Father, Son and Holy Who?

I am learning many things right now about the Holy Spirit that I never knew before. A couple of weeks ago we had a guest Pastor speak at our church. His topic was the Holy Spirit. A colleague and I are also reading the book, "Hearing God's Voice" by Henry and Richard Blackaby. This Pastor and this book have both put great focus and emphasis onto the Holy Spirit and I thought that I would share some of the new insights I have been given from these two sources.

The Pastor took us back into the old testament and read scripture that indicated that the Holy Spirit is a person, one of the trinity. . . Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Ghost ). The Blackabys write, "The Father is sovereign. He has designed a perfect will for His people. The Father planned for the atonement for sin through the redeeming act of the cross. The Son accomplished the Father's will when he took on physical form and was crucified for humanity's sin. The Son continues to intercede for people with the Father (1 John 2:1). The Spirit takes the will of the Father and the work of the Son and seeks to make them a reality in the believer's life."

I never thought of the Holy Spirit as being a person like God and Jesus, but He is. I also learned that, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was given to people for specific tasks, often manifesting Himself in Godly wisdom, visions into the future and extraordinary strength, all things beyond human abilities. The Holy Spirit came and when the task was completed or the person disobeyed God, He left again or was taken away. King David was the only person in the Old Testament that was given the Holy Spirit at a particular point in his life and was with him for the remainder of his life.

In the New Testament, Jesus promised his followers God's continual presence through the Holy Spirit. When every believer makes their profession of faith in God the Father and Jesus Christ His holy Son, they are given the Holy Spirit to remain with them for the remainder of their lives. The Holy Spirit then does God's work in the lives of every believer. The Blackabys' book goes into great detail regarding the Spirit's work. I would strongly encourage everyone interested in learning about and understanding the Holy Spirit to read this book!

There are many more things that I am learning about the Holy Spirit, however I don't have the time/space to share everything. I do want to share two more things that have been very impactful to me having to do with our response to the Holy Spirit. Again, Blackabys' book identified 5 responses to the Holy Spirit. We can resist the Holy Spirit, Grieve the Holy Spirit (meaning actually causing pain to the Spirit with our sin), Quench the Spirit ( suppress or extinguish the work of the Spirit), Blaspheme the Holy Spirit (openly defying God's Spirit ), and finally be Filled by the Spirit ( living in cooperation and communion with the Holy Spirit, allowing God to move and work in and through us).

I believe that we need to do regular checks on our thoughts, attitudes, and choices to make sure that we are maintaining a good relationship with the Holy Spirit and keeping our heart pure in God's sight. I am really excited about the new insight that God is giving me about His Holy Spirit. I hope that you will do some study on your own to learn more about the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. It's exciting stuff!!