Omolara spends her working days thinking about current. She is an electrical engineer with a power distribution company in Ibadan, and her desk sits under a whiteboard covered in feeder names, load figures and the schedule that decides which parts of the city will have light tonight and which will hear the generators start. She knows exactly how power behaves. It flows where it is sent. It does what the system allows. It has no opinion about the people who use it.
For most of her Christian life, without ever saying so, she thought of the Holy Spirit in exactly the same way.
She had grown up in a lively church. She loved the vigils, the long Friday nights of worship when the drums rose and the minister cried out, “Receive it! Catch the fire! Let it fall!” Some nights she felt something like warmth, or a weight, or tears she could not explain. Other nights she felt nothing and went home wondering what she had done wrong. In her mind the Spirit was the current that came on during the service and went off when the chairs were stacked. When she spoke of Him at all, she called Him “it.”
The question that changed this came from her friend Saratu, over a plate of amala at a buka near the office. Omolara had been describing a dry season in her faith, and Saratu listened for a long time before she asked, quite simply, “Lara, have you ever actually talked to Him?”
Omolara laughed, and then stopped laughing. She had prayed to the Father for years. She had sung about Jesus since childhood. She had asked for the power, begged for the anointing and waited for the fire. But she realised, sitting there with her hands still sticky from the soup, that she had never once spoken to the Holy Spirit as though anyone was there.
That is where many believers live. We know the Spirit’s names and we want His power, but we have not yet come to know Him. Scripture invites us further. The Holy Spirit is not a current or a mood. He is a Person, fully God, who has come to live in everyone who belongs to Christ.
Another Comforter
The clearest place to begin is the Upper Room on the night before the cross. Jesus has washed His disciples’ feet. Judas has gone out into the dark. The remaining eleven are troubled, because Jesus has just told them that He is going away and that where He is going they cannot follow yet. Into that fear He speaks this promise:
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Consider what Jesus is doing here. For three years these men had lived with a Person. They had walked dusty roads with Him, eaten with Him, argued in front of Him, watched Him sleep in a boat and wake to rebuke a storm. Now He is leaving, and the thing they dread most is being left alone. Two verses later He says it plainly: “I will not leave you comfortless” (John 14:18). The word behind comfortless is the word for orphans.
So what does Jesus give to men who are afraid of being orphaned? Not a force. He gives “another Comforter.” The Greek word for another here is allos, which means another of the same kind. Jesus is saying, in effect, “You have had Me beside you. Now the Father will give you One like Me.” The word Comforter is parakletos, one called alongside: a helper, an advocate, a counsellor who stands with you. John uses the same word of Jesus Himself: “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). The Spirit continues the personal care that Jesus gave His disciples. He is the same kind of Helper, and He comes to stay.
Look at the pronouns. “That he may abide with you for ever.” “Ye know him; for he dwelleth with you.” Jesus does not speak of the Spirit as a thing to be handled. He speaks of Him as someone to be known. The world cannot receive Him because it “seeth him not, neither knoweth him.” The disciples, by contrast, already know Him, because the Spirit has been at work in Jesus’ ministry all along. And then comes the promise that marks the new covenant: He “dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” The One who had been with them in the Person of Jesus would soon be within them.
There is a small detail here that has helped many people. In Greek the word for spirit, pneuma, is grammatically neuter, much as some languages give a table or a door a grammatical gender. Strict grammar would therefore call for “it.” This is why the King James translators, following the grammar, occasionally write “the Spirit itself” (Romans 8:16, 26). But when John records Jesus’ teaching about the Comforter, he repeatedly uses the masculine pronoun ekeinos, “that one” or “he,” even where the neuter word for Spirit stands right beside it, as if to make the point unmistakable. “He shall teach you all things” (John 14:26). “He shall testify of me” (John 15:26). The Gospel writer bends the grammar so that we will not bend the truth.
What persons do
A good way to recognise a person is to watch what he does. Electricity can light a room, but it cannot be disappointed in you. A strong wind can push a boat, but it cannot teach you anything. When we read what Scripture says the Holy Spirit does, we find a long list of things that only a person can do.
