The Holy Spirit

There are many good things that we can receive from God. The Lord Jesus said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him.” (Mat 7:11). The best of these good things is the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luk 11:13)

Why is the Holy Spirit the greatest and the best gift we can possibly receive from God? Because the Holy Spirit is God. He is not some power from God, but is the personality of God. He is not a thing from God, but is the Person of God. If you receive the Holy Spirit, you receive God Himself. There is no greater or better gift than that.

The Holy Spirit is the Person of God. Simon Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5;3-4) Lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God because the Holy Spirit is God.

God wants to dwell with us and in us. God Himself has said :

“I will dwell in them

And walk among them.

I will be their God,

And they shall be My people.” (2 Cor 6:16)

When God gave His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, He dwelt with us. When God gives His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, He dwells in us.

When God gives the Holy Spirit, He actually gives Himself. God does not only want to dwell with us, but in us as well. The Lord Jesus could only dwell with us because He was a flesh. The Holy Spirit can dwell in us because He is a spirit and a spirit can enter us. The Lord Jesus is God with us while the Holy Spirit is God in us.

Why does God give the Holy Spirit to dwell in us? Because God wants us to become like Him. If God only dwells with us, we can experience His presence, but we cannot be like Him in person. If God dwells in us, then we can be like Him in person. God can use our spirit, our soul and our body to express His person; His nature, His personality and His attributes.

The purpose of God giving us the Holy Spirit is to transform us into the image of His Son, the Lord Jesus. He is the express image of the Person of God (Heb 1:3). The apostle Paul wrote, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor 3:18)