Taking a Deeper Look at God's Good Gift - The Holy Spirit

This is an excerpt from God, Gift, and Guide: Knowing the Holy Spirit by Gregg Allison

What would we be missing if there were no Holy Spirit? In a word: everything!

In my experience, this answer is not the one many Christians would give to that question. I find much confusion about the Holy Spirit, along with a lot of fear of the Holy Spirit.

But why is there confusion, ignorance, and fear when it comes to the Spirit of God?

To start, some Christians wonder who the Holy Spirit is. Is the Spirit fully God, equal to God the Father and God the Son? Or is He less than the Father and the Son?

Is the Spirit a person—not a human, but a divine person? Or is the Spirit a force or a power? After all, it’s fairly easy to understand the personhood of the other two simply by considering their names: Father and Son. But what about the Spirit? Not clearly a person, perhaps closer to a strength or closer to vigor. And the traditional name “Holy Ghost” can conjure up visits from ghouls on Halloween. They are certainly not divine! So, is the Holy Spirit just the power of God?

If we believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, equal to God the Father and God the Son, then should we worship the Holy Spirit? In the same way and to the same extent that we worship the Father and the Son? Should we trust and obey the Holy Spirit? Should we pray to the Holy Spirit?

There is confusion and hesitancy about the Holy Spirit because some wonder who he is.

There is also uncertainty about the Holy Spirit because some Christians wonder what the Holy Spirit does. Could we say that, from the beginning of our Christian life, through its ongoing progress, and all the way to the end, the Holy Spirit is actively engaged in all that we are, do, and will become? If that is true, then we’re once again faced with our question: Why do some Christians hear and know so little about him?

Sadly, more than just confusion and ignorance reigns in regard to the Holy Spirit’s work among God’s people. Fear sometimes grips Christians’ hearts as well. It may be fear of themselves—that they will be manipulated or may offend God. Or it may be fear of giving up control of their life.

There is confusion, hesitancy, ignorance, anxiety, worry, and fear when it comes to the Spirit of God. Rather than surrender consistently and continuously to him, we quench the Holy Spirit, in disobedience to Paul’s warning (1 Thess. 5:19).

If we think about Jesus’s teaching about the Holy Spirit, such a posture doesn’t make any sense. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses the goodness of his Father—who is our Father too. Jesus starts with an analogy with earthly—even evil—parents: they would never give their children a stone rather than bread or a serpent rather than a fish. He then extends the point to our heavenly Father: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:11).

Interestingly, Luke’s Gospel switches up the last promise about giving “good things”: “If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).

Give good gifts.

Give the Holy Spirit.

Here’s my claim: The greatest gift that God the Father gives to those who follow his Son is the Holy Spirit. That is, at the very top of the list of the “good gifts” that the Father gives to us Christians is the Holy Spirit.

I can already hear the objection: But the Bible says that the greatest gift of all is Jesus—his death and resurrection for our salvation! I couldn’t agree more! But while agreeing with the objection, I continue to hold this claim as true. It addresses those who have already received the greatest gift of all—salvation through Jesus—and makes a further claim: for those who follow God’s Son, Jesus, the greatest gift that the Father gives to them is the Holy Spirit. Those who receive the gift of salvation receive another gift, the greatest of the “good gifts” for Christians: the Spirit of God.

If my claim is true and we Christians have the gift of the Holy Spirit, why does confusion and fear about him reign? For Christians to be perplexed over who this gift is—fully God or junior god, a divine person or a powerful force, the “all” of our Christian life or just some aspect—that just doesn’t make any sense. For Christians to be afraid of fully embracing this gift—that just doesn’t make any sense. It grieves God the Father, who is the giver of this gift. It grieves God the Son, who promised, “it is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor [the Holy Spirit] will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). It “grieves the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).

We don’t want to grieve God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. On the contrary, let us embrace the greatest gift that God the Father gives to those who follow his Son: the Holy Spirit.