In the series “Our Personal God and His Spirit, Versus the No God Alpha and Omega,” we have already covered the personality of God—that He is one bodily person who is in heaven. This was established by our pioneers and confirmed in the Spirit of Prophecy. But what about the personality of the Spirit of Holiness? We turn to this fascinating topic now. And, in addition to reading this, for those who learn more visually, here is a video that explains this subject better than any other I have seen.
We have learned previously in this series that, unlike the Father and the Son, the Spirit of Holiness is not tangible and is not just in heaven, but everywhere; and this is one thing that nearly everyone would agree upon. However, the Spirit of Prophecy uses the words “person” and “personality” to describe the Spirit of Holiness, as we will see. We will be looking at such quotes and we shall see the sweet harmony between the quotes we saw on the personality of God and these. We will see that definitions play a key role in giving us discernment.
But before we continue, we must realize that
“The Nature of the Holy Spirit is a Mystery.
Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together passages of Scripture and put a human construction on them, but the acceptance of these views will not strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep for human understanding, silence is golden.
— E.G. White, Acts of the Apostles, pp. 51-52
It is not essential for you to know and be able to define just what the Holy Spirit is. Christ tells us that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and the Comforter is the Holy Ghost, “the Spirit of truth, which the Father shall send in My Name.” “I will pray the Father, and He shall send you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, 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.” This refers to the omnipresence of the Spirit of Christ, called the Comforter.
— E.G. White, Letter 7, 1891
We will only be studying here what is clearly revealed—not the what but who the Spirit is, which is revealed right in this latter quote: the Messiah.
Notice that she does not say that the Messiah Himself is omnipresent, but that it is rather the Spirit of the Messiah that has omnipresence. There are two of’s. Omnipresence is just one aspect of His Spirit—the aspect that is with us wherever we are, which is an essence likened to the wind. This is the main way ‘spirit’ (Greek: ‘pneuma’) is usually used in the Scriptures especially for that of our Saviour.
But His body, with His divine mind—”the mind of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:27)—is in Heaven; and both in Strong’s and Webster’s ‘pneuma’/’spirit’ means mind, or rationality, for the other component, which is the source of the essence. This is the aspect we are focusing on in this section, and it will guard us against pantheistic views, which is why it is so critical to believe in the biblical personality of the Spirit of Holiness.
Many people are engaging in speculation and error in making the essence of the Spirit of Holiness God Himself, rather than proceeding from God, but some others, in contradicting this error, make their own error of denying that the Spirit of Holiness is a person. Both extreme views, though popular, are pantheistic.
It is an eye opening, refreshing and uplifting study.
HalleluJAH! We’re glad you were blessed. Go share it with others!
A good study. There are a couple of points I would question. One is, if l read right, you left room for the Spirit to be of some type of material. Second, I got that the Holy Spirit is the mind of Christ, but does the imparted Spirit have a mind that operates without a corporal body of its own? Does it functionally search the deep things of God apart from the corporal body of Christ? Does it by chance unite with our spirit and use our brain to search out the things of God? What part does the angels have as mediums of the Holy Spirit?
Hello, brother. I don’t think it’s my place to answer all your questions, but I wanted to say that I’m pretty sure Ricky shared quotes in this study that state that the Holy Spirit is an essence. This is opposite of something that is of some kind of material. I don’t know if you read the previous section on the personality of GOD, but if not, I recommend it. There are multiple quotes stressing the fact that GOD is *not* immaterial and they also state that GOD is not an essence. So, to Sister White, essence and immateriality are synonymous. In other words, by calling the Holy Spirit an essence, she was indicating that it is immaterial. It does operate in the corporeal forms of others, but it does not have its own (unless, of course, you count JEHOSHUA Himself).
Also, the final part of the personality of GOD study deals with the role of the angels.
I hope that helps.
PS: There may remain unanswered questions by necessity, for GOD has not revealed everything about His Spirit—or Himself, for that matter—to us.
Outstanding. Praise the Lord.
HalleluYAH 🙌 the best on this subject, and also practical in application..