Who is the Holy Spirit? What does He do? When does the Holy Spirit come to dwell in believers? And how to be filled with the Spirit? This article will go into depth about the Holy Spirit of truth and power.
He is God
First, the Holy Spirit is God, and He created the world with Jesus and God the Father. In the beginning, God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit created the heavens and the earth. The following verses show that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were present and involved with creation from the beginning.
Referring to Jesus, the Bible says: “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:13-16).
The Holy Spirit (or Spirit of God) was present during creation as well: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light…
Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…’ ” (Genesis 1:1-3, 26).
God is spirit and in three Persons (or beings) (John 4:24). God is three distinct Persons. But God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit act in unity; they have the same characteristics and power, and have the same good will toward mankind. God is One in the sense that God is united. Humans sometimes refer to being one as being on the same team. Similarly, God is One (Mark 12:29), meaning God is united in the Trinity = Tri (3) + unity.
Jesus talked about oneness in the sense of unity when He prayed: “Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are” (John 17:11).
The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity. Although the Holy Spirit is just as infinite, powerful, loving, and wise as God the Father and God the Son, He chooses to give glory to the Father and the Son instead of Himself. The Holy Spirit does not glorify Himself but He gives glory to Jesus.
Jesus said: “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 16:13-14).
He, not it
Now that we know the Holy Spirit is God, we should not think of Him as a force. He is not like a spiritual force, and He is not an “it”. Please do not refer to the Spirit of God as “it”. Always refer to the Holy Spirit as “He”, because everywhere in the Bible, the Spirit is referred to as “He” and “Him”.
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever” (John 14:16).
In the Past…
Before Jesus came to earth, the Holy Spirit dwelled in the midst of Israel.
“Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them,
Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses,
Who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name,
Who led them through the depths?” (Isaiah 63:11-12)
The Holy Spirit was also with some select people in those days. For example, Joshua had the Spirit in him: “So the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him'” (Numbers 27:18). Also, David (1 Samuel 16:12-13), Samson (Judges 14:19), and many prophets and followers in the past had the Spirit of God, but He did not indwell everyone in Israel.
Dwelling Inside
After Jesus came to earth and sent the Holy Spirit, everyone who believes in Jesus has the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. The Bible says: “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).
What does this mean? This means God is as close to you as physically and spiritually possible. No one on earth can get this close to another person. But the Spirit of God is closer than ever. If you believe in Jesus, God is the closest Person to you because God dwells in you.
You see, God wants to be close to you. He wants to be your closest Friend (John 15:15). He gave His Son to you to die for you, and He gives His Spirit to you to be with you forever (John 14:16). After Jesus’s death and resurrection, Jesus is with the Father in heaven, but the Holy Spirit is in each believer on earth.
“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.” (Ephesians 1:13-14)
From the above verse, we know that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in each believer as soon as he believes. The Holy Spirit is our Helper. He leads us to all truth. He guides us in our life. He delivers us from evil. And He reveals what Jesus wants to teach us.
Jesus said, “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.” (John 14:26).
Importantly, we can have a close, intimate relationship with God through His Spirit. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14)
The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is an intimate relationship with God. Just as we have relationships with people, so God wants us to know Him in a personal way. We do this by listening to God, talking with Him, and doing God’s will.
Grieving the Spirit
Some people might say, “Well, it doesn’t feel like God is dwelling in me, and God doesn’t feel close to me”. Perhaps we should consider if we have grieved the Holy Spirit in some way.
“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)
What are the ways we can grieve the Spirit of God?
- Quenching God – We grieve Him by simply confining Him to a small area of our lives. Imagine you have invited someone special to live in your home. But as soon as he arrives, you tell him to stay in one corner of the house and to not come out of there. How would this person feel? This is how the Spirit of God feels a lot of times when we put Him in one tiny corner of our lives. Have we made God our first priority? Have we acknowledged God in every area of our lives? If not, we are quenching the Spirit, and confining Him to only a small portion of our lives.
- Not spending time with God – Maybe we don’t talk to God or pray everyday. Maybe we don’t read His word. The only time we talk to Him is when we need something from Him. How would He feel? Do we spend time with God daily, or do we only come to Him when we need something?
- Blatantly sinning – Imagine throwing a drunken party in the house where God lives. We do everything He dislikes in front of Him. Would He be grieved? The Holy Spirit would be grieved if we know we are doing something wrong and we keep doing it. We need to seek God for forgiveness, turn away from our sins, and work with Him to overcome any sins.
- Blaming God – What if something bad happens in our lives? Do we blame God even though we have not been practicing what He has been teaching us? So this special Person, whom we ignore and don’t spend time with, stays in a corner of our lives. Then something bad happens and we blame Him for it! We say to God, “I have lost all faith in You. How could You have let this thing happen to me?” How would the Holy Spirit feel in this situation? Jesus said we should act on His words, and not just be hearers of His words. When we act on God’s words, we can weather any storm that may come (Matthew 7:24-27).