He teaches. “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26). Teaching requires a mind that knows and a will that chooses to share.
He testifies. “He shall testify of me” (John 15:26). A witness is someone who has seen and chooses to speak.
He convicts. “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). He confronts the conscience with truth.
He intercedes. “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Romans 8:26). And in the next verse Paul says that God “knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit” (Romans 8:27). The Spirit has a mind.
He can be resisted. Stephen told the council, “ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye” (Acts 7:51). He can be lied to, as we will see in a moment. He can be grieved: “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). You cannot grieve a current. You can only grieve someone who loves you.
Paul gives us one more window into the Spirit’s inner life:
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
“The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” Paul compares the Spirit’s knowledge of God with a person’s knowledge of himself. Nobody knows what is going on inside you as well as your own spirit does. In the same way, nobody knows the things of God as the Spirit of God knows them. That is the language of intimate, personal knowledge, the kind no instrument could ever have, and it tells us that the Spirit shares in the very life of God.
Then comes the gift: “we have received... the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” The One who knows the depths of God has come to live in you, so that you can come to know what God has given you. The Spirit who reveals the truth is also the Companion who walks you into it.
Fully God and present everywhere
PunchlineIf the Spirit is a Person, the next question is what kind of Person He is. Scripture answers clearly. He is God.
The story of Ananias and Sapphira is uncomfortable, but it settles the matter. The early church was sharing generously, and some members were selling land and bringing the money to the apostles. Ananias and his wife sold a property, kept back part of the price, and presented the remainder as if it were the whole. Peter confronted him:
But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
Notice the two statements side by side. In verse 3, Ananias has lied “to the Holy Ghost.” In verse 4, he has “not lied unto men, but unto God.” Peter uses the two expressions for the same act. To lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God, because the Holy Spirit is God. Notice too that Ananias’s sin was not that he kept some of the money. Peter says plainly that the land and the price were his to use. His sin was deception before a holy God who was present in the congregation.
The Old Testament had already given Israel a glimpse of the Spirit’s divine presence. David asked a question that every frightened believer eventually asks:
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there . If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
“Whither shall I go from thy spirit?” In Hebrew poetry the two halves of a line often say the same thing in different words. Here “thy spirit” and “thy presence” stand side by side. To be in the presence of God’s Spirit is to be in the presence of God. And there is nowhere that presence does not reach: the heights of heaven, the depths of the grave, the far edge of the sea. Only God is everywhere.
The New Testament adds that the Spirit is eternal: Christ “through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God” (Hebrews 9:14). He was present at creation, when “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). He gives life, raises the dead and makes people new.
I teach that there is one God, revealed to us as Father, Word and Holy Spirit. Believers have used various words over the centuries to describe that mystery, and I will not enter those debates here. What matters for your daily walk is this: when the Holy Spirit is present, God is present. He is not a lesser messenger sent on God’s behalf, nor an energy that God gives off. Paul’s blessing over the Corinthian church holds the whole revelation together: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14). Grace from the Son, love from the Father, communion with the Spirit. One God, and He has drawn near.
NuggetThe Holy Spirit is not something God sends instead of coming Himself. When the Spirit is present, God is present, and He has made His home in you.
The voice in the prayer meeting at Antioch
Some of the most vivid evidence of the Spirit’s personhood comes from the book of Acts, where we watch Him direct the life of the church. One short scene stands out:
Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.
Look at who was in that room. Barnabas, the generous Levite from Cyprus. Simeon called Niger, a name that means “black,” very possibly a man of African descent. Lucius from Cyrene in North Africa. Manaen, who had grown up in the household of Herod the tetrarch. And Saul, the former persecutor. It was a remarkably mixed leadership team, and they were doing something simple: they “ministered to the Lord, and fasted.” They were not holding a planning meeting. They were worshipping.
Then “the Holy Ghost said.” He spoke. We are not told exactly how. It may well have been through one of the prophets present, which would fit the setting. But Luke does not say that a prophet felt an impression. He says the Holy Ghost said. And listen to what He said: “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”
Those little words carry enormous weight. “Separate me.” The Spirit has His own claim on these men; they are to be set apart for Him. “The work whereunto I have called them.” He had already been calling them. He had a purpose, a plan and a timing, and on that day He made it known. A force does not call anyone. A force has no plans. This is a Person with a will, directing His servants into a mission that would carry the gospel across the Roman world.
