The Names and Titles of the Holy Spirit
“In Your Name . . ”
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■ heck the chapel first; she’s probably in there praying.”
That’s what coach Denny Duron would say whenever anyone at Evangel College in Springfield, Missouri, was looking for Suzanne Harthern (now my wife, Suzanne Hinn) for Suzanne is a woman of prayer.
Suzanne’s mother and father, Pauline and Roy, are great ministers of the Gospel, and in fact both of her grandfathers were healing evangelists in England. Suzanne’s parents even tell me that in my preaching and ministering style, I’m very much like her grandfather Charles. Suzanne’s grandfathers were tremendously influenced by the renowned English healing evangelist, Smith-Wigglesworth. It is reported that 19 people were raised from the dead through his ministry. Suzanne’s family was profoundly impacted by this great man of God, and they imparted this influence to her.
As a traveling evangelist in 1978, I had been praying for three years for a woman like Suzanne. I asked the Lord to send me a wife so that I wouldn’t have to search for one. And that’s exactly what He did. In fact,
I was asking God for twenty-one things in a wife, and Suzanne was every one of those twenty-one things and more. For one, I wanted a wife who was a prayer warrior, and Suzanne has been that ever since I’ve known her. Now the other twenty things are between Suzanne and me, but let me tell you more about how the Lord brought us together.
I was ministering in Vallejo, California, in July 1978 for Ronn Haus (now my associate evangelist) when he introduced me to Roy Harthern, Suzanne’s father and the pastor of Calvary Assembly at that time, a large church in Orlando, Florida. He invited me to speak in his church a few weeks later, and we had some tremendous meetings. Our time together was the beginning of a great friendship. But I didn’t meet Suzanne then. She was away for the weekend.
A couple of months later, Ronn Haus invited me to Singapore to attend a conference called “John 17:21” led by David Duplisse. When I arrived in San Francisco, I learned that my flight had been canceled, and that the only way to get to Singapore was on a flight that would go through Thailand and Hong Kong before arriving at Singapore. That meant leaving on Monday and not arriving until Thursday. But I had to be home on Saturday. Now normally I don’t fly 9,300 miles to sit in the audience for one night of an event, but this time I felt the Holy Spirit compelling me to go, so off I went.
I arrived in time for the Thursday night meeting, but frankly I was too tired to get much out of it. When I returned to the hotel, who should I see in the lobby but Roy Harthern. And as the Lord would have it, we sat next to each other during the flight back to the U. S. The Lord used this to really cement our friendship. It
was during that trip that Roy first told me about Suzanne, and during that same trip the Lord told Roy that I was the one who would marry Suzanne.
When Roy returned home, he told Suzanne that he had met the man she was going to marry. When he told her that his name was “Benny Hinn,” she asked, “Who is Benny Hinn?”
Quite apart from all of this, at about this time Suzanne’s grandmother, Lil Skin, received a word from the Lord that Suzanne was to marry someone named “Benny Hinn.” By now Suzanne was really wondering what was going on, and again she asked, “Who is this Benny Hinn?” Lil didn’t know.
I didn’t know about any of this, but when Roy invited me to preach at his church again during Christmas in 1978, I again felt compelled to go. It was then that Suzanne and I met for the first time. The minute I saw her, the Lord told me, “That’s your wife.” And a few months later she was.
And what a precious gift from God she has been to me. She is a spur to my faith, an encourager of my soul, and a fellow minister with me of the Gospel. Because of the reality of the Holy Spirit in her life, she does everything “heartily, as unto the Lord.”
For example, when we had our children, Suzanne put a great deal of time and effort into researching and selecting the names of each of our children. We have three books of names at our house which she used to research the names. We wanted them to have names that they would not only like, but that they would feel proud of, names that would affect their personalities and influence their destinies.
You see, we tell each of our children what their names mean, and inevitably they begin to identify personally, not just with the name, but with the meaning of the name. Suzanne and I also think that it is true that people’s names affects how they feel about themselves. So our children know that we chose their names with great care because we wanted them to know how dear they were to us.
