To begin this article, it might help to make a short confession.  I am a Star Wars fan.  I am not a Star Wars fanatic.  I do not blog about it or dress up like the characters.  However, I did own a Star Wars pillow case from the time I was 4 until right before I got married.  There is something about a light-saber blocking a laser beam that makes me feel like a kid again.

The Star Wars movies have an anonymous character in them that is referred to as “The Force.”  It is the living power behind every organism in the universe.  According to one source:

[The Force is] an energy field created by all living things, that surrounds and penetrates living beings and binds the galaxy together.1

 The Force has no mind.  The Force has no personality traits.  The Force has no distinct essence.  The Force just is.  It exists as an emotionless power source that can be tapped into by anyone who knows how. 

I mention this because a lot of Christians today think of the Holy Spirit as “The Force.”  They think the Holy Spirit has no mind.  They think the Holy Spirit has no personality traits.  They think the Holy Spirit has no distinct essence.  He just is.  He is nothing more than an emotionless power source that can be tapped into by anyone who knows.

For instance, the Jehovah’s Witness write this in their Watchtower magazine:

As for the “Holy Spirit,” the so-called “third Person of the Trinity,” we have already seen that it is, not a person, but God’s active force.2

The Jehovah’s Witness believe that the Holy Spirit is a controlled force but not a distinct personality.  He is no more than an active force like electricity.

In an article entitled, “How to Receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit,” Kenneth Copeland says something similar.  He is not as clear but just as dangerous.

When you receive Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, spiritual death is taken from you and you become a new creature in Christ. And without the Holy Spirit, your new birth wouldn’t be possible. But even after you become a new creation, God’s desire and plan is that you receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit . . .3

Copeland then goes on to tell believers how to use this baptism to speak in tongues.

[Just say,] “Heavenly Father, I am a believer. I am Your child and You are my Father. Jesus is my Lord. I believe with all my heart that Your Word is true.

“Your Word says if I will ask, I will receive the Holy Spirit. So in the Name of Jesus Christ, my Lord, I am asking You to fill me to overflowing with Your precious Holy Spirit. Jesus, baptize me in the Holy Spirit.

“Because of Your Word, I believe that I now receive and I thank You for it. I believe the Holy Spirit is within me and, by faith, I accept it.

“Now, Holy Spirit, rise up within me as I praise God. I fully expect to speak with other tongues, as You give me the utterance.”

Now begin giving sound to the expressions in your heart. Speak and hear the Holy Spirit speaking through you.  Rejoice! You’ve just been baptized in the Holy Spirit! You’ve been endued with power—hallelujah!

Kenneth Copeland makes the Spirit sound like “The Force.”4

We could look at other charismatic or Word of Faith teachers who say that you can command the Holy Spirit to give you more money or heal you or make you successful.5  But what does the Bible say about all of this?  What does it teach about the personality of the Holy Spirit?

To answer that, let me give you 5 reasons why the Holy Spirit is a Person.

I. HE IS CALLED A PERSON

One reason the personality of the Spirit is called into question is because the term “Spirit” in the Bible means “wind.”6  It is not like the term “Father” or “Son” where it is obvious that the reference is personal.  Both of these terms refer to a masculine person.  “Spirit” does not do that.  Pneuma, the word most commonly used to refer to the Holy Spirit, is a non-personal word.

The Bible, however, does not merely refer to the Spirit in a non-personal way.  For example, John 14:16-17 says:

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

John 15:26 says: 

When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me . . .

John 16:7-8 says:

But 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 go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment . . .

John 16:12-14 says: 

I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.

John 13-17 is Jesus’ last meeting with all 12 apostles before He is crucified, and one thing that He does in this final meeting is to encourage them.  He tells them that a Counselor will come to them when He is gone.  Another member of the Godhead will take Jesus’ place and minister to them and that other member is referred to with the pronoun “He.”

Not “It” but “He.”  Over and over and over again, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit in this passage as “He.”  He would not do this if the Spirit were a mindless force.  Jesus would only do that if He were a Person.

