The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy
Trinity (One God but three in personality; Father, Son and Spirit) as the
scripture stated ‘Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over
the deep, with a divine wind (the HOLY SPIRIT) sweeping over the waters’
{Gen.1:2} and “God said, Let there be light and there was light” [Gen.1:3];
Jesus Christ is the word of God made flesh (“Mary said, you see before you the
Lord’s servant, let it happen to me as you have said…” Lk.1:38 and the word of
God spoken by the angel {“Look! You are to conceive in your womb and bear a son
and you must name him Jesus” Lk.1:31} became man that dwelt with us [‘Look the
virgin is with child and will give birth to a son whom they will call Immanuel,
a name which means God is with us’ Mtt.1:23]) hence Jesus said “do you not
believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?...” (Jn.14:10) and
‘still, I am telling you the truth: it is for your own good that I am going,
because unless I go the paraclete will not come to you…’ (Jn.16:7).
WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?
The Holy Spirit is a person just like Jesus and
the Father hence “…I will send HIM
to you” (Jn.16:7). God the Father made himself visible to our forefathers Adam
and Eve “Then the Lord God gave the man this command, ‘you are free to eat of
all the trees in the garden but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you
are not to eat; for the day you eat of that, you are doomed to die”
(Gen.2:16-17), ‘the man and his wife
heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day
and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden’ {Gen.3:8}. He is
present in our midst today through his word {‘in the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God and the Word was God’ Jn.1:1}, the body and blood of His
Son Jesus Christ (‘Then he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it
and gave it to them, saying this is my body given for you; do this in
remembrance of me, He did the same with the cup after supper and said, this cup
is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you’ Lk.22:19-20), our encounter
with the Holy Spirit (“and when he comes, he will show the world how wrong it
was about sin and about who was in the right and about judgment” Jn.16:8) even
as he helps us to pray correctly because prayer is a spiritual event, act,
behavior, reasoning, perception e.t.c which the weak human person does not know
how to undertake properly unless the Spirit comes to our assistance thus ‘and
as well as this, the Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness, for when we
do not know how to pray properly, then the Spirit personally makes our
petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words; and ho who can see
into all hearts knows what the Spirit means because the prayers that the Spirit
makes for God’s holy people are always in accordance with the mind of God’
(Rom.8:26-27).
WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT DOES
When the Holy Spirit comes into the heart of
man; he is transferred to a higher union with God.
From paganism to a believer:
Here one encounters God (the real Word of God;
Jn.1:1) for the first time in his life via friends, colleague, family
relations, preachers e.t.c and is willing to give up the old passions of sin (1
Pet.1:14-16) for a better portion in the life of His Creator (Gen.1:27), the
owner of the world and everything that dwells thereof (Ps.24:1) and by whom
everything is being preserved (Heb.2:10).
From a believer to a Spirit-lead creature
(Gal.5:18):
Here the man who has accepted to follow Christ
(‘when he has brought out all those that are his, he goes ahead of them and the
sheep follow because they know his voice’ Jn.10:4) will now begin to make
efforts to understand and know his master more(James 4:8) by imbibing the fear
of God in all his/her activities whether seen by others or not because there is
now a new knowledge that one day man will stand to answer for every thought,
word, action, desires, intentions e.t.c involved-in within his span in the
world (Isaiah 48:22, Gal.6:7) before the judgment throne of God (Mtt.25:31-46),
reading and listening to the word of God in order to gain knowledge of God (‘my
people perish for want of knowledge…’Hosea 4:6), understanding what prayer is
by rephrasing these words(“…Lord teach us to pray as John taught his disciples”
Lk.11:1) to God, praying consistently (1Thess.5:17) for clarification (“call on
me, I will answer you and I will teach you the secrets you know nothing about”
Jer.33:3) as well as putting into practice what was learnt from the Word and
the directions from the Spirit through our encounter with him in our prayers.