Recently I was having devotions with my four-year- old son, Joshua. I asked him if he knew what his name meant. Of course he did not. So I read to him from the Bible about Joshua, the great leader who possessed the land for Israel. Looking at me with eyes full of wonder and innocence, he asked, “Is that why you named me after Joshua—because He was a great man of God?” “Oh yes, Joshie,” I answered. He said to me with the conviction and finality that only four-year-olds can muster, “I want to be like that.” Oh the joy that welled up inside of me. It was a holy moment.
• My firstborn is Jessica Cheri. Her first name, means “wealthy,” while her middle name means “dear one.” And how wealthy Jessie has made us feel! I don’t believe that anyone realizes the place that children hold in your heart until you have one. And as our firstborn, she became so dear to us so quickly—and is even more dear today.
• My second child is Natasha Pauline. “Natasha” means “God’s gift of joy,” while “Pauline” means “gentle spirit.” Suzanne’s pregnancy with our second child was a difficult one. In the natural, there was a possibility that there could
be problems with the birth—but when Natasha was born she was absolutely perfect. And true to her name, what a gentle gift of joy she has been to us since those difficult months. She is easy-going, a natural entertainer, and she always knows how to make us laugh. And because we have explained the meaning and heritage of her name, she works hard to be a joy giver to those around her.
• My third child and only son is Joshua Benjamin. “Joshua” means “Yahweh is salvation,” while “Benjamin” means “son of my right hand.” My wife had a leading from the Holy Spirit years before Joshua was born that if she should have a son, his name was to be “Joshua.” Then a couple of years before Joshua was born, we were having dinner with our very dear friend Reinhart Bonnke and his wife after a Sunday evening service. Reinhart is one of the greatest evangelists in the world today. A native of Germany, he has been mightily used of God, especially in Africa. We were having delightful fellowship when all of the sudden he got very quiet and serious. Then he uttered the words that Suzanne and I have never forgotten: “God is telling me to tell you that your Joshua is on the way.” If there was any doubt about what we would name our son, it ended right there. His middle name is “Benjamin,” and my prayer is that when he is of age he will assist me and become “the son of my right hand.” I tell him this even today, and he will tell you the same.
• My fourth child is Eleasa. The name “Eleasa” has a double meaning for us. On the one hand, the name means “God is his salvation.” On the other hand, the name hearkens back to Elisha and his boldness to seek a double portion of the Holy Spirit’s anointing. Even before precious Eleasa was born, the Lord Jesus revealed to me that she would be a great prayer warrior and that God was going to pour a double portion of His anointing on her life. As she begins to understand, Suzanne and I will explain the meaning of her name to her, and the promise behind it. I am confident that she will begin to look expectantly for that double portion of God’s presence in her life.
So you see, like so many parents, the names of our children were not chosen at random, they were chosen with a purpose, they were chosen in hope. Even so the names and titles of the Holy Spirit are rich with significance, revealing the eternal nature and immutable character of our sovereign God. And just like you now have more insight into our family because of what I’ve shared with you about the names of my children, you will gain a dynamic insight into the person and work of the Holy Spirit as you study His names and titles. In fact, understanding these names and the passages in which they occur will allow you to appreciate and appropriate His work in new and more powerful ways.
In the last chapter we explored those names and titles for the Holy Spirit that related to His interaction with the Father and the Son. In this chapter we’ll explore some of the names and titles of the Holy Spirit that relate to His work in our lives.
The Spirit of Adoption Something wonderful transpires the moment we believe on Christ as our Savior. We are adopted into God’s family. Instantly, we are given power to become “children of God” (John 1:12). It is a fulfillment of the Father’s great plan. He called us to “adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph. 1:5).
Who arranges for our adoption? It is the Holy Spirit. Paul writes, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption” (Rom. 8:14-15, emphasis added).
Now the concept of adoption points to two great truths, both conveyed through the Holy Spirit. The first one is mentioned above: the great fact of our adoption into God’s family with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities that go with being a member of the family.
The second one is the great fulfillment of adoption, the transformation of our bodies at the Rapture when we receive the promised inheritance: “Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23, emphasis added).
The most wonderful miracle now won’t compare to that great miracle of the Rapture when we’ll exchange our mortal bodies for immortal bodies—bodies that will never be subject to sickness, disease, or death. Don’t get me wrong, until that Day everyone should absolutely
Titles That Relate to the Holy Spirit’s Work in Our Lives
seek their miracle from the Lord. Now what’s the foretaste or firstfruits of this great miracle to come? The Spirit of Adoption! When will our adoption be culminated? When our bodies are redeemed at the Rapture. Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!
