather than as a spiritual experience and expression.^[4]

Four, Scripture gives us five [VW1] imperatives/commands (rather than suggestions or recommendations) related to the Holy Spirit:

1. Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19)
2. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30)
3. Walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25; Keep in step with the Spirit’s direction)
4. Pray in the Spirit (Eph. 6:18; 1 Cor.14:15; Jude 20)
5. Be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18; be receptive, responsive, open to a fuller experience of the Spirit.

Five, spiritual understanding of the Word of God is impossible without the illumination of the Holy Spirit. How does a believer obey God if he doesn’t understand what God says in his Word?

Six, the Holy Spirit is connected to different aspects of the Christian life such as shown in Scripture (e.g., prayer, preaching, sending, commissioning, baptism, and laying of hands). After prayer, the place was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31). Peter and John prayed for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:15). After Peter preached, the Holy Spirit fell upon the people (Acts 10:44; 11:15). While the prophets and teachers were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit told them to set Paul and Barnabas apart. Baptism too (Acts 10:45; 19:5–6). Laying of hands was connected to the Holy Spirit. Paul received his sight and Holy Spirit after the laying of hands by Ananias. The other apostles had the Spirit of Christ (another name for the Holy Spirit) and laid hands on others who received the Spirit.

Seven, the Holy Spirit is symbolised in several ways in Scripture. First, as water (Heb. 10:22) symbolising spiritual refreshment (cf. see Isa. 41:18), washing and cleansing from sin, and thirst quenching (cf. John 4:13–14). Second, as a dove (recorded in the four gospels—Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32), a picture of innocence and purity. Third, as wind (Acts 2:2). In the same way that wind is invisible but its effects can be felt, so also the Holy Spirit and his work (see also John 3:7–8). Fourth, as fire (Acts 2:1; 3–4), purifying and cleansing. Fifth, as oil (Ps. 45:7), the Holy Spirit was involved in the anointing of Old Testament prophets, priests, and kings, to consecrate them for their work (see also Acts 10:36 and James 5:14).

Finally, it is good to remember that the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is the foretaste of the heavenly glory of being with God. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of God which is the present experience of divine glory, to be fully shared in the final consummation of eternal glory.^[5] As John Stott remarked,

The Christian faith and life depend entirely on the Holy Spirit: he convicts us of sin, he opens our eyes to see the truth as it is in Jesus, he causes the new birth to take place, he bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, he transforms us into the image of Christ, he is the earnest of our final inheritance, and so on. Every stage and every part of the Christian life is impossible without the Holy Spirit.^[6]