Thursday: Why Does it Matter?
The question of the personality of the Holy Spirit is of utmost importance, and it has highly practical implications. “If He is a divine person, and we think of Him as an impersonal influence, we are robbing a divine person of the deference, honor, and love that is His due.”-LeRoy Edwin Froom, The Coming of the Comforter, p. 40.
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
If we think of the Holy Spirit only as a mysterious divine power, our thoughts will be: How can I have more of the Holy Spirit? But if we think of the Holy Spirit as a divine Person, we will ask: How can the Holy Spirit have more of me? The decisive point is: Do you want to possess the Holy Spirit, or do you want the Holy Spirit to possess you? Do you resist His influence, or are you willing to follow Him in joyful obedience (see Rom. 8:12-14, Gal. 5:18-24)? Do you want to use the Holy Spirit according to your plans, or do you rely on Him so that He can enable you to become more like Jesus Christ and do what He has in mind for you? Do you take seriously the fact that “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God” (1 Cor. 6:19, NASB) and are you willing to glorify God with how you live?
Read Romans 5:5 and Ephesians 2:18-19. How are the Holy Spirit and God’s love connected? What impact does that have for you personally and for the church?
Only persons can consciously choose to cooperate with one another. We are invited to work together with the Holy Spirit, while He leads and transforms us personally and God’s church corporately. If we do not accept the Holy Spirit as a Person of the triune Godhead, it will be easier for us to ignore Him, to deafen our ears to His invitation, and to harden our hearts against His life-changing influence. And because we are fallen, sin-damaged beings in need of God’s transforming grace, the last thing we need to do is ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If anything, we need to give more of ourselves to Him. Thus, in our acknowledgment that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person who wants to use us, God stands at the center of our Christian experience.
| “We cannot use the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is to use us.” – The Desire of Ages, p. 672. What do you think Ellen G. White meant by that? How can the Holy Spirit use us? (See Phil. 2:13.) |
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Actually it makes a lot of meaning to me to know that its me to submit fully to the work of the HolySpirit, He should have more of me and not the other way round. When we ask for more of the HolySpirit that means He will be under our control and guidance, it will be us to control Him, but when The HolySpirit has more of Us then we are sure that we are under His guidance. That's why Paul reminds us in Rom.12:1-2; To sumbmit our bodies as living sacrifices to God, for its this that indicates our reasonable service. While it may be important that we do all these good things, there is nothing more Important to God than a soul that has been fully submited to its work. May God Bless Us all.
What a great way of putting things!
You (and the lesson author) make clear why it is important to see the Holy Spirit as a Person. When the Holy Spirit is seen as a power, it is easy to ask for more of that power. But the real question is how much He has of us!
The best thing to do is not to be worried about doing good things for the sake of them, but to be foccused on being in constant communion with true Love (Jesus - through the HS and, consequently, with God the Father). Our works, then, will not be the result of our own power (because we have basically nothing to present as sanctified), but the result of true Love in us. The Voice of true Love in our hearts is the one we should be trying to recognize and listen to all the time! That's my prayer for myself, my family, my friends and for all of you today.
actually this lesson reminded us that our bodies are temples of the Holyspirit and in order for the Holy Spirit to have more of us we must avoid things that defy our bodies because if we defy them it means that we are chasing away the Holy Spirit and that is why Paul reminds us that whenever we are eating or drinking or doing anything we should do it to glorify GOD and by so doing the Holy Spirit will have more of us. May God
bless us all
LeRoy Froom brought the trinity rather than the Godhead into Adventism in response to Walter Martin's book "Kingdom of the Cults" where SDAs were called a cult not because of our Sabbath belief, but because of our trinitarian stance. This was in the 1950s. I remember speaking to older members 30 years ago and they remember when this new doctrine was gradually introduced. Beware, the trinity is straight out of Catholicism and like a Sunday sabbath came from the Council of Nicea 325 AD to the time of the Council of Constantinople AD 381.
You make an interesting claim, Sue, and I would be interested in the source of your information.