The Spirit of Glory
It seems to me more and more evident that Christians are coming under attack in North America. And that these attacks are increasing in intensity as well. We can’t sit idly by and let this happen. That’s why I believe in what I call “violent” faith, faith that isn’t passive, that doesn’t pussyfoot around, that isn’t afraid of what people think or the consequences.
Peter wrote in his epistle to believers in Asia Minor who were experiencing the sting of persecution. He strongly and boldly declared, “If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1 Peter 4:14, emphasis added).
The Holy Spirit speaking through Peter gave these courageous believers two great assurances as they were going through persecution: first, He assured them that they hadn’t done anything wrong or believed anything wrong. Instead their persecution showed that the very Spirit of the Lord rested upon them.
Second, He promised these brave believers that His glory would rest on them, the magnificent glory of God—the same glory that the nation of Israel experienced in the wilderness and appeared as a cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, the same glory that the high priest experienced in the Holy of Holies, the same glory that appeared to the shepherds keeping watch the night the Lord Jesus was born. The same glory that
came upon the Apostles in the Upper Room—is the same glory that will be ours forever when we allow that glory to strengthen us.
Now believe me, I’m no stranger to persecution. When I trusted Christ, my whole family turned against me and ostracized me. But as I held firm, the Holy Spirit came upon me with His glory, energizing my spirit and giving me the strength to go on. And soon my entire family came to know Christ as Savior. Now for all of you hanging tough in the midst of opposition, take heart—the Holy Spirit of glory has promised to rest on you and He will keep His promise!
The Spirit of Grace
Have you taken time lately to reflect on the wonder of salvation? Without salvation we would still be “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world ” (Eph. 2:12, emphasis added). It is God’s grace, His kindness and undeserved favor that reached to us, even when we were His enemies He saved us. It is His grace that covered our guilt with His righteousness. It is His grace that keeps us, for we were saved by grace through faith and kept by grace through faith. It is His grace which brings us to the foot of the cross, unable to brag, able simply to say that our best was as filthy rags in His sight. It is His grace that not only covers our failures—it transforms them into distinctive points of power and ministry. 1 It is because of His grace that He gifts us, enabling us to experience the joy of service, the delight of laboring with the Savior as He builds His Church. It is because of His grace that He puts resurrection power at our disposal, allowing us
to persevere and prevail. It is because of His grace that He rewards us, even in our unworthiness. It is because of His grace that He indwells us, allowing us to experience the richness of moment-by-moment fellowship with the Spirit of the Lord. It is because of His grace that He is returning for us, to transform us and allow us to experience the wonder of all He has prepared for us.
As Paul reflected on God’s grace in salvation, he couldn’t help but break out in a hymn of praise for the grace of God in executing His plan of redemption: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?’ 'Or who has First given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?’ For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:33-36).
How marvelous is the grace of God. And Who do you suppose conveys this grace to us? The Holy Spirit. He ministers grace to us moment by moment.
Yet incredibly some people feel the temptation to abandon the cause of Christ, to forsake the streams of living water for cisterns which hold no water. One of the reasons the book of Hebrews was written was to convince these kinds of people not to do it. The Scripture declares: “Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:28-29, emphasis added).
If rejecting God’s Law brought swift judgment in
Old Testament days, then to directly hold in contempt the Son of God and His sacrifice and the Spirit of God and His grace is too fearful to imagine. The Father will not take lightly the despising of the Son and the Spirit, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).
The Spirit of Grace and of Supplication
There are some people who minimize the importance of Bible prophecy, and even some who make fun of it. Mark Twain said, “If the world comes to an end, I want to be in Cincinnati—things always come twenty years later in Cincinnati.” But it’s important to realize that 25 percent of the Bible is prophetic in nature, an amount equal in size to the entire New Testament. Do you think God would devote 25 percent of His Word to an unimportant subject? I certainly do not.
I am waiting and watching for the Rapture, the inauguration of so many of the great prophetic events of Scripture. Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, said he only had two days on his calendar—today and “that day!” That’s the way I want to be too! I want to live today for “that day.” 2
One of the great prophetic passages of Scripture is Zechariah 12. It describes the reconciliation of the Jewish people with the Savior they rejected. This great event occurs at the Second Coming of Christ. Try to imagine the emotion of this moment.
