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The Holy Spirit: Characteristics, Activities, and Interaction
Introduction
The doctrines of Christianity have always emphasized the need to believe in the Holy Spirit. Biblically, the Holy Spirit is a gift given by God to the Christians to enable them to live righteously and strengthen them to carry forth the Gospel of God. It was sent to guide them through life, now that Jesus—who could have guided them through the same path—was no longer amidst the Christians; he had ascended to heaven. The modern teachings on Christianity hold that a true Christian has the Holy Spirit living in him. The Holy Spirit is the third dweller in the trinity triangle, coming after God the Father and God the Son, who happens to be Jesus Christ. The anatomy of the Holy Spirit is complex. It is not only a gift that serves as a guardian angel to humans but also a spiritual being that fixes their morals. In light of this, this paper presents the Holy Spirit’s concept, deeply dissecting through it to know who it is, its activity, evidence of its existence, and how we can interact with it.
The Holy Spirit: A Definition
As described, the Holy Spirit is the third dweller in the holy trinity triangle. It resides amidst God, the Father, and God the Son, Jesus Christ. This means that the Holy Spirit is a divine being that oversees Christians’ actions while on earth. It is normal for Christians to be unaware of the existence of God. Even though not often, it happens. Therefore, the Holy Spirits exist to remind us that there is God, the creator of heaven and earth. It dwells in Christians so that they may remain saved and always be aware of the indwelling presence of God the Father. Very many scriptures in the bible elicit the traits of the Holy Spirit.
First, the Holy Spirit is Personal. Gospel according to John reads, “However, when He, the spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His authority” (John 16:13). The use of pronoun He is the scripture that shows that the Holy Spirit is a full influence that possesses a distinct personality.” Theologists also argue that the Holy Spirit is a person of its own with many traits that form his personality. These traits include emotions, intelligence, and will (External source to be cited).
Secondly, just like God the Father and God the Son, the Holy Spirit is equally powerful. Scripture, according to the book of John, says that upon ascending, God will send Christians that will have an everlasting binding effect (John: 16-17). It takes a lot of power to have such an effect. Jesus also assures Christians in Acts 1:8 that the Holy Spirit is powerful by saying, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem…”
The Holy Spirit is a deity. It has this trait because it possesses eternity. Hebrews 9;14 terms the Holy Spirit as the Eternal Spirit. Its eternity makes it omniscient and omnipotent; omniscient in that it is all-knowing and omnipotent in that it can do anything it wishes. 1st Corinthian 2:11 says, “No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” God, the Father, is omniscient. The Holy Spirit knows everything that God the Father knows. This makes him omniscient. The Holy Spirit is omnipotent in that it has the freedom to do anything it wants on Christians without restrictions and limitations. Luke 1.35 says that He can come on Christians, and His power may overshadow the Christians.
The activity of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit plays many roles in the lives of Christians. However, his roles are not only limited to Christians. He also plays vital roles in Christian churches and earth. Biblically, the Holy Spirit plays the roles of renewal and Consecration in Christians’ lives. The Holy Spirit is responsible for turning Christians to Christ; this is renewal or rebirth. According to (a book to be cited), renewal is the process where a believer becomes born again, turning his life to Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that takes charge of this process. He gives a believer the power to accept Jesus Christ as his savior. The function of the Holy Spirit in rebirth is elicited through the testimony of Titus when he praises God the Father for renewing humans through the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). It is not through the power of human that he got regenerated, but through the Holy Spirit’s power.
The Holy Spirit gives Christians gifts that enable them to strengthen their relationship with God. These gifts are collectively known as the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. There are nine of these gifts, and collectively help Christians or believers serve on earth/the Kingdom of God. Biblically the earth is the Kingdom of God. For this role, it can also be said that the Holy Spirit exists to transform the earth into a better place. It is not guaranteed that a believer will always have all the nine gifts. However, a believer can possess more than one gift of the Holy Spirit (Book to be cited). For believers, these gifts enable believers to manifest the Holy Spirit. In 1st Corinthians 12:8, Paul admits to the gifts enabling believers to manifest the Holy Spirit in them. For instance, he can manifest through faith. Other manifestations of the Holy Spirit through these gifts occurred in Romans and Ephesians. In Romans 12:6-8, these gifts are demonstrated by believers through actions like refrain from sin and teaching. These actions drew Romans to God, and generally, Christians to God. Modern Christians continue to enjoy the Holy Spirit’s gifts, a demonstration that the Holy Spirit still lives among them, and wishes the believers to be closer to God. With this, it can also be argued that the Holy Spirit’s role is to sanitize the churches. Churches are purer when believers are closer to God.
