The Trinity Doctrine in Scripture by Terrence J. Hatch - HTML preview

CHAPTER 18

The Holy Spirit is the Living God

Isaiah calls the Holy Spirit He and Him: Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding? [Isaiah 40:13-14]

The apostle John also refers to the Holy Spirit as He and Him:

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you.

[John 14:16-18]

The comforter is the Lord God. No one would say he was just a force:

So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

“I, even I, am He who comforts you.” [Isaiah 51:11-12a]

The Holy Spirit will teach you:

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 things that I said to you. [John 14:26]

The Holy Spirit prays for us in sync with God’s will:

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Our spirit knows our mind, and God’s Spirit knows his mind. The Holy Spirit has knowledge, and teaches us:

For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have

been freely given to us by God. [1 Corinthians 2:11-13]

The Holy Spirit reproves, guides, speaks, hears, reveals, and glorifies Christ:

Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. [John 16:7-15]

The Holy Spirit can be lied to, and is God: But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?

While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” [Acts 5:3-4]

The Holy Spirit can express desires: For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things. [Acts 15:28]

The Holy Spirit exercises authority: Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. 7

After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. [Acts 16:6-7]

The Spirit if God is the Spirit of Christ, and he lives in God’s people:

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will

also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. [Romans 8:9-11]

The Lord God is the Holy Spirit: Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. [2 Corinthians 3:17]

God is Spirit:

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” [John 4:24]

* * *