On the one hand is the Lord Jesus, the rejected King, now returned as Conqueror. The One who said with such emotion, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children to-
gether, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing /” (Matt. 23:37, emphasis added).
On the other hand is the Jewish nation. They have lived through the horrors of the Tribulation. They have seen the awesome power of the glorified Savior returning to earth with His armies to destroy His enemies. And now in a moment of time they realize that the One they had so steadfastly rejected is the precious Son of God and they turn to Him in faith. Who prepared the way for this reconciliation? The Holy Spirit!
More than five hundred years before Christ, the prophet Zechariah had the scene described to him by the Lord: “I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then [or, “so that” in nasb] they will look on Me whom they have pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn” (Zech. 12:10).
When the Lord poured out His Spirit upon His battered and bedraggled people, He broke through their resistance so they could experience God’s favor (grace), and that freed their hearts to call out to Him in repentance.
“Supplication” as used here to describe the Holy Spirit refers “less [to a] formal entreaty . . . than the outpourings of a troubled soul.” 3 Whereas before they hid in caves and cried out to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” (Rev. 6:16), now they went to the Lord in brokenness and love. That’s what the Holy Spirit does, no matter what we’ve done, He helps us come to the Father in freedom and find forgiveness and mercy so abundantly available to all.
The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding
Isaiah 11 is one of those mountain-top passages of Scripture: so powerful and moving. As Isaiah describes the coming of the Messiah, He uses a series of three couplets to describe the work of the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of Christ Jesus:
• The Spirit of wisdom and understanding
• The Spirit of counsel and might
• The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (v. 2)
As part of the God-head, one of the attributes of the Holy Spirit is that He is unchanging. Because of this, we can expect that the Holy Spirit will make manifest these same qualities in us as we allow Him to work.
The first couplet describes Him as, “The Spirit of wisdom and understanding” (Isa. 11:2).
Wisdom is nothing more than living with skill—it is the ability to apply the knowledge of God’s Word in our daily life—and nothing less. It involves using knowledge in the right way to select the proper ends and to achieve those ends in a proper fashion. It involves the application of God’s truth to human experience. Properly mastered, it can lead to a happy and successful life.
This skillful living manifested itself in the life of the Lord Jesus even from His childhood: As a child, Jesus was “filled with wisdom” and “increased in wisdom” (Luke 2:40, 52).
It was also evident in His preaching: “And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, ‘Where did this man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, such that mighty works are performed by His hands!”’ (Mark 6:2). They mar-
veled at the wisdom of His words, the practical skill that His words imparted. And did you notice the connection they made between the wisdom of His teaching and His mighty works: “wisdom . . . that such mighty works are performed by His hands!”? Wisdom is about actions as well as words.
And because wisdom is so rare, the wisdom of the Lord Jesus’ actions routinely baffled and angered those without this wisdom: The Lord Jesus recounted the words of His critics: “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’ But wisdom is proved right by her actions” (Matt. 11:19 Niv). And the mighty, Spirit-led growth of the Church, growing in every continent and country, every village and hamlet, every community and county bears ample testimony to the wisdom of the Master’s strategy. “Wisdom ^justified by all her children” (Luke 7:35, emphasis added).
“Understanding” is about discernment in wisdom, not the accumulation of facts. The idea here is that a person with “understanding” has the insight to choose with skill between the options that come his way. “bin [the Hebrew word for “understanding” in Isaiah 11] is the power of judgment and perceptive insight and is demonstrated in the use of knowledge ” 4
This kind of perception comes from the Holy Spirit, and yet must be diligently sought for by us: “My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden
treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Prov. 2:1-6, emphasis added).
Since this understanding comes from God alone, the wicked are infamous for their lack of ability to perceive the wisdom of the Lord: “The righteous considers the cause of the poor, but the wicked does not understand such knowledge” (Prov. 29:7).
What an incredible comfort these words are! There are many choices, alternatives, and options in the world. It is so difficult sometimes to choose between them. Thanks be to God that through the Holy Spirit we can have the skill in living life, and the discernment to choose between the alternatives we face.
The Spirit of Counsel and Might
In the second of three couplets, Isaiah describes the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of counsel and might” (Isa. 11:2).