Many of us have done some of the above. We need to examine ourselves to see if we have grieved the Spirit of God and caused our relationship with Him to be strained. If so, we need to ask God’s forgiveness and renew our relationship with Him.
Jesus tells us to: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” (Luke 10:27).
Filled with the Spirit
When you first believe in Jesus and decide to follow Him, God places His Holy Spirit in you to teach you, to have an intimate relationship with you, and to help you do His will. Do you know that the Holy Spirit also helps us talk to God?
“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 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.” (Romans 8:26-27)
We have this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7), that is, we have the Spirit of God dwelling in our earthly bodies. But if we want to experience more of God and be filled with His goodness, we need to be filled with His Spirit.
How does a person become filled with the Holy Spirit? It is not a mystery or anything complicated.
1. Make God our first priority
First, in order to be filled with the Spirit, we need to make God our first priority. That means, in our busy schedules, we always find time to be with Him. So no matter how busy we become, we always spend time with God everyday by thanking and praising God in our prayers and by reading His word.
We must love Him with all our hearts, and place Him first in our lives.
2. Resist sin and obey His commandments
Next, we should work with God to remove known sins from our lives. Sin hurts our relationship with God, and sin keeps us away from Him. Jesus died for us so that by His blood and power, we can overcome sin. So we should take sin seriously and work hard to overcome it.
God has made all this possible by placing His Spirit in us, so that you can “walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
It is not enough to just ask for God’s help and wait for Him to rid our sins for us. We must also do our part. Remember, it is a combination of, God’s help and us doing our best by loving Him with all our strength (Luke 10:27), that we overcome sin. Just as we can’t expect to pass an exam by praying but not studying, so we must not neglect to do our part in avoiding sin.
Then how hard must we try to resist sin?
With all our strength, resist sin to the point of shedding blood (Hebrews 12:4). The reason is Jesus shed His blood for our sins. Now that we belong to Christ, we should not consider lightly the blood of Jesus, but we should be careful to not sin. Because if we continue to sin casually, then we are mocking Jesus’ blood and there is no longer a sacrifice for sins:
“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:26-27).
So everyday, we should try our best and with God’s help, resist sin and obey His commandments. If you have any sins, ask God’s forgiveness, and “He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9). See Overcome Temptations to learn more.
3. Ask Him to fill us
As we do all this, we can ask God to fill us with His Spirit.
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11:13)
“He gives the Spirit without measure.” (John 3:34)
So we can simply ask God to fill us with His Spirit, because God is the best and He wants the best for us.
Q: What does it feel like when you are being filled with the Spirit?
Someone might ask, “What does it feel like when you are being filled with His Spirit?”.
We should not rely on any type of feeling. “God is Spirit” (John 4:24). So He can fill us without us physically feeling anything. That said, some people may experience a tangible sensation while others may not. It may be different for everyone.
The Bible describes a few people’s experiences:
“And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him…” (1 Kings 19:11-13)
So for Elijah the prophet, the Spirit of God was like a gentle breeze.
“And when He [Jesus] had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.'” (John 20:22)
From these verses, we see that being filled with the Spirit is like being breathed on by God.
Q: Are you filled once for all or do you get filled multiple times?
“Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).
Drunkards are habitually drunk with wine, but we should be habitually filled with His Spirit. This verse suggests that the filling of the Holy Spirit can happen multiple times, just as those who drink, drink multiple times.
Remember the special Person in a corner analogy? When we habitually sin and ignore God, God can start to withdraw from us. In the past, God left the Temple in Jerusalem when Israel kept disobeying Him (Ezekiel 5:11). Also when David committed adultery and murder, he feared God might leave him and he cried, “Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).
When Jesus was on the cross, He became sin in our place. And because Jesus took all our sins upon Himself, God the Father saw all the sins in Jesus and the Spirit of God withdrew from Him completely so that Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).
The Spirit’s withdrawal from us is the opposite of His filling us. A withdrawal can be compared to having less of God in us, whereas a filling of the Spirit is to have more of Him in us. For us, whether intentional or not, we can all still fall into sin. Therefore, we need to frequently repent of our sins so that God can fill us. Unless we completely and utterly forsake God, the Holy Spirit is with us forever (John 14:16) and He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
In order for God to continually fill us, we need to obey Him. The disciples from the first century were filled with the Spirit continually: “And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52 NASB).
Conclusion
Can you imagine a wonderful, intimate relationship with the God of the universe? God is the source of joy, peace, love, wisdom, guidance, life, power, and truth. Why not be filled with the Spirit of God?
Remember, in order to be filled with His Spirit, we need to resist sin, obey God, and ask Him to fill us. In other words, as temples of God, we need to make Him comfortable!
Read John 14 in the Bible.
Learn to listen to God and hear His voice.