The New Testament places great emphasis on the Holy Spirit. Altogether, there are over three times as many references to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament as there are in the Old Testament, even though the Old Testament is three times longer than the New Testament. This is because the Holy Spirit is much more active among His people after Jesus’ coming than He was before Jesus’ coming. As we look more closely at this New Testament emphasis, we discover that:

• The Holy Spirit was absolutely critical to Jesus’s First Coming. He conceived Jesus’s body (Luke 1:35), He empowered Jesus for His public ministry (Luke 3:22; Acts 10:38), He enabled Jesus to live a perfect life, so that He could be the Sacrifice for our sins (Hebrews 9:14), and He raised Jesus’s body from the dead (1 Peter 3:18).
• Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would be the key to their lives after His physical presence left them (John 16:7). While He was with them, He only talked about the Holy Spirit’s future help a couple of times (Luke 12, 13). But in His final conversation with them just before His arrest (John 14-16), He referred explicitly to the Holy Spirit 6 times and many more times implicitly (e.g., the “sap” in John 15) – making it clear that the activity of the Holy Spirit would be the key to their future spiritual lives and ministries.

The book of Acts is the New Testament’s account of the very early church. It narrates the beginning of the fulfillment of Jesus’s promise. Luke refers explicitly to the Holy Spirit at least 46 times (an average of over 2 times per chapter, not counting the 7 chapters that narrate Paul’s trip to Rome), and implicitly many, many more times (e.g., all miracles and exorcisms were done by the power of the Holy Spirit). Acts makes it clear that through the Holy Spirit Jesus continued to work through His followers.

When we turn to the apostles’ letters to churches and Christian leaders, they refer explicitly to the Holy Spirit at least 118 times. Paul’s 13 letters refer explicitly to the Holy Spirit at least 98 times (an average of 7 references per letter), and implicitly many, many more times (e.g., Philippians 2:13; Colossians 1:11,29). These letters affirm what Jesus predicted and Acts narrates – that the Holy Spirit is the spiritual “secret” and “engine” of Jesus’s followers.

All of this means that Christians should think much about the Holy Spirit as we relate to Jesus and serve Him, and that we should refer frequently to the Holy Spirit when we interact with one another. Yet my guess is that many of us only rarely think about and/or refer to the Holy Spirit. Why is this? There are probably multiple reasons:

• Some of us simply haven’t been adequately taught about the Holy Spirit. We are largely ignorant of Him and His role in our lives.

• Some of us are wary/suspicious of the Holy Spirit because we have seen (or participated in) unhealthy weirdness attributed to Him (e.g., all Christians must speak in tongues; inordinate emphasis on miracles; bizarre stories of people “led by the Spirit”). These experiences may lead us to an equally unhealthy overreaction – neglecting the Holy Spirit’s proper role in our lives.
• Some of us (like myself) were taught to stay away from emphasizing the Spirit. As a young Christian, I was taught that the Holy Spirit draws attention to Jesus (John 16:14), but not to Himself – so we shouldn’t emphasize Him. This was probably a well-intentioned reaction to charismatic excess, but it was unbiblical and it did not help my Christian life. How can we affirm that the Spirit inspired the New Testament without also affirming that He draws attention to Himself? He is the One who tells us so much about Himself! Instead, we should honor the Holy Spirit by letting Him play the role in our lives that He wants to play.

So who is this Holy Spirit, and what role(s) does He play in our lives? Let’s survey the Bible’s answers to these important questions.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is not a force, or simply a manifestation of God. The Holy Spirit is a Person who has a mind (1 Corinthians 2:11), a will (1 Corinthians 12:11) and an emotional life (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 1:6). The Holy Spirit is called “He” in the Bible not to denote gender, but to emphasize personhood. This Person is one of the three Persons who comprise what theologians call the “Godhead” – the Community of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit – who have always been in community with one another (this is implied in John 17:24,; and possibly implied in Isaiah 48:16).

The Holy Spirit plays a unique role in God’s plan of salvation, or rescue from our alienation from Him. Broadly speaking, the Bible reveals that the Father  initiated and predicted this plan of salvation, that Jesus accomplished  our salvation through His life, atoning death and resurrection, and that the Holy Spirit  applies  our salvation by indwelling us once we entrust ourselves to Jesus as our Savior (Ephesians 1:13,14 or Acts 2:38).

The New Testament emphasizes three main ways (though not the only ways) the Holy Spirit applies our salvation:

1. He personally assures us of God’s love as His children,
2. He transforms our character to be more Christ-like, and
3. He empowers us to love and serve others as Jesus’s representatives.

