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| ...he saw the Spirit of God coming down on him as a dove |
In our first two sessions we’ve talked about who the Holy Spirit is and we’ve looked at attributes that show that He’s a person, He has intelligence, feelings, a will, He prays, He does miracles (humans can’t do this), He can be lied to, He can be insulted, He teaches and He directs. Last week we looked at attributes that show that He’s God.
- Omnipotent - All powerful
- Omnipresent - Present everywhere
- Omniscient - All knowing
Names of the Holy Spirit in Scripture
This week we are going to look at some of the names of the Holy Spirit in scriptureAuthor of Scripture
The Spirit moved the authors of all 66 books to record exactly what He breathed into their hearts and minds. One person said, “As a ship is moved through the water by wind in its sails, so the biblical writers were borne along by the Spirit’s impulse.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (HCSB)16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Peter 1:20-21 (HCSB)20 First of all, you should know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation,21 because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Comforter / Counselor / Advocate
The words comforter, counselor, and advocate are all translations of the Greek word parakletos, from which we get “Paraclete,” another name for the Spirit. Jesus promised to send the Spirit to comfort, console, and guide those who belong to Christ.
Isaiah 11:2 (HCSB) The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him— a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
John 14:16 (NLT) And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.
John 15:26 (ASV) But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me:
John 16:7 (HCSB) Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you.
Convictor of Sin
The Spirit applies the truths of God to men’s own minds in order to convince them by fair and sufficient arguments that they are sinners. He does this through the conviction in our hearts that we are not worthy to stand before a holy God, that we need His righteousness, and that judgment is certain and will come to all men one day. Those who deny these truths rebel against the conviction of the Spirit.
John 16:7-11 (HCSB)7 Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you.8 When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment:9 About sin, because they do not believe in Me;10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me;11 and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
Deposit / Seal / Earnest/Guarantee
The Holy Spirit is God’s seal on His people, His claim on us as His very own. The gift of the Spirit to believers is a down payment on our heavenly inheritance, which Christ has promised us and secured for us at the cross. It is because the Spirit has sealed us that we are assured of our salvation. No one can break the seal of God. Remember once saved, always saved.
2 Corinthians 1:22 (HCSB) He has also sealed us and given us the Spirit as a down payment in our hearts.
2 Corinthians 5:5 (HCSB) And the One who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.
Ephesians 1:13-14 (HCSB)13 When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.14 He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.
Guide
Just as the Spirit guided the writers of Scripture to record truth, so does He promise to guide believers to know and understand that truth. God’s truth is “foolishness” to the world, because it is “spiritually discerned”
Those who belong to Christ have the indwelling Spirit who guides us into all we need to know in regard to spiritual matters. Those who do not belong to Christ have no “interpreter” to guide them to know and understand God’s Word.
John 16:13 (HCSB) When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.
1 Corinthians 2:14 (HCSB) But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.
Indweller of Believers
The Holy Spirit resides in the hearts of God’s people, and that indwelling is the distinguishing characteristic of the regenerated person. From within believers, He directs, guides, comforts, and influences us, as well as producing in us the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). He provides the intimate connection between God and His children. All true believers in Christ have the Spirit residing in their hearts.
Romans 8:9-11 (HCSB)9 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.10 Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.11 And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you. -
Ephesians 2:21-22 (HCSB)21 The whole building, being put together by Him, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord.22 You also are being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (HCSB)19 Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,20 for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.
Intercessor
One of the most encouraging and comforting aspects of the Holy Spirit is His ministry of intercession on behalf of those He inhabits. Because we often don’t know what or how to pray when we approach God, the Spirit intercedes and prays for us. When we are oppressed and overwhelmed by trials and the cares of life, He comes alongside to lend assistance as He sustains us before the throne of grace.
Romans 8:26 (HCSB) In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.
Those groanings are not speaking in tongues, but that's another study. Let's just leave it there for today's study.
Revealer / Spirit of Truth
Jesus promised that, after the resurrection, the Holy Spirit would come to “guide you into all truth.” Because of the Spirit in our hearts, we are able to understand truth, especially in spiritual matters, in a way that non-Christians cannot. In fact, the truth the Spirit reveals to us is “foolishness” to them, and they cannot understand it. But we have the mind of Christ in the Person of His Spirit within us.
John 14:17 (HCSB) He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive Him because it doesn’t see Him or know Him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you.
John 16:13 (HCSB) When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.
1 Corinthians 2:12-16 (HCSB)12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who ⌊comes⌋ from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God.13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.14 But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone.16 For who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Spirit of God / the Lord / Christ
These names remind us that the Spirit of God is indeed part of the triune godhead and that He is just as much God as the Father and the Son. He is first revealed to us at the creation, when He was “hovering over the waters,” denoting His part in creation, along with that of Jesus who “made all things” We see this same Trinity of God again at Jesus’ baptism, when the Spirit descends on Jesus and the voice of the Father is heard.
Matthew 3:16 (HCSB) After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him.
2 Corinthians 3:17 (HCSB) Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
1 Peter 1:11 (HCSB)11 They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when He testified in advance to the messianic sufferings and the glories that would follow.
We're out of time today. We'll finish next week with more names of the Holy Spirit in scripture. We will also identify the symbols of the Holy Spirit in scripture. I'll give you a little preview.
- Dove
- Fire
- Water
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