With the counsel and might of the Holy Spirit controlling us, our perspective is insightful and fresh, our outlook optimistic. But without it, this present existence is at best dark, dreary, and depressing. Bertrand Russell, one of the foremost atheists of our time described his perspective like this: “The life of man is a long march through night surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, toward a goal that few can hope to reach and where none can tarry long. One by one as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent death. Brief and powerless is man’s life. On him and all his race the slow sure doom falls, pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on
its relentless way. For man, condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gates of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day.” 5
I’m so glad the Holy Spirit as our counselor gives us meaning and fulfillment in life which this ungodly man so obviously needed. But there is no doubt that this shows how the ungodly view life. To us it is sorely bankrupt for there is no meaning to their life.
As the prophet Isaiah emphasized, the Holy Spirit was “the Spirit of counsel and might.” In chapter 11 and verse 2, Isaiah is prophesying again about the coming of the Lord Jesus. It is the counsel and might of the Holy Spirit in the mystery of the Trinity that allows the Lord Jesus to be called “wonderful counselor” and “mighty God” (Isa. 9:6). “The attributes of the Holy Spirit would characterize the Messiah. Because of His wisdom, understanding, counsel, and knowledge He is the Wonderful Counselor” (Isa. 9:6). 6
The Holy Spirit also delights to counsel us. Quit trying to figure it out all by yourself, let the Holy Spirit counsel you. Quit trying to muster the power to gut your way through. With the Holy Spirit, your motto can be, “Not somehow, but triumphantly /”
The great-grandparents of a friend of mine went from a hardscrabble existence in Kentucky to Oklahoma because they heard that it was the land of opportunity. The land they farmed on wasn’t very productive and consequently they never had much to live on. They eked out an existence. Eventually they sold the land and moved to another state.
The person who bought the land from them discovered oil and became wealthy. The reason the land wasn’t
very good for farming was because it was so saturated with petroleum nothing would grow. Think of it! For years these dear people lived near poverty when at their very feet was all they needed, not only to survive—but to thrive! If they had dug a little deeper in the ground a gusher would have come up!
In the same way we have the great resources of the Holy Spirit at our disposal, and yet some of us live our lives in spiritual poverty and frustration, not using the riches that are at our immediate beck and call.
Not only does He give us guidance, but He imparts the strength and energy to carry out His plans. Remember, the Lord Jesus said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8).
The Spirit of Knowledge and the Fear of the Lord
The third couplet in Isaiah 11 describes the Holy Spirit as imparting “The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
Now “knowledge” here refers to the knowledge we gain through our senses, both about how the world works and about God’s moral law. Thus the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to look at the world and perceive His handiwork and purposes in it. The Bible declares that “since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead” (Rom. 1:20). When we are in tune with the leading of the Holy Spirit, we gain a fuller understanding of the world around us, and every day can be a day of awe and wonder.
But not only does He bring knowledge, the Holy Spirit also brings the “fear of the Lord.” This is so
important to understand. Solomon under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov. 1:7).
Now I want to say something, and I don’t want you to misunderstand me. I’m grateful for all the emphasis these days on spiritual warfare. I believe it has made us more sensitive to the spiritual struggles going on around us. But I fear that an unintended result of all this teaching is that men and women now fear the devil more than they fear God. Fear God, and you will not need to fear the devil. You’ll be aware of his power and act accordingly as the archangel Michael did (Jude 8, 9), but you will not fear Him, for “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
By the way, there’s a difference between fearing the Lord and being afraid. Exodus 20 brings this out so beautifully. The nation of Israel is gathered at Mt. Sinai to enter into a covenant relationship with Yahweh and receive the ten commandments from Him. Mt. Sinai was ablaze with “thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud [was] on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled” (v. 16).
In fact, the nation of Israel said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (v. 19).
Then Moses utters these remarkable words: “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning” (v. 20 Niv, emphasis added). He said, don’t be afraid, but fear\ See the difference? They were trembling at God’s power. But what the Father wanted was for them to have a
healthy respect for His power that would lead to a sense of awe which would in turn keep them from sinning. Thus the ‘Tear of the Lord” doesn’t mean being afraid, it means understanding Him and respecting Him such that we live a life of loving obedience.
