As we have mentioned before, the Holy Spirit is a Person. One of the most important things we can do in our walk with God
is to get to know the Holy Spirit as a Person.
There are many reasons
why we can refer to Him as a Person. He has an intellect (1 Cor.2:10).
He has a will (1 Cor.12:11). He can speak (Gal.4:6). He has emotions; He
can love; He is the Spirit of love (Rom.5:5). He can be lied to ( Acts
5:3). These are just a few examples. We will get into more detail on this in the
future, but the one thing that sets Him apart is, He is our
witness.
Before the beginning of time, the Holy Spirit was involved
in everything that God did. He is a witness to the plans that God has for
us. In Jeremiah 29:11, He says through the prophet Jeremiah, "I know the
plans that I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans
to give you a hope and a future."
The Holy Spirit is a witness and was involved in all the
covenants that God made with man throughout the ages. Every time God
made a covenant or a promise to those who would be faithful, He
revealed Himself and His intentions for mankind.
The Holy Spirit was present when God made a covenant with
Abraham, marching through the halves of the sacrifices declaring and
decreeing His goodness and His intentions for mankind (Gen.15:1-20). This was just a prelude to one final and awesome act of God for Him to have
fellowship with man, His creation.
You might ask, how does this help me? I already know the
Holy Spirit is omniscient--all knowing--and that He was a witness to all things
from the beginning of time.
It's true that we may know a lot of things about the Holy
Spirit. We may know that His main job is to reveal Jesus. We may know
that He dwells on the inside of us. But the fact of our knowing will
have little effect on our behavior and our life unless we know him as a living Person.
If it is gifts we want, we'll do what we can to obtain those
gifts. If it's power that we're after, we will do what we can to obtain
power. If it's wisdom or whatever we may be desirous of, we will do what we can to add it to our life. If the Holy Spirit is power, we'll be proud to have it and
feel superior to those who do not.
But: If the Holy Spirit is our Best Friend, if He's "the most important Person," enormous changes will take place in our
lives.
So why should we know Him as a witness? Because there is no
other way to know all the things that God has prepared for those that
love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). There is no other way to know intimately that we are
the children of God (Rom.8:16). There is no other way to know that
through the process of the Abrahamic covenant and what we now know as
the "new and living way," God has "perfected forever" those that
are sanctified (Heb.10:14-15).
The Holy Spirit is our personal Witness to
the fact that this has taken place. If we know Him as a Person, we will
depend on Him as we would our best friend, who would stand up and testify
on our behalf in court, having sworn under oath that everything that he
was a witness to is the whole truth and nothing but the truth! We know that about the Holy Spirit, because He is the Spirit of truth.
To be continued
