3. The Divinity of the Holy Spirit – Discussion Starters
- The Holy Spirit is God. Is that a subtle reality? Not all Bible-believing Christians accept the divinity of the Holy Spirit with equal ease. What about you? Do you believe that the Holy Spirit is divine? Do you see the Holy Spirit as a member of the godhead on an equal standing with God the Father and Jesus the Son? Why is the concept of the Holy Spirit so hard for some of us Christians to grasp?
- The Holy Spirit and God. “Lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God.” How does the
tragic story of Annanias and Saphira link the Holy Spirit to God? Hint: In what way does Peter’s questioning of Annanias about his lying indicate that he has sinned against God? What was the punishment meted on this couple for their sin? Will God punish all of His people by death if they are less than honest in their dealings with Him and His church? How can the Holy Spirit help us prevent such a dramatic and tragic twist of rebellion in our Christian life? - The Holy Spirit’s Divine Attributes. What does Paul say is the only means through which God makes His wisdom known to us? What makes the Holy Spirit so qualified to understand God’s inner thoughts? What beloved story of the Bible is known as a “miracle of the first magnitude”? How did the Holy Spirit contribute to the spiritual lives of Paul? According to this week’s lesson, what is the most amazing work of the Holy Spirit?
- Interchangeable References. How can the use of parallel structure of various statements about the working of God among His people point to the presence of the Holy Spirit? For example, the Lord said to Moses, “The Spirit of Israel said…to me.” (2 Samuel 23:2) and in the next verse, “The God of Israel said…to me.” Who, then, was the speaker? Another example is found in 1 Corinthians 2:11 where Paul writes about the Holy Spirit distributing spiritual gifts to believers and a few verses later (28), he assures us that God gives us spiritual gifts.
- Divine Work of the Holy Spirit. Can we gain insight into spiritual development that is dramatically assisted by the Holy Spirit? How? Try to explain the new birth without the Holy Spirit’s involvement. Can it be done? Why not? How can we help believers who are troubled by different verbal structures in writing or speaking describe the steps of conversion and other miraculous events in the Christian life?
- The Importance of His Divinity. Once we have declared the Holy Spirit to be God, how should we determine to relate to Him? Is it always appropriate to pray directly to the Holy Spirit? How can our weekly and daily worship be magnified by our being aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our meditation and life. What is the best thing about having God in our hearts through the Holy Spirit?
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In our last lesson,we learnt that the holy spirit accepted to play the behind the scene role(though no biblical evidence of this agreement).But i am still most confused about this whole thing.I am still seeing the holy spirit of a thing in abstract terms.It does not sound real and practicable to me.I am only believing on its existence by faith and because i was told.If the holy spirit is God,how then did he accept to play a subordinate role? We were also told that the role of the holy spirit is to reveal Jesus Christ and His good work and also to take us to Christ.Does it mean that the holy spirit interceeds for us with christ? Should we now pray to holy spirit? This whole thing is not really clear to me.Someone should make it clearer.
all 3 have different roles to play, hence that of the Holy Spirit is behind the scenes, compare the role of Jesus and that of the Father, Jesus is the Son and He looks up to the Father as a son looks at his father, but they are equal, they both have the fullness of the Godhead bodily. I think it's simple as that. Even when looking at a movie we always look at the main actor as the center of it all but in actual facts he is just an actor there, all he does is act, even everything he says is given to him in script, the movie wouldn't be a success without the producers and aditors who don't appear even once on the movie. I think the work of the Holy Spirit is similar to that, God is 3 each has a very important role to play, when we separate Him He ceases to be God.
Agreed Bhebhe,
working behind scenes does not mean subordinate,the writer is trying to explain to us that we don't see the Holy Spirit but we see the results
I think that the Father and the Son are ONE, like our mind (who we are mentally and emotionally) is one with our body. Our body does not work without motivation from our mind. Our mind tells our body what to do and our body does it.
Likewise, our mind is motivated by our spirit. Our spirit motivates us with selfish motivation and directs the process of our thinking which directs our actions which directs and moves the things around us.
If we allow God's Holy Spirit to direct our thoughts and feelings we will have His Love to motivate our thoughts and feelings like Jesus did.