Here the Spirit teaches us about sin, virtue and judgment thus ‘and when he
comes he will show the world how wrong it was about sin and about who was right
and about judgment: about sin in that they refuse to believe in me; about who
was in the right: in that I am going to the Father and you will see me no more;
about judgment: in that the prince of this world is already condemned’
{Jn.16:8-11}. It is at this level that we encounter great difficulty because
our old passions, friends, family relations, school-mates, office colleagues
e.t.c will be put to serious war against the Spirit (Gal.5:16-18) but through
endurance which is the power of God in us who believe (‘but to those who did
accept him he gave the power to become children of God to those who believed in
his name’ Jn.1:12) but His Love for us makes us more than conquerors (‘Can
anything cut us off from the love of Christ? can hardships or distress, or
persecution, or lack of food and clothing or threats or violence…No; we come
through all these things triumphantly victorious by the power of Him who loved
us’ Rom.8:35-37). More than conquerors are those who enjoy other people’s
effort like the wife, children and relations of a governor share the victory of
their loved one who won the elections but they have little or nothing to say about
what he underwent to get to that position thus Christ came and died for our sin,
taking victory over death then leaving us to enjoy all his riches by the mere
mention of his name JESUS (Phil.2:10).
From a Spirit-lead creature to a drunk in the
Spirit (Eph.5:17):
Here a Spirit-lead child of God moves out of his/her
personal practice of Christian virtue within himself to the love and desire of
making others come to the knowledge of God (Mtt.28:20, Col.4:5) as well as
helping them maintain this new phase of life as much as possible with every
sense of humility, wisdom and patience. Here the gifts and fruits of the Holy
Spirit begin to manifest whether in the extrinsic or intrinsic mode (1
Cor.12:1-11). At this level all decisions, actions, thoughts, desires are made
after consultations with the Holy Spirit through prayers (Jer.33:3) and others
whom the Spirit may lead you to for further clarification and direction (Mal.2:7;
“the lips of priest contains knowledge and in their mouths should the law be
sought”. Acts.9:10-18; the encounter of Ananias with Saul at his conversion).
From a drunk in the Spirit to a consistent
child of God (Isaiah 40:31, Isaiah 11:5):
The man whose desire to make others maintain
their integrity with God (Job.27:5) puts in all at his beck and call to
maintain his own union with God through feeding on the body and Blood of Christ
(Our Righteousness, Savior and Keeper; 1 Cor.1:30), fasting and praying with
sincerity of purpose (Acts.13:2, 1 Cor.13:1-13) since the scripture noted “but
those who hope on the Lord will regain their strength, they will sprout wings
like eagles, though they run they will not grow weary though they walk they
will never tire” [Isaiah 40:31] and ‘uprightness will be the belt around his
waist and constancy the belt about his hips’ (Isaiah 11:5) as we know that it
is only those who persevere to the end will be saved (Mtt.24:13).
From a consistent child of God to a son
awaiting the crown of Heavens Glory (2 Tim.4:6-8):
Having consistently obeyed the Holy Spirit in
all humility, patience, love and joy (Rom.14:17-19), one can then begin to see
the fruits of his labor in those he has nurtured to carry on in this great and
wonderful task for replacement as the first apostles did to close up the
vacancy of Judas by ordaining Mathias (Acts.1:15-26) also this function is
performed by the legally ordained as well as obedient Bishops of the Church of
Christ (Mtt.16:18-19) who today ordain our
brothers after long years of formation in the seminary to take their
place for continuity because Christ is the foundation of the church (Mtt.16:18)
who is the same today, yesterday and forever (Heb.13:8). This is what gave Paul
great joy in his son Timothy when he told him to fan into flame the Spirit he
received from God through him at the laying on of his hands (2 Tim.1:6) as he
awaits the crown of glory which Christ will give him and all those who remained
steadfast under the direction of the Holy Spirit (2 Tim.4:6-8) which is the
Spirit that will raise (‘and suddenly there was a violent earthquake, for the
angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled away the stone and
sat on it’ Mtt.28:2) those who obeyed (“he was humbler yet, even to accepting
death, death on a cross” Phil.2:8)till the end like Jesus from the dead and
take them to the right hand of God as Jesus was ascended after forty days of
being with his apostles (Lk.24:50-53)
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