Holy Spirit Series 2

The Holy Spirit: Who Is He? Our problem in understanding

To begin, let me first clear one thing: we must understand that we are dealing with a topic that is not of this world and therefore does not conform to the laws that govern it i.e. The Holy Spirit is not governed and or is limited by the laws that exist in this world. Therefore, it would be unwise to restrict concepts because they seem impossible!

               In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is largely unknown because His work was not among men but rather upon specific men – The Prophets and some of the Old Testament heroes, who by the power granted spoke for God and even carried out amazing works that cannot be attributed to within the scope of man’s abilities. People were never introduced to the Holy Spirit, however He still was known by some on a personal level. Take the psalm of David as a prime example: “Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me” Ps 51:11. David knew the Holy Spirit well enough to have prayed such a prayer; a prayer that came after he committed adultery with Bathsheba followed by the murder of Uriah her husband. This revelation could have been given by God directly, because of the deep relation David had with Him. The Bible in Genesis 1:2 is the fist verse that introduces us to the Holy Spirit. This was a revelation given by God to Moses, who then made an account of it. The work and the presence of the Holy Spirit is there for all to see throughout the Old Testament, and cannot be refuted. He most commonly referred to as ‘The Spirit of The Lord’. We are currently in the New Testament age and know more about the Holy Spirit because He has been given to us. I will be explaining this as we go on.

                    The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. It is taught that He is separate Being yet is One with Him. He has His own personality, character, will, feelings etc. We are taught that He is a person. By doing this people get confused as to how this is possible that One God has 3 distinct personas. People try to grasp the idea using common understanding, where they try to relate God to man in his limitations. To add to this confusion we had various scholars who try to discredit the Bible and state that the Old Testament is a concoction of legends from other cultures that existed prior to the Biblical writings.
               When people genuinely ask their doubts the most common answers I've come across are “There are somethings things that man is not supposed to know and so is not revealed in the Bible” or “We cannot understand how somethings are in the spirit realm because they are beyond our understanding.” Well both answers are correct in their own terms but they do not hold water.  

                    Jesus said that He came to show us the Father John 14:7-10 i.e. if we know Him we also know the Father. This would mean that Jesus was the whole representation of God while He was one the earth Colossians 1: 19 and 2:9; God in the Flesh John 1:14. Now how did God become flesh? Did He have to leave Heaven to do so? If God was here on earth as Jesus then to whom is Jesus praying? If Jesus prayed to God then would not that mean that Jesus is not God? So many questions can arise and they do arise. These questions are some of the toughest questions that people ask and leave the Christian answerless. Honestly, even if we were to answer these questions, how is it going to help people? Will the answer give them salvation? Are people willing to follow Christ if they get an answer? According to me there will always be questions and most often these are asked for the sake of arguments to deny the Bible and the Christian faith.

                     What we are talking about are eternal truths, it does not matter what we think because it will always be as it is. Try explaining the concept of gravity to a child, it does not matter whether the child believes it or not. How God chooses to represent Himself or in what form He exists is irrelevant. However, as a child of God you can ask Him to reveal Himself to you based on your relationship with Him and I believe that the God who revealed Himself to David, Moses and the rest of the Prophets will reveal Himself to you.