To add to this, the term “Helper” in John 14:16 and 15:26 is parakleitos, which means “He who comes alongside.”7 It is in the masculine singular in Greek.8  It is one of those great mysteries of the Bible that the Holy Spirit is also a “He.”  The One Who was sent by the Father and the Son9 is as mysterious and unknown as the wind10 but He is also a Person.  He is a distinct individual with His own character and willpower. 

Ephesians 1:13-14 also uses this kind of language when it says:

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

We are sealed by the Holy Spirit unto salvation and the Holy Spirit is a “Who” not an “It.”  He is a Person and not a thing.  As the Puritan John Owen so eloquently told us:

By all these testimonies we have fully confirmed what was designed to be proved by them, namely that the Holy Spirit is not a quality, as some speak, residing in the Divine nature; not a mere emanation of virtue and power from God; not the acting of the power of God in and unto our sanctification, but a holy intelligent subsistent or Person.11

II. HE HAS PERSONALITY TRAITS

The Holy Spirit has the same features and characteristics that a Person has.  Here are a few examples of this.

He has Intelligence

The Holy Spirit has intelligence.  He thinks.  He has a mind that works out problems and receives information.  Romans 8:27 refers to the mind of the Holy Spirit when it says:

And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

A force does not have a mind.  It just exists, but the Holy Spirit is not like that.  He has a mind.  He intercedes.

First Corinthians 2:13 says that the Holy Spirit teaches us spiritual truth in spiritual words. 

Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

Only an intelligent being can teach something and Paul says that the Holy Spirit does that.  He teaches us in words that are not taught by human wisdom.

He has Emotions

There are only a few passages that mention the emotions of the Holy Spirit but Ephesians 4:30 is one of them.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

We can grieve the Holy Spirit.  We can upset the third member of the Trinity.  He lives inside of believers and it grieves Him to watch them sin.

Romans 15:30 says:

Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.

The Holy Spirit can also love, which is something that a non-person could never do.

He has a Will

The Holy Spirit can make decisions.  He can choose between options that are presented to Him.  While the Spirit submits to the will of the Father and the Son, He does have His own will.

First Corinthians 12:11 says:

But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

Acts 16:6-8 tells us that:

They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.

The Spirit gives out gifts according to His will and the Spirit set apart Paul and Barnabas for their ministry.  He forbade them to go to Asia and Bithynia because He has personal traits.  He has intelligence and emotions and a will.

III. HE ACTS LIKE A PERSON

Going along with looking like a Person, the Holy Spirit also acts like a Person.  The Holy Spirit does things that a Person does.  If we were to observe Him in His normal functions, He would not look like a mindless machine.  .

There are a few ways in which the Holy Spirit acts like a Person.

He Teaches 

In John 14:26, Jesus says:

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 that I said to you.

Notice that Jesus does not say, “I will use the Holy Spirit to teach you.”  He says, “The Holy Spirit . . . will teach you all things . . .”

The Spirit will teach and remind the Apostles of all that Jesus has said to them.  As a Person, He has the ability to do that.  He acts on His own independent will. 

He Testifies

John 15:26 says:

When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me . . .

The Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus Christ.  He tells the world Who the Savior is12 and He draws men to the Savior13 by indwelling them14 and baptizing them15 and filling them with His presence.16  He testifies to their conscience by convicting them of sin.17

Romans 8:16 says:

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.

The Holy Spirit testifies to a Christian’s salvation from the inside.  He lives within us and testifies to us that we are indeed children of God.   

He Leads

Romans 8:14 says:

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

This goes alongside the idea of teaching.  One sign that someone is saved is that they are led by the Holy Spirit.18  Believers make mistakes but they have a Divine Teacher Who protects them from making eternal mistakes.  The Holy Spirit shows us that we are sons of God.19

He Restrains

Genesis 6:3 gives an example of the Holy Spirit restraining men in the past. 

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

This world would be a lot worse than it already is if the Holy Spirit did not restrain people from their sin.  The idea of the Holy Spirit “striving with man” means that He keeps men from giving in to their depravity.  He works with them.  He contends with them.  He keeps them from being as bad as they could be.  

Genesis 6:3 shows that there are times when the Spirit will temporarily stop doing that.  Romans 1 gives us a picture of what it looks like for the Holy Spirit to remove His restraining grace.

Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural . . .

Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents . . . (vv. 24-26, 29-30).

