How To Understand The Holy Spirit
When we begin to understand the Holy Spirit, we start to understand God’s character. We begin to search after God’s heart more intentionally and discover God’s hand over all the things in our lives. As a result, we begin to trust God with whatever direction he takes us on. But in order to understand the Holy Spirit, we first need to look at when he first appears in scripture, who the Holy Spirit is, and the Holy Spirit’s purpose.
The first mention of the Holy Spirit in scripture is found in Genesis 1:2.
“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
This is important to note because the Holy Spirit has always been in existence from the beginning of time as part of the Trinity.
In the New Testament, we first see the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus after his baptism.
“One day Jesus came to be baptized along with all the others. As he was consumed with the spirit of prayer, the heavenly realm ripped open above him and the Holy Spirit descended from heaven in the visible, tangible form of a dove and landed on him. Then God’s audible voice was heard, saying, “My Son, you are my beloved one. Through you I am fulfilled.” – Luke 3:21-22”
The reason for God’s audible voice was not for the sake of Jesus, but rather the onlookers so they did not question or doubt that God was at the center of everything Jesus did.
Since God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all one, no part of this Trinity is greater than the others. They all have specific roles to fulfill in allowing us to understand who God is. The role of the Holy Spirit is to dwell within each believer and open their eyes to the things of God whether in scripture, in nature, or in whatever way God sees fit. We do not see Jesus becoming indwelt with the Holy Spirit because he was already fully God and had the Spirit from the beginning. As humans, however, we are born into our sinful nature and require a moment of faith and trust in Jesus. It is in this moment that we are baptized in the Holy Spirit. This baptism initiates the indwelling of the Holy Spirit throughout a believer’s life.
The role of dwelling inside each believer is what helps us begin to understand the purpose of the Holy Spirit, and that purpose is to glorify God.
“But when the truth-giving Spirit comes, he will unveil the reality of every truth within you. He won’t speak his own message, but only what he hears from the Father, and he will reveal prophetically to you what is to come. He will glorify me on the earth, for he will receive from me what is mine and reveal it to you. Everything that belongs to the Father belongs to me—that’s why I say that the Divine Encourager will receive what is mine and reveal it to you. – John 16:13-15 ”
Martin Luther, the famous leader of the Reformation, encourages people to
Once we begin to recognize the Holy Spirit, he provides discernment over each situation we find ourselves in. He is the voice within us telling us to go left or right. The important thing to remember is that since the Holy Spirit’s purpose is to glorify God, he will never contradict anything God says.“learn to recognize the Holy Spirit — to know that his mission is to present to us the priceless Christ and all his blessings; to reveal them to us through the Gospel and apply them to the heart, making them ours.” (Luther, The Gift of the Holy Spirit)”
When being led by the Spirit, people throughout history have argued over whether or not something is of the Spirit or not. Praise be to God for the Holy Bible, because the answers to all life are found within these words. And since the Holy Spirit is the one who enlightens each believer to the truth when a believer reads scripture, we should continually seek after God with every word he has inspired in the Bible. If the Holy Spirit’s purpose is to eternally glorify God, that should be our same vision.
In Psalm 86:11-13, David prayed,
“Teach me more about you, how you work and how you move, so that I can walk onward in your truth until everything within me brings honor to your name. With all my heart and passion I will thank you, my God! I will give glory to your name, always and forever! You love me so much and you placed your greatness upon me. You rescued me from the deepest place of darkness, and you have delivered me from a certain death.”
Praise be to God for sending the Holy Spirit to teach and enlighten us on the things of God. May our prayer forever and always be these same resounding words of David.