The church responded with more fasting and prayer, laid hands on the two men and sent them away. But verse 4 tells us who really sent them: “So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost.” The church released them. The Spirit sent them.
The rest of Acts shows the same personal direction. When the apostles and elders in Jerusalem settled a painful dispute about Gentile believers, they wrote, “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us” (Acts 15:28). The Spirit is named as a participant in the decision, someone whose mind had been sought and whose judgement was shared. A little later Paul and his companions “were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,” and when they tried to go into Bithynia, “the Spirit suffered them not” (Acts 16:6-7). He opened some doors and closed others. He was not a tool in the apostles’ hands. They were servants in His.
He distributes as He wills
The same truth appears in Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts. The Corinthian church was rich in gifts and poor in love, and the believers there had begun to treat spiritual manifestations as badges of status. Paul answers them by pointing past the gifts to the Giver:
Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
Notice how verses 4 to 6 move. “The same Spirit.” “The same Lord.” “The same God which worketh all in all.” Paul is showing the one God at work in the church, and he names the Spirit, the Lord and God together as the source of everything the congregation was receiving.
Then he lists the gifts: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues and interpretation. Another teaching in this series will look at these gifts more closely. For now I want you to look at the last verse: “But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”
“As he will.” The Spirit decides. He is a Person, and even the most fervent believer cannot draw on Him at will as though He were a supply. He gives what He chooses, to whom He chooses, for the purpose He chooses, which verse 7 tells us is “to profit withal,” for the good of the whole body.
That changes the way we think about spiritual power. If the Spirit were a force, the goal would be to learn the technique that releases it. If He is a Person, the goal is to know Him, honour Him and make ourselves available to Him. We desire His gifts earnestly, as Paul tells us to (1 Corinthians 12:31), but we receive them as gifts from Someone, not as electricity drawn from a socket.
Not a feeling, and not a force
PunchlineThere are two ways of shrinking the Holy Spirit, and both are common.
The first is to reduce Him to a feeling. If He is only a sensation, then He is present when the music is good and absent when it is not, and our assurance rises and falls with our emotions. Omolara lived like that for years. On the good nights she felt close to God. On the dry nights she felt abandoned, and she did not know that the One who had come to live in her had not moved at all.
Feelings are not wrong. The Spirit touches the whole person, and I have seen Him bring tears, laughter, deep peace and holy fear to people in worship. Joy is part of His fruit. But feelings are responses to His presence. They are not the measure of it. A child may feel close to his mother on her birthday and distant from her on a tired Monday, but his mother has not changed address.
The second way is to reduce Him to a force: a power to be used. Luke records a man who made that mistake. Simon, a magician in Samaria, watched the apostles lay hands on new believers who then received the Holy Ghost, and he offered them money: “Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost” (Acts 8:19). Peter’s answer was blistering: “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money” (Acts 8:20). Simon wanted to own what can only be received. He treated the Spirit as a commodity.
We may not offer cash, but the same instinct can creep into our churches. When people speak of the anointing as something to be bought with a seed, or transferred like a product, or switched on by the right technique, they have quietly turned the Holy Spirit into a force. That is a serious error, and it always ends in manipulation.
Let me say plainly where I stand, because the Holy Spirit is close to the heart of my ministry. I am Pentecostal in conviction. I believe the Spirit still fills, empowers, heals and speaks; that the gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 are for the church today; and that believers may be baptised in the Spirit with power, as Jesus promised: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you” (Acts 1:8). Many sincere believers in other traditions are more cautious about outward manifestations, and they are right to insist that the Spirit is not a feeling. We Pentecostals are right to insist that He is not shy of being felt. But all of us must hold this together: the power comes with the Person. “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” You do not receive the power and then go looking for the Person. You receive the Person, and His power comes with Him.