The worst thing that God could do is give men over to their sins.  The worst thing that He could do is withdraw His Spirit.  He restrains this evil world.

IV. HE RELATES TO OTHER PERSONS

Relationships are part of what it means to be a person.  A person interacts with other people.  He talks with them.  He listens to them.  He gets to know them.  The Force in Star Wars never related to anyone, but the Scriptures tell us that the Holy Spirit did.

Acts 15:28 tells us how He related to the Apostles:

For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials . . .

Here the Holy Spirit sends Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey.  It was His prerogative to send them.  He does that on His own initiative and, in doing so, He relates to them.

Concerning the ministry of Jesus, Luke 4:14 says:

And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.

The Holy Spirit gave Jesus His power.  To become a man, Jesus temporarily gave up some of His divine attributes20 and, therefore, the Holy Spirit gave Him power.  He allowed Jesus to use His strength to perform miracles.21

Romans 15:13 says that this power can be given to believers today.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

First Corinthians 2:4 says:

And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

Notice in all of these passages that it is the Spirit’s power that does this; it is not the Spirit Who is a power.  The Holy Spirit is a Person Who has power.  Power belongs to Him.  He does not simply identify Himself with power.  The power is His and He uses it to interact with other people.

V. HE REACTS TO OTHER PERSONS

Not only does the Holy Spirit relate to other people but He also reacts to other people.22  He responds to what they do.  He lets them know that He is there and that He is interested in what is going on in their lives.  The Holy Spirit does not minister to us as a doormat that can be kicked and thrown about.  He shows that He is a Person.

We see this in His emotions like we discussed earlier.  Hebrews 10:29 says that the Spirit can be insulted by our sins.

How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Isaiah 63:10 says that the Spirit can be grieved.

But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them.

Second Corinthians 13:14 says that the Holy Spirit can also have fellowship with us.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

Fellowship with God is “A relationship between a believer and God that involves sharing of common concerns, interests, and values.”23  As the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and grows us in holiness, He fosters this in us.  He brings us closer to God.  The Spirit can draw us closer to God and closer to others.

The Holy Spirit also demonstrates His Personality by reacting to people’s sins against Him.  In Acts 5, Peter says that Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit when they said that they had sold all of their property and given it to the church.

And Peter responded to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price?” And she said, “Yes, that was the price.” Then Peter said to her, “Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.” And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last, and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband (vv. 8-10).

The Holy Spirit can be lied to.  It does not do much good to do that because the Spirit is God and He knows everything but, as a Person, He can be lied to. 

As Acts 5 demonstrates, He can also put people to death.  He reacts to what other people do, sometimes quite violently.  He does not look the other way when we sin against Him.  He does not shrug it off and say, “Who cares?”  He reacts.

CONCLUSION

Why does all of this matter?  Why does it matter that the Holy Spirit is called a Person and looks like a Person and acts like a Person and relates to other persons and reacts to other persons? 

It matters because it shows us how much the Holy Spirit loves us.  He came down to the earth as a servant.  He does the will of the Father and the Son by coming alongside of wicked sinners and living inside of them and sanctifying them.  He cleanses them of sin and removes their impurities.

And He does all of this as a Person.  He does it all by His own free will.  No one forces Him.  No one makes Him do this, which shows how much He loves us. 

The Father showed His love for us by sending us His Son.24  The Son showed His love for us by dying on the cross in our place. 25 But the Spirit shows His love by going through our day-to-day lives with us.  He shows His love by convicting us when we do wrong and encouraging us when we do right.  He shows His love by walking with us through the muck and the mire of this wicked world.

He does it all as a Person.  As a sovereign Person.26  As God, He can do whatever He wants and He wants to come down to earth and seal us for the day of redemption.27

He wants to regenerate our hearts28 and live within us.29  He wants to enable us to live to the spirit and die to the flesh.30  This is why His Personhood is so important.  He does all of this by His own free will.  He does all of this because He loves us.

