I Believe in the Holy Spirit

It is obvious that the Creed does not seem to say a great deal about the Holy Spirit, which we may find surprising given the emphasis that there has been on the person and work of the Holy Spirit in recent decades. One reason for the lack of explanation could be that there was not the same degree of controversy about the Holy Spirit in the early church. Another reason might be a desire to reflect the interpretation which describes the Holy Spirit as the silent member of the Trinity, that is silent about himself in that he usually leads believers to focus on the Father and on the Son. A third possible reason is that his activities are explained in the subsequent statements in the Creed. Whatever the reason, we can deduce one important detail, which is that brevity is desirable when possible.

Yet we must not assume that little is said when only a few words are used. This brief statement about the Holy Spirit is a confession that he is a divine person. The Creed does not mention any other names apart from the three persons of the Trinity. And to say that the Holy Spirit is a divine person is to say a great deal about him. It points to the fact that he deserves our worship and our obedience. So what should be in our minds when we affirm that we believe in the Holy Spirit?

The energy of the Holy Spirit

Our first attitude should be one of awe as we reflect on his great energy. The Bible reminds us that the Holy Spirit participated in the divine work of creation. Job mentions that it was by the Spirit that God made beautiful the heavens. It is hard for us to work out how the three divine Persons shared in the work of creation, but a clue is found in the description used by Jesus when he refers to the Holy Spirit as the finger of God. Just as our fingers enable us to touch and arrange things, so the Spirit was the divine person who ‘touched and arranged’ the beauty of the physical universe.

The Bible also reminds us that the Holy Spirit provided us with our individual traits and features. While it is sadly true that our sinfulness has defaced the beauty that we should have had as God's creatures, yet we should not forget that we still possess very clear traces of the work of the divine hand in our personal uniqueness. There is something special about each of us and it is good for us to observe it in one another. It is a sign of unthoughtfulness for us only to focus on the effects of sin in a person's character, to highlight only the features that mar the work of God's creation. Each of us as God's creatures is a special work of the Holy Spirit.

The divine power of the Holy Spirit is also seen in the lives of believers. He brings them to life through the amazing act of regeneration in which he makes them spiritually alive. Usually he does this alongside the preaching of the gospel (exceptions are the occasions when he regenerates young children even in the womb or in infancy and also individuals who do not possess normal human capabilities).

This work of regeneration is not performed independent of the desires of the Father and the Son. Regeneration is the application of salvation by the Spirit to those whom the Father has elected and the Son has redeemed. In this heavenly partnership we observe the beauty of grace in action as the Spirit brings to spiritual life those who were dead in sins.

Regeneration is linked to divine enlightenment as the Spirit shows us who we are and who Jesus is. Who are we? We are sinners, and we discover what this means when the Spirit convicts us of our sins. The Spirit reveals to us the noxiousness of our sins as primarily rebellion against the good God. He shows us that we deserve to be punished, persuades us that we should embrace Jesus, and enables us to do so.

Another aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit that follows on from his act of regeneration is his ongoing indwelling in the inner lives of those who have trusted in Jesus. It is amazing to realise that within our souls there lives the third person of the divine Trinity. There is now a real sense in which the Holy Spirit has millions of homes because he indwells or lives in the hearts of his people. And this indwelling will be eternal and throughout those ages yet to come his people will discover the consequences of his continued presence in them.

Expectancy because of the Spirit

If a person is related to an individual with a lot of resources he can expect his relative to help him should he need his aid. In a far higher sense, we can expect the Spirit to help us in the ways that he can. While a great deal can be said about what he can do, we can think about how he can help us in ways linked to the aspects of his energy that we have already thought about.

We noticed earlier that the Holy Spirit was involved in the creation of the universe and in the formation of each of us as individuals, giving to each of us our unique personalities. Because this is the case it means that we can look for his involvement in everyday life through what is called common grace. The Spirit as the Creator is involved in all that occurs in the natural world such as ensuring there are harvests. He equips people, such as politicians and teachers and engineers, with natural talents in order for society to function. The Spirit gives natural gifts to some, such as to artists or to musicians, in order to make life pleasant for others. Sometimes those individuals can live unholy lives and abuse their God-given talents, but we should not forget that their gifts come from God. We can expect the Spirit to continue doing this throughout history.

We also observed that the Holy Spirit is at work in a spiritual way in the lives of sinners. Because he is active when the gospel is preached we have every reason to believe that great conversions can occur. No individual, no matter how notorious in sin, is beyond the reach of the Holy Spirit. Often the Spirit has led to repentance the most surprising of people. We should not let unbelief rob us of this comforting reality, which is that the Spirit works along with the gospel.

This confidence that we should have in the work of the Spirit in unbelievers should also be expressed in how we respond to him as believers. He is involved in every area of the lives of his people and he equips them for acts of service. In addition to their natural talents, and there are many of them, he gives spiritual gifts to his people. Paul makes it very clear that each believer has at least one spiritual gift and they have to be utilised in the service of God. The spiritual gift may not be a public one, but it is given in order to be practised in every way possible.

The Holy Spirit also helps believers as they witness for Jesus. Often they can get sidetracked into looking for techniques and strategies that they can use in order to speak more effectively about Jesus. The reality is that God has revealed his method which is to give us the appropriate words to say by the Spirit at each opportunity. We can spend so much time thinking about how to do it that all we get is silence. It is far better to act on the belief that the Spirit will know what should be said in each circumstance and begin speaking when the opportunity arises.

Another crucial way in which we can expect the help of the Spirit is in the area of prayer. Paul, in Romans 8, describes him as the Spirit of adoption who enables us to interact with the Heavenly Father in prayer. The involvement of the Spirit in this area of the Christian life has many aspects. He guides us in what to pray for, he sometimes strengthens our desires so much that they express themselves as groans, and he provides assurance from his Word that our petitions were pleasing to God.

So the Spirit helps us in using our natural talents and spiritual gifts, in witnessing to Jesus and in praying to God. Of course, he does much more, and here we can only list them:

• With regard to the Bible, he enables us to see that it is God’s Word and he enables us to understand its contents.

• He represents Jesus, as it were, so that the Saviour's physical absence is not a drawback to our spiritual development because the Holy Spirit works in our lives as Jesus would, which is one reason why he is called the Spirit of Jesus.

• He creates within us and then strengthens our longings for the heavenly world.

• He forms within us the fruit of the Spirit, which is another way of saying that we become Christlike.

These are only some of his many activities in the lives of God's people, and the fact that the Spirit does all this raises the matter of how we should react to him.

Endearment for the Holy Spirit

The first response we should have for the Holy Spirit is one of very strong affection. We should always have a sense of how much we owe to him. Everything that is right in our spiritual experience comes from his gentle involvement in our lives. And we should love him because he shows Jesus to us. And we should love him for the many ways and times that he provides spiritual comfort for us.

The second response is one that Paul warns us against when he tells the Ephesians not to grieve the Holy Spirit: ‘And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption’ (Eph. 4:30). It is an unusual way of describing the Spirit's response. If Paul had said, 'Do not disobey the Holy Spirit of God,' we could understand easily the reminder that the Spirit is the sovereign God. Instead he uses an emotional term to describe the response of the Spirit. We use the word 'grieve' to describe intense emotional situations in which there is a great deal of sadness and disappointment. It is very striking to think of the Holy Spirit in this way, that he is disappointed by our sins.