Learning to walk in fellowship with Him
If the Spirit is a Person who dwells within you, then the Christian life includes a real relationship with Him. Paul’s word for it is communion, koinonia: fellowship, sharing, partnership. How does that fellowship grow?
It grows by acknowledgement. Begin by recognising that He is there. Before you open your Bible, before you walk into a difficult meeting, before you answer a hard message, you can turn inwardly and say, “Holy Spirit, thank You that You are with me. Help me now.” This is simply a believer remembering that he is not alone.
It grows through the Word. The Spirit who inspired the Scriptures loves to open them. Jesus said the Comforter would “bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26). When a verse suddenly comes alive, or a word you read last week returns in the moment you need it, that is His teaching ministry at work. Fellowship with the Spirit never draws you away from the Bible. It draws you deeper into it.
It grows through obedience. Persons speak, and friends listen. When He prompts you to apologise, to give, to keep quiet, to speak up, to pray for someone who has come to mind, respond. Every response tunes the ear. Every refusal dulls it.
It grows through honour. We honour Him by the way we speak of Him, by refusing to treat Him as a spiritual commodity, and by protecting the holiness of the body He lives in.
Some believers ask whether it is right to speak directly to the Holy Spirit in prayer. The usual pattern of New Testament prayer is to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, and some careful believers prefer to keep that pattern alone. Others gladly address the Spirit directly, since He is God and is present with them. I believe both may do so with a clear conscience. The New Testament speaks of communion with the Spirit, and it is hard to share fellowship with someone you never speak to. What matters most is that your fellowship with Him leads you, as He always does, to the Father and to Christ.
Omolara went home from that lunch and did something that felt strange. She sat on the edge of her bed in the flat in Bodija, with the generator humming outside because her own feeder was off that night, and she said aloud, “Holy Spirit, I am sorry. I have been treating You like a thing.”
She told me later that nothing dramatic happened. There was no warmth, no weight, no tears. There was only a quietness, and a growing sense that she had been heard by someone who had been waiting patiently for a very long time.
Over the following months her prayer life changed. She began her mornings at the office by acknowledging Him before she looked at the load figures. She read John 14 to 16 again and again, underlining every “he” and “him.” She still loved the vigils, and some Friday nights she still wept in worship, but she no longer went home afraid when she felt nothing. “I used to think He came on and went off like NEPA,” she said, laughing at herself. “Now I know He lives here. Some days I am more aware of Him than others. But He has not moved.”
That is the invitation to every believer. The Holy Spirit is not a current you must catch or a feeling you must chase. He is the Comforter Jesus promised, another like Him, who knows the deep things of God, who calls and sends and gives as He wills, and who has come to dwell in you for ever. You do not need to wait for Him to arrive. You need only begin to know Him.
Teaching Companion
For Reflection
- Have you tended to think of the Holy Spirit as a force, a feeling or a Person? How has that shaped your prayer and worship?
- What does it mean to you that Jesus called the Spirit “another Comforter,” One like Himself?
- In Acts 13 the Spirit said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” What does that teach you about His purposes for believers today?
- Where might you have been tempted to treat the Spirit’s power as a commodity or a technique?
- What would it look like for you to acknowledge His presence at the start of each day this week?
This Week
Read John 14 to 16 slowly over three days, underlining every place where Jesus speaks of the Spirit as “he” or “him,” and write down what each verse says He does. On the remaining days, begin each morning by acknowledging His presence in a simple sentence of thanks, and ask Him to teach you as you read one of those passages again. At the end of the week, note any verse He has brought back to your remembrance during the day.
A Prayer
Holy Spirit, thank You that You are not a force or a feeling but the living God, sent by the Father in the name of Jesus to dwell in me. Forgive me for the times I have spoken of You as a thing, chased sensations instead of seeking You, or wanted Your power more than Your presence. Thank You for being my Comforter, my Teacher and my Helper. Open the Scriptures to me, bring the words of Jesus to my remembrance, and lead me always to the Father. Teach me to know You, to listen when You speak and to honour You in the body You have made Your home. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Truth received brings freedom. Truth believed establishes the heart.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. · Illustrations using first names only are composites unless stated otherwise.