The Holy Spirit is also a bridge between man and God. It exists to bring Christians closer to God. One cannot please God without pleasing the Holy Spirit; there is a protocol to this. The scripture clearly supports this activity of the Holy Spirit. In the book of John, the believers at Ephesus always wanted to lead better lives but doubted that the Holy Spirit would enable them to fulfill their wishes. However, their continual dismissal of the Holy Spirit had their wishes remain un-manifested. Doubting the Holy Spirit made them incomplete Christians. The scripture reads, “God is spirit, and those who worship spirit Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John, 4:24). Therefore, it is the Holy Spirit’s activity to ensure that Christians reach God the Father through him.
The Holy Spirit consecrates the believers’ lives. Consecration means that lifestyle, character, and behavioral transformation. Therefore, the Holy Spirit transforms the lives of the believers to elicit righteousness. Consecration’s process extends beyond making Christians righteous to attributing the righteousness of Christians to their ministry (Book to be Cited). The believer gets into this process where God the Father molds him to resemble the traits of Jesus Christ. Within the process of Consecration, the role of the Holy Spirit is to comfort the believer to comprehend why they are being sanctified and prevent them from relapsing to ways that may not be conforming to the doctrines of Christian living. Consecration comes with suffering, an element that brings a believer closer to God the Father. The Holy Spirit enables the believer to endure the suffering that comes along with Consecration. It makes Christian patients through the suffering and the entire process. A test of faith or suffering is a human process that requires patience. James 1; 2-3 assures Christians that the Holy Spirit is always with them in times of Consecration. It reads, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…let you perseverance finish its work…if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives it generously, through the Holy Spirit, to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
Holy Spirit in Historical Personalities
Many prominent people in the past are a testimony that the Holy Spirit influenced their actions. Martin Luther King Jr is an example of a personality whose actions were inspired by the Holy Spirit. He was an American Christian minister and a reformed Catholic theologian. Martin Luther King Jr reformed from the Catholic Church because he felt like the Church indulged in activities that were against the doctrines of Christian living. Martin depended on the Church for his activism roles. However, he felt like the Church was misleading the Christians and the top extorting them for personal gains. He vehemently rivaled the arguments of the Church and disregarded them as misleading. He started a campaign to preach salvation and enlighten Christians that their relationship with God was independent of the Church. Luther influenced people to turn their backs against misleading churches and religions. He wrote several books, articles, and publications that influenced and convinced believers to establish personal faith with God; without going through intermediaries that would brainwash them. It is at this point that he felt like he needed a church; to spread non-misleading positivity. In the real sense, the Holy Spirit utilized Martin Luther King Jr to transform the churches’ representation of Christianity. The Holy Spirit wanted him to discard the false churches and religions that only existed to exploit believers by peddling misleading gospel. The Holy Spirit strengthened to stand against lies and lead true believes towards light. Clearly, this particular action wasn’t Martin’s but the Holy Spirit. Indeed, Martin Luther is fit to be Jesus’ witness in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, as stated in Acts (1:8).
My Interaction with the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit plays several roles in human lives, meaning that there are several ways I may interact with Him. To be sincere, I can attest to have interacted with the Holy Spirit in various avenues of my existence. First, I would say that the Holy Spirit has enabled me to spread the gospel of God and influence other people into becoming robust believers. Before I became saved, I always had a dream that I would transform people’s lives for the better by influencing them to turn into Christianity. I saw completing Catechism and getting baptized as a good opportunity to influence others into taking my path. Now that I had Holy Spirit in me—I believed I did because I could always feel it in me, through my characters, through my actions, behaviors, and biblical knowledge—I started a youth group at my local Church. At first, we weren’t as many, but with time, I influenced many youths to join my group. The main agenda of my youth group was “getting closer to God for positive transformation.” The group I had was able to influence many more, and after some time, we were already influencing the community positively. I hold the Holy Spirit as my guardian. My interaction with Him has yielded a lot of positivity, not only for me but also for those I have interacted with. As I plan to become a theologist in the future—my dream carries—I plan to carry Holy Spirit with me. Through it, I am certain that I will get the wisdom to be patient in accomplishing what plan to accomplish.
Conclusion
This paper discusses the being of the Holy Spirit. As discussed, the Holy Spirit the third dweller of the Holy Trinity and a helper to God the Father and God the Son. It is a powerful deity and a personal being whose action greatly influences the actions of the believers. The Holy Spirit plays several roles; in believers, their lives, the earth, and churches. At some point, everyone has interacted with it. Despite not knowing much about it, I would say that the Holy Spirit is a gorgeous misery that fills believers with joy.
Work Cited