These are the facts that I know:
Walter Martin's *Kingdom of the Cults* was first published in 1965. That was a full 8 years *after* the General Conference published *Questions on Doctrine* which portrayed the Seventh-day Adventist Church as fully Trinitarian. That's why Walter Martin recognized Adventists as a fellow Christian denomination, rather than a cult.
I also know this: Two of the three chief figures in the beginning of Adventism (Joseph Bates and James White) had a Christian Connexion background which rejected the full deity of Christ and relegated the Holy Spirt to nothing more than a manifestation of God's power. So the early writings of these men may show traces of their theology.
Others, however, came from a Methodist background, with full Trinitarian theology.
It wasn't till after 1888 or so that Seventh-day Adventists began to come together on an understanding of the Godhead that is essentially Trinitarian. But whoever was there to see the doctrine being "gradually introduced" would need to be very old - like being born in 1875 maybe?
It might be best not to use the word "Trinity" though, since there are so many versions of Trinitarian belief and Adventist belief is quite different from some of them.
By 1898, most Adventists were beginning to agree that the Godhead was composed of three equal persons.
One of our founders put it clearly in 1905:
(You can see the quote in context by clicking on the link.)
Ing. I know you are knowledgeable about a number of Biblical issues, and I wonder if the issue over differences in understanding the Trinity due to a little know publication, is meritorious? I would also ask, why some think it is important to validate the opinion of the Holy Spirit as a person. Do we not have the text that says the Holy Spirit is like the wind? John 3:8
Jesus was referring to the manner of the Holy Spirits effect on the soul, and while invisible like the wind, the effects are seen by others. He never stated the Holy Spirit was just a breeze passing through. Read everything Jesus says about the "Spirit of Truth", the "Comforter", the "Teacher", etc. A true personality, and not just a puff of air.
At the beginning of this lesson i did not think it mattered much whether the Holy Spirit is a person or not. But today's lesson and Ssevvume's comment have revealed a hidden truth to me. Instead of praying daily for the Holy Spirit it is I who needs to open up more to Him. There are some prayer lines such as " Pour your Holy Spirit in our hearts.." which makes the person praying a passive recipient when it should actually be a conscious cooperative relationship where the Holy Spirit is the leader. I sometimes viewed the Holy Spirit as a reserve power bank to be drawn upon when needed. But this lesson has revealed Him as a divine being worthy of honor and reverence as such. It is very humbling as well as comforting to know the nature of the Comforter.It is God.
The Holy Spirit loves us as much as the Father and Jesus. There is many energies in this world: heat, wind, fire, lightning, the poles........ They are all impersonal. They don't care if your hurt, or if your pregnate when they knock you down. The only energie that is personal is love. Love is alway inteligently seeking to better your situation and is constantly motivated to your well being.
Concerning the main focus of this week's study, I have never known anyone to question the personality of the Holy Spirit, or think of "it" as a mere source of energy/power. So this whole exercise of "proving" it's personality seems almost strange. I always thought the Bible was very clear on the matter, as this lesson has shown. For me, the confusion has been more about how some think the Holy Spirit actually works in us, which today's portion begins to address.
I would point out that we must properly understand the idea of being "used" by the Holy Spirit, for some might think that we need no motive or choice of our own. The promise is: “blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” With what? With righteousness, which is the result of being filled by the Spirit of God who renews us, but only IF we are desiring this renewing through repentance of our sinful ways. If we are not truly willing, the Holy Spirit cannot help or "use" us. He is a helper, comforter and teacher, not a dictator. But we must desire His help, His teachings, His comfort, while despising our own sinfulness, which we must desire to turn from if we would be helped. When we yield willingly, the Holy Spirit does His work in us. Keep in mind that a helper does not act without permission and request, and will not override our contrary desires and ways if we do not surrender them.
Yes, the Holy Spirit is always at work convincing each of us of our need, but this is only the work of conviction, and until we confess(agree) with these convictions and act upon them through repentance, the Holy Spirit cannot exert His power to help, comfort and renew. Freewill never goes away, which remains a danger to the unconverted.
