Is the Holy Spirit a Person?
Adapted from Chapter 1 of my book, Manifest.
Yes. The Bible presents the Holy Spirit as a Person, not a force or an energy. He speaks, guides, hears, teaches and can be grieved. He is the third Person of the Trinity, fully God, present from the first page of Scripture to the last. And because He is a Person, the Christian life is not about learning to operate a spiritual technology. It is about learning to walk with Someone.
There is a cultural current running through our moment that is very loud and very appealing. It goes by the name of manifestation. The premise is that if you believe hard enough in yourself, if you speak the right words, if you hold the right vision, you can bend reality toward the thing you want. It sounds empowering. It feels spiritual. But it is an ancient lie dressed in new clothes.
The problem manifestation can never solve is this: we have no reservoir of good in us to draw from. But the gospel answers what manifestation cannot. When we are redeemed by faith in Jesus, something astonishing happens. The Holy Spirit, a real Person, takes up residence inside us. We do not become gods. We become temples.
He Is a Person
On the night He was betrayed, in the upper room, Jesus gave His disciples His final and most tender teaching. After three years of walking with them, the thing He most wanted them to carry was a Person.
However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming. He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you.
John 16:13-14, World English Bible
Read that again slowly and listen to the pronouns. He will guide. He will not speak on His own. He hears. He will speak. He will declare. He will glorify. Those are not the verbs of a force or an energy or a power source. Those are the actions of a Person. The Holy Spirit is Someone, Someone you can talk to, worship, commune with, and know.
It Is Better That He Goes
A few verses earlier, Jesus says something that should stop us in our tracks.
Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don't go away, the Counselor won't come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
John 16:7, World English Bible
Imagine I handed you a time machine and offered you a choice. You could go back and be discipled by Jesus in the flesh in the days before Pentecost: walk the roads of Galilee with Peter, James, and John, sit on the hillside for the Sermon on the Mount, lean back in the upper room. Or you could stay right here, in your own ordinary life, with the Holy Spirit living inside of you.
Which is better? Jesus has already answered. For you to live in your present reality with the Spirit dwelling within you is better than being discipled by Jesus Himself without the Spirit on the inside.
If that sounds like an overstatement, look at the evidence. The same disciples who scattered and ran on the night Jesus was arrested were, weeks later, standing before the rulers of the nation with such boldness that their accusers were stunned.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Jesus.
Acts 4:13, World English Bible
They had been with Jesus, but the deposit of all that "being with Jesus" sat dormant until the Spirit came. The Holy Spirit activated everything Jesus had poured into them. That is the difference He makes. And He makes it in you.
The Spirit From Genesis to Revelation
Lest anyone think the Holy Spirit is a late development in the story, remember that He has always been there. He is the mighty third Person of the Trinity, present from the first chapter of Scripture.
The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God's Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Genesis 1:2, World English Bible
And He is present on the final page.
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" He who hears, let him say, "Come!" He who is thirsty, let him come. He who desires, let him take the water of life freely.
Revelation 22:17, World English Bible
From the hovering of Genesis to the Maranatha of Revelation, the Spirit is the One who broods over the deep, who speaks through the prophets, who rests on the Son, who fills the church, and who now cries out alongside the Bride for the return of the King.
You Surrender to Someone
I was asked recently to speak at Good Landing Recovery, a drug and addiction recovery program our church partners with. As I prepared, I kept circling back to a word they use constantly in recovery: surrender.
We say it in church, too. You've got to surrender. But here is something we often forget to add. When you surrender in a war, you are not just surrendering in the abstract. You are surrendering to someone. You are handing control of your life to a person. And once you do, everything changes, because now you have to talk to that Person and say, "I was doing this my way. From here, I want to do it Your way. Show me."
That is the heart of the Christian life. We do not surrender to a program, a philosophy, or even a religion. We surrender to a Person, and that Person is the Holy Spirit.
When I finished speaking, a man stood up to lead the graduation portion of the evening. I had watched God transform him from someone bound by addiction into a leader who now helps set other people free. Before he did anything else, he said, "That word that was just preached was for me. I needed the invitation to surrender fresh today."
You may be reading this thinking, I know the Holy Spirit is a Person. I surrendered to Him years ago. Wonderful. But what is the thing He is asking you to surrender to Him fresh today?
A Simple Next Step
If the Holy Spirit is a Person, then the way you grow is the way you grow in any relationship: you talk with Him. Try praying this today: Holy Spirit, I yield to You. I give You my mouth, my eyes, my ears, my heart. Show me Your way, and help me walk in it.
The Holy Spirit is not a power you wield. He is a Person you walk with. And the most astonishing part is where He has chosen to make His home. Read the next part of the story: Does the Holy Spirit Live in Me?
Go deeper. This post is adapted from Manifest: How the Holy Spirit Reveals Jesus in Us and Through Us by Hazen Stevens. Get the book on Amazon, or watch the Manifest sermon series free.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain).