 

 

1. www.wikipedia.org as of 8/14/14. While it is not always safe to use Wikipedia as a reference, I did not think there was any harm in using it as a Star Wars reference. [↩]
2. The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life (Brooklyn, N. Y.: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1968) 24. [↩]
3. www.kcm.org as of 8/14/14. Kenneth Copeland, “How to Receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.” [↩]
4. Ibid. [↩]
5. Norvel Hayes, Prostitute Faith (Tulsa, Okl.: Harrison House Publishers, 1988) 22-23. While he does not mention the Holy Spirit’s name, Hayes sums up this idea: “You aren’t supposed to talk to Jesus about it. You are supposed to talk directly to the mountain in Jesus’ name – whatever the mountain is in your life . . . Do you have a financial mountain in your life? Start talking to your money. Tell your checkbook to line up with God’s Word. Talk to your business. Command customers to come into your business and spend their money there. Talk to the mountain!” [↩]
6. G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (New York: T & T Clark, 2001 ed.) 367-368. [↩]
7. Ibid., 340. Parakleitos can also mean “advocate, pleader, intercessor.” [↩]
8. William Douglas Chamberlain, An Exegetical Grammar of the Greek New Testament (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1948) 23-27. Os is the ending for a masculine singular noun in Greek. [↩]
9. Jn 14:26; 15:26. [↩]
10. Jesus says in John 3:8, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” [↩]
11. Quoted in Arthur W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit (Memphis, Tenn.: Bottom of the Hill Publishing) 11. [↩]
12. George Beasley-Murray, John in Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999) 276. Murray writes, “The Spirit’s task is to ‘bear witness’ concerning Jesus.” [↩]
13. Rom 8:28-30; 1 Pet 2:9. [↩]
14. Rom 8:9; 1 Cor 3:16; 2 Cor 6:16; Gal 4:6. [↩]
15. Rom 6:3; 1 Cor 12:13; Gal 3:26-27. [↩]
16. Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 6:2-4; Eph 5:18-19. [↩]
17. Jn 16:8-11. [↩]
18. Robert Haldane, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans (Mac Dill, Flo.: MacDonald Publishing Company, 1958) 351. Robert Haldane explains what it means to be led by the Spirit. “In spiritual things we are as little children, who, on account of their weakness, have need to be led by the hand that they may not fall. It is necessary, then, that believers be led by the Spirit of God. The manner in which the Spirit leads them is not by violence against their inclination, but by bending and changing their will, in a manner consistent with its nature. When Jesus Christ says, ‘No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me, draw Him,’ it is not meant that God forces against their will those whom He draws, but it shows us that we are naturally so indisposed to go to Jesus Christ, that it is necessary that God, by His Spirit, draw us to Him, and that by His secret but powerful influence He changes our resistance into consent . . . This leading of the Spirit consists, too, in enlightening our understandings, as Jesus Christ says, ‘When He the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth.’” [↩]
19. For more information about the leadership or guidance of the Holy Spirit, see “The Holy Spirit Today, Part 2” in this edition of JTST. [↩]
20. Millard J. Erickson, The Concise Dictionary of Christian Theology, Revised Edition (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2001) 109. This is known as the Kenosis or “Christ’s emptying himself of equality with God, thus becoming functionally subordinate to God, without giving up the attributes of deity.” [↩]
21. Jesus acknowledged this Himself when He said in Matthew 12:28, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” [↩]
22. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit is not sovereign. This means that the Holy Spirit is sovereign and a Person.  The same dynamic occurs in Genesis 18 when the Lord allows Abraham to bargain with him for the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Originally, He said that He would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if He could not find 50 righteous people there (vv. 23-26) but Abraham talked Him down to 10 (vv. 32). This does not mean that Abraham changed God’s mind. It means that, as a Person, God revealed Himself to Abraham and allowed Abraham to see that there were not even 10 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah. [↩]
23. Erickson, 67. [↩]
24. Jn 3:16-17; Rom 5:6-11; 1 Jn 4:10. [↩]
25. Gal 2:20. [↩]
26. 1 Cor 12:11 says that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to “each one individually just as He wills.” [↩]
27. Ephesians 4:30 says “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” [↩]
28. John 3:5-8 says that new life comes through the work of the Holy Spirit. For more information about the Spirit’s role in regeneration, see “The Holy Spirit Today, Part 1.” [↩]
29. Rom 8:9; 1 Cor 3:16; 2 Cor 6:16; Gal 4:6. [↩]
30. Romans 8:3-5 says, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” [↩]