How can/will the natural man hunger and thirst after righteousness? How can he of himself *repent* if REPENTANCE is a GIFT of God (Lk 24:47,48; Act 5:31; 11:18; Rom 2:4; 2 Cor 7:8-11; 2 Tim 2:25; Isa 30:15; Heb 12:17. Since all things have been placed “in Christ”(John 3:35), all the promises of God - forgiveness, repentance, faith, justification, sanctification, salvation, etc - come to us as gifts of God’s grace. We cannot of ourselves will these virtues. According to the Scripture, our natural condition is “under sin; none is righteous; none understands; NO ONE SEEKS AFTER GOD; they have become worthless; none does good, not one; no fear of God before their eyes...”Rom 3:9-18
“The natural (carnal) man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”1 Cor 2:14
“The carnal mind is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, indeed it CANNOT, so those in the flesh cannot please God.” Rom 8:7,8.
It is God of His own good pleasure who creates in “His people” a desire for spiritual things, things of God - only in His people.
Kenny, are you saying God must repent for us? Where is our choice? This gift of repentance is given in two ways:
1.) by being given the ability to see our need, though the conviction brought by the Holy Spirit
2.) Jesus' death in our place that makes repentance even possible as an option.
This is the "gift" we are given to exercise. Through the Holy Spirit(John 16:8), we are brought the conviction of recognizing our true condition, but not a forceful submission to it. We are left to make the choice of repenting in faith or resisting in unbelief.
King David felt no desire or need of repentance until God sent Nathan the prophet to show David the enormity of his sinfulness. Ps 51 is the result of that conviction, but David had to confess/repent himself. King Saul never repented of wrong, only making excuses, though God brought the conviction to him as well. Also, Jesus was always calling sinners to repentance(Mark 1:15), and gave the same message for His followers to take to "the uttermost part of the earth"(Luke 24:47), which they did and must still do. If done faithfully, the Holy Spirit will attend this work and convict sinners of their need to repent, which is their own work.
The people referred to in the passages you quote are the finally impenitent, refusing to acknowledge the conviction brought by the Holy Spirit, persisting in sin, making excuses rather than repenting.
If repentance is not left to our choice, why will so many be lost?
To elaborate a little more on the other part of this "gift": without the gift of Jesus' propitiation(drinking OUR cup of God's wrath against sin), we would have no opportunity to repent. So in Christ, repentance is made possible(yes, a gift), to be exercised by the sinner. God will choose for no one. We are left with the choices to make. God has created us with a free will, which we exercise in every choice we make.
Christ has promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to His church, and the promise belongs to us as much as to the first disciples. But like every other promise, it is given on conditions. There are many who believe and profess to claim the Lord’s promise; they talk about Christ and the Holy Spirit, yet receive no benefit. They do not surrender the soul to be guided and controlled by divine agencies. We cannot use the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit God works in His people “to will and to do of his good pleasure.” But many will not submit to this. They want to manage themselves. This is why they do not receive the heavenly gift. - YRP 299.2
According to Jesus, the Holy Spirit does not have to be a visible person to be a power. Neither does He have to be visible to be a person with intelligence and feelings such as joy, peace, etc. and to be relational.
You are so right, Don, Jesus said in John 14:17, 18 that The Holy Spirit would, "dwell," with His followers and He (The Holy Spirit,) would also be "in," them. And then in verse 18 Jesus identifies with His Holy Spirit to the point of saying these very comforting words, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."
Paul elaborates on this in Eph 3:14-19 doesn't he?
I suppose that we could say here, Robert, with the Apostle Paul's words in Ephesians 3:15-19, that Paul goes a step further in including God The Father in this indwelling of His Holy Spirit in His Son Jesus' followers' very "inner beings."
God in the Person of the Holy Spirit is to use us and not the other way around. What an important reminder.
Total surrender is my job, transformation and leading me in Gods purpose and plan for my life is the Holy Spirits job. What an amazing cooperative, it's the only way the image of God is reflected in me.
wow am blessed surely thank you soo much
I think that God wants to use us, but never for a selfishly motivated purpose. He only wants to motivate us by Love. Jesus showed us the character of God when He dwelt among us. We have seen the results of selfishly motivated people and devils on this Earth and we have examples to demonstrate the difference between True Love and selfishness.
God's Holy Spirit motivates us with His Love if we permit it in any issue of our life.