Many of the ministries of the Holy Spirit can be grouped under these three main areas. For example, help in prayer may be a subset of assurance; help in discipleship or evangelism is a subset of empowerment for ministry; etc. Others, like illumination, may advance each of these three areas (e.g., conviction of sinful behavior or attitude; help in preparing a teaching; bringing a promise alive for personal encouragement).

In Romans 15:13-19, the apostle Paul speaks of each of these main ministries of the Holy Spirit:

Romans 15:13 speaks of the assuring work of the Holy Spirit. He is able to infuse God’s peace and hope and joy in all Christians’ our hearts as we trust in Him – regardless of our circumstances.

Romans 15:16 speaks of the character-transforming work of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s apostolic ministry was to offer up Gentile converts to Jesus, “sanctified by the Spirit.” In light of Colossians 1:28, where Paul says his goal is to present Gentile Christians “mature in Christ,” this is a reference to the Holy Spirit’s ability to transform Christians’ character. (See also 2 Corinthians 3:18 for all Christians.)

Romans 15:19 speaks of the empowering work of the Holy Spirit. Namely, Paul’s ability to perform signs and wonders and to persevere in his preaching ministry all over the Northern Mediterranean Basin was not by his own intelligence or eloquence or will-power, but “by the power of the Spirit.” (See also Acts 1:8 for all Christians.)

Christians typically tend to focus on one or two of these and neglect the other one or two. Some (e.g., many charismatics) tend to focus on assurance and/or empowerment, but neglect character transformation. Others tend to focus on character transformation and/or empowerment for ministry, but neglect assurance. This neglect leads to harmful distortions of spirituality, as we will see. We want to move toward full-orbed emphasis on all of the ways the Holy Spirit works in our lives.

The Holy Spirit as God’s down-payment and “firstfruits”

Even as we emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we must understand that His work in this life – as great as it is – is a “down-payment,” or “the firstfruits” of when we enter God’s eternal kingdom after Jesus returns. Firstfruits are the first products of a harvest; both terms metaphorically refer to the fact that the work of the Holy Spirit in our present lives is just the beginning of His glorious work in us through all eternity. These concepts are found in Ephesians 1:14 and Romans 8:23.

This perspective helps us to build healthy biblical expectations concerning the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives:

• On the one hand, we should expect the Spirit to be at work in and through us in the above three ways, and we should ask Him to make us into people who are “full of the Spirit.” Stated negatively, we should not be Christian deists – knowing that God exists, but not expecting Him to be personally and actively involved in our lives. This is a problem for many Christians.
• On the other hand, we should realize that the Spirit’s work in this life will always be an anticipation of the perfect life with God that we will experience only in the next life. Stated negatively, we should not be Christian triumphalists – expecting to “have it all” in this life. Even as we experience the Spirit’s work in our lives, we still groan as fallen people who live in a fallen world – there will be sin still unconquered, there will still be (occasionally) dark nights of the soul, there will still be times when wish for greater empowerment (e.g., physical healings), etc.

Thus, we need to manage our expectations about the Spirit biblically, and guard ourselves against both self-imposed spiritual anorexia and spiritual gluttony.

If you are a spiritual seeker, I hope studying the Holy Spirit will persuade you to receive  the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ gift to all who entrust themselves to Him (see John 7:37-39). And “anyone” includes you!

For some, the Holy Spirit makes His presence known immediately and dramatically. For others, He makes His presence known later and more subtly, and this includes me. He knows best how to do this, and we shouldn’t stereotype or try to dictate how He must do this. But if you choose to receive Jesus as your Savior, the Holy Spirit  will make His presence known in your life!

If you have received the Holy Spirit by entrusting yourself to Jesus, I hope studying the Holy Spirit will help you to  grow  in your relationship with the Holy Spirit in four ways:

1. By increasing your  understanding of the Holy Spirit. Pray for God to give you this as you take in the content of this series. Ask God to guide you to specific passages about the work of the Holy Spirit and help you to meditate on them.
2. By increasing your  appreciation of the Holy Spirit. Pray for God to give you this so that you live less like a fearful spiritual orphan, and more like a confident son/daughter of God. Ask God to open the eyes of your heart so that you may know the surpassing greatness of the power that is at work toward you – the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (Ephesians 1:19).
3. By increasing your  anticipation of the Holy Spirit. Pray for God to help you live increasingly not as a Christian deist, but as a biblical supernaturalist. Ask God to teach you how to see what He is doing and do it in partnership with Him (John 5:19).
4. By increasing your responsiveness to the Holy Spirit. Pray for God to help you to live less as a fearful, self-protective Christian, and more as one who steps out in faith, trusting His Spirit to empower you to do His will.

Pray regularly for all four of these as you study the Holy Spirit. God will answer your prayers because this is His will for you as His child!