The concept of prayer is a mystery that the finite minds of man have, at least in my opinion, difficultly grasping.  Prayer is seen throughout the entirety of the Bible, and thus there are many avenues in which prayer could be understood.  Within this article the role of the Holy Spirit in the prayers of believers will be briefly examined. Read the rest of this entry →

Mention the Holy Spirit among modern day Christians, and the subject of spiritual gifts will not be far away.  Three passages of Scripture (Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12) list a variety of gifts which are present in the church. 1 Corinthians 12:7 tells us that “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good”, meaning that the Spirit of God is present in each of the gifts. Read the rest of this entry →

A plaque hanging on the wall at the YMCA uses the words “that they all may be one” (John 17:21) to speak of the unity that exists between all races and religions through the teachings of Jesus. Such a pluralistic statement clearly reveals that the plaque’s creators do not get it.  1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
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In the Baptist circles that we travel in, it could be said that there are some words associated with the Holy Spirit that make us slightly uncomfortable. Ok, let’s be honest, due to the rise of Pentecostal theology, they make us very uncomfortable. Indwelling is a word we seem comfortable with but as we move towards words like filling and baptism our theological ground begins to shake. Often we simply say something like, “they all mean the same thing and praise God for that. Now let’s all take our dish to pass and go eat.” These words do not need to strike us with fear but with joy…a joy unspeakable. For the work of the Holy Spirit is for the glory of God and our enjoyment of Him. Read the rest of this entry →

The work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is by a wide margin more connected to life after conversion than before.  There is, however, a work that he has prior to conversion.  He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8).  And even though there is scant teaching on it, it is essential; the larger work for believers would never occur if there were no activity to make such believers in the first place. Read the rest of this entry →

Attempting to understand the oneness of God, the Trinitarian Father, Son, and Spirit, is a daunting task in itself; moreover, trying to understand how the Spirit relates individually to the Christ while He was on earth seems to press the issue even further.  Within this article the concept of the mono-God will be examined in light of the individual relations between the Spirit and Christ, who are both the “one” God.  How can it be that the Spirit is said to come upon Christ (who is God), when the Spirit, in the Trinitarian sense, is already God Himself? Read the rest of this entry →

In the New Testament we read about believers being baptized, filled, and gifted by the Holy Spirit, but what was his role in the Old Testament?  What did the Holy Spirit do in the Old Testament? Perhaps a better question would be “what didn’t he do?” Read the rest of this entry →

Genesis 1:2 says, “…and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”  Have you ever wondered what each member of the trinity did when the world was created?  Genesis 1 says God is the one who spoke creation into existence, Colossians 1:16 says that by the Son “all things were created”, but what of the Spirit? Read the rest of this entry →

In many ways the question of the Holy Spirit is parallel to the issues we have already looked at with regard to the person of Christ.  Like Christ, in the ancient church the Spirit was often held to be subordinate to the Father.  In marked contrast to the pagan world, Judaism, and Christianity following it, held firmly to monotheism.  To safeguard the monarchy, both Christ and the Spirit were thought of as lesser than God (the Father) in some way.  Otherwise how could one avoid polytheism?  In the fourth century the problem of a plurality in God issued in a full Trinitarianism, with the person of Christ as the focal point of a long and bitter controversy.  Once theology figured out the necessity of Christ’s full deity and worked out an explanation for how God could be dual, the biblical triadic pattern of Father, Son, and Spirit naturally carried the Spirit’s deity almost as a matter of course. Read the rest of this entry →

And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”                                                                  John 20:22

The Holy Spirit is often the least studied and thus the least understood member of the Trinity. A. W. Pink in his book entitled The Holy Spirit says Read the rest of this entry →