And who brings this ability to fear the Lord? The Holy Spirit!
The Spirit of Life
I love the words of the Lord Jesus, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Abundant life—there is something so compelling about that. Something that says within us, “Yes, I must have this.” And who ministers this abundant life to us? The Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Now the life that’s being referred to is salvation, but it is also true that “what God promises for eternity, He begins to do in this lifetime. 7
Oh my dear friend, when the Spirit of the Lord comes, He brings life, breaking the power of canceled sin and death as the hymn says. And not just endless life, but better life right now. Paul says, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2).
Are you experiencing all the life the Holy Spirit has for you? Someone gave me this quote, and I think it sums up the issue so magnificently: “I believe that only one person in a thousand knows the trick of really living in the present. Most of us spend fifty-eight minutes each hour either living in the past, regretting for lost joys, or feeling shame for things badly done (both utterly useless
and weakening); or living in the future which we either long for or dread. The only way to live is to accept each minute as an unrepeatable miracle, which is exactly what it is—a miracle that will not be repeated.” 8 The Spirit of the Lord is waiting just now to heal your past, guarantee your future, and liberate you to experience abundant life right now.
The Holy Spirit of Promise
Paul declared that those who trusted Christ as their savior are “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:13, 14). Now I’m going to talk much more about this passage in chapter nine, but for now I want you to notice two things.
First, He is the “Holy Spirit of promise!’ That is, “the promised Spirit.” 9 The Lord Jesus promised in the Upper Room Discourse that He would send the Holy Spirit, but the Lord Jesus made the promise in conjunction with the Father (“whom the Father will send in my name” John 14:26; “I will send to you from the Father . . . who goes out from the Father” John 15:26, 27 Niv). Thus the Holy Spirit was promised by the Father as well, and is termed in Acts 1:4, “the Promise of the Father.” Because of their faith in the words of the Father and the Son, that early band in Jerusalem took God at His word and waited for the Holy Spirit, and God did not disappoint them.
Don’t ever forget that “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Num. 23:19). Some would have you believe that God’s Word, the Bible isn’t true, or isn’t completely true. Regardless of how they
articulate their words, what they’re doing is calling each member of the Godhead a liar. It’s an old saying but a true one, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” And might I add, “I’m going to live like it.” Just like the expectant followers in the Upper Room, take Him at His word in everything He says.
Second , the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us is a promise that one day we will receive all that has been promised and prepared for us: a new body, a new nature, and a new home. The Holy Spirit living within us is demonstrating moment-by-moment that God will one day present us with the full measure of our inheritance.
The Spirit of Truth
One of the great titles ascribed to the Promise of the Father is “The Spirit of Truth.” The Holy Spirit has a specific assignment from God to communicate and impart what is true and valid. The Lord Jesus described Him as “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 14:17).
Not only does He teach truth, He is truth.
• He will teach you the truth about Jesus (the direct meaning of John 14:17). 10
• He will teach you the truth about the Bible. The Lord Jesus declared, “When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13; 1 Cor. 2:10, 11).
• He will teach you the truth about yourself. David was so refreshingly honest when He asked the Lord, “Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults” (Ps. 19:12 Niv). No one can fully
discern their own errors, but as we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and follow His prompting, the areas in our lives that are invisible to us will be refined and sublimated by the Holy Spirit. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18 niv).
The Comforter
I’m going to really go into depth on this in chapter nine, but the meaning of this word is so strong that I want to introduce you to it now. If any of you have had to appear to defend yourself in court or before the government, you know what a harrowing experience it can be. Although our system of justice dictates that a person is innocent until proven guilty, that’s rarely how you actually feel. What you feel is powerless, alone, and hurting. Oh for someone to help you bear the burden.
And this is exactly what the Holy Spirit does. The Lord said, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever” (John 14:16 Kjv). The word “comforter” in the Greek language is Paraclete —meaning “one called alongside to help.” A defense attorney, and an advocate, a helper who will fight your battles, a helper who is so good at what He does that He calms your restless fears.
Mere words are insufficient to express the affection I feel toward the Holy Spirit for the many ways and the many times He has helped me. He truly has been my constant Helper. And when I stand before the people to preach the gospel, He is there helping me. As Paul said,
“My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor. 2:4).
Praise God for our Comforter .