God shows up in the very first verse of the Bible. He is the creator. When he says, “Let us make man in our image,” we learn he is a plural God.
God is first introduced as a Father to his children in Exodus 4.
Jesus, the son of God, emerges in the New Testament, bringing long awaited salvation.
But who is the third person of the trinity? He isn’t a father. He isn’t a son. He is a spirit. Maybe that’s why we have a hard time identifying with him. Our physical mind is able to visualize a father and a son. But the Holy Spirit is different. He seems ethereal, even ghostly.
Erroneous teaching regarding him has pervaded the people of God. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of “Christian Science,” described the third person of the Trinity as “Divine Science” (n.d., 55). Parley Pratt, an early leader of the LDS movement, described the Holy Spirit as a force like “magnetism” or “electricity.” He further spoke of the Spirit as “a divine fluid” and “impersonal energy” (see Jackson 1993, 26).
But the scripture is clear that he isn’t science or a force of energy. He is a person of God. Holy writing reveals a lot about who he is and what he does. I think it’s time to tell the truth about him and give a face to the neglected God.
The Holy Spirit is a helper and a teacher.
“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 that I have said to you.” John 14:26
The Holy Spirit is an intercessor.
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Romans 8:26
The Holy Spirit dwells in the believer.
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 1 Cor. 3:16
The Holy Spirit is the guarantor of our salvation.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Eph 1:13
The Holy Spirit is God’s love.
…God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:5
The Holy Spirit renews our soul.
He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5
Let these few precursory verses serve as an introduction to who the Holy Spirit is, what he does and how he works for you and through you. He is God and He is yours.
