The Misunderstood Holy Spirit

We cannot afford to be wary of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, may be the most misunderstood and biggest victim of prejudice in human history.

To address the confusion, let’s start here: The Third Person of the Holy Trinity should not be consigned to history. He did not stop working when the final compilation of the Bible was completed in the fourth century. And the Spirit is not the source of weirdness that exists in some Charismatic and Pentecostal circles. We humans can be weird all on our own.

Furthermore, I empathize with anyone who reads Acts 2 and shrugs their shoulders, lays down their Bible, and walks away not knowing what to make of the coming of the Holy Spirit. It makes sense to me that when many of us read about the gifts of the Spirit in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12-14, or Ephesians 4, it is not clear how to use those gifts for the edification of the church and to serve the world.

What are we to do with our individual and collective uncertainty about the person and work of the Spirit?

This is what both rouses and settles my heart: I trust Jesus. He is utterly reliable in every aspect of life. It is his words that make the person and work of the Spirit central to the life of the church:

I am going to send you what my Father has promised [the Holy Spirit]; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.

Luke 24:49

I tell you I am going to do what is best for you. This is why I am going away. The Holy Spirit cannot come to help you until I leave. But after I am gone, I will send the Spirit to you.

John 16:7

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that he breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

John 20:21-22

Jesus thought the power, gifts, and fruit of the Holy Spirit were the crucial, difference-making elements of the church’s life and ministry.

Yet even with Jesus’ clear vision regarding the indispensable role of the Spirit, I know lots of people are worried about engaging with the Spirit. Some of us have been hurt in charismatic churches. Others have witnessed excesses of various kinds in worship settings. And tragically, church members have been victims of abuses of power tied to spiritual gifts.

But, even with all that, it is helpful, even healing, to consider this: The Holy Spirit is grieved as easily by being ignored as he is by excesses. We cannot be authentic Christians or faithful to Jesus’ vision of the role of the Spirit while holding at arm’s length the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.

In fact, the biblical sweep of the Spirit’s work is awesome: He works in creation; supervises history; reveals God’s truth; draws people to Jesus; teaches the way of Jesus; reveals the love of God to our hearts; gives power and authority; equips with gifts; and transforms our hearts via his fruit.

We live, by God’s plan and purpose, in the age of the Holy Spirit.

J.I. Packer said, “The essence of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is that as Jesus’ deputy and representative agent in Christian’s minds and hearts, he mediates the personal presence and ministry of the Lord Jesus.”

We cannot afford to ignore or be wary of the Spirit. We need the mediated presence of Jesus.