Knowing The Holy Spirit

Knowing The Holy Spirit

By Apostle Felix

16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

John 14: 16 – 18

As Jesus fellowshipped with His disciples, He taught them many things and also talked about the Holy Spirit. He promised the disciples that He will send the Holy Spirit and He will never leave them as orphans. The promise was very fundamental in the sense that He called the Holy Spirit as ‘Another comforter.’ The word ‘another’ comes from the Greek word ‘Allos‘ which means ‘Another of the very same kind.’ By implication, Jesus meant that One like Himself will come and occupy His place in the disciples’ lives. The Holy Spirit would perfectly represent Jesus in every way and duplicate His life and ministry. He would mirror Jesus to such a degree, in fact, that whatever Jesus would say is exactly what He would say, and whatever Jesus would do is exactly what He would do.

Jesus also called the Holy Spirit comforter. The Greek word for comforter is ‘parakletos’ which means helper, advocate, and guide. Jesus was helper, advocate and guide to His disciples while He was with them in the physical. He then promised them He will still continue to be the helper, advocate and guide as the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised His disciples that He will be with them to the close of the age.

20  And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age.”

Matthew 28: 20

So then, we can only know the Holy Spirit by knowing Christ. He cannot be known independent of Christ. Sometimes, we tend to separate the two, study them separately. The Holy Spirit mirrors Christ in character and power. Jesus said that when He comes, He will come to glorify Me. It is a common sense to study and know the person to be glorified in order to understand the character and operations of the Holy Spirit.

13  But when the truth-giving Spirit comes, he will unveil the reality of every truth within you. He won’t speak his own message, but only what he hears from the Father, and he will reveal prophetically to you what is to come.
14  He will glorify me on the earth, for he will receive from me what is mine and reveal it to you.

John 16: 13 – 14

The Person of the Holy Spirit can only been seen in the Person of Christ. Christ, which is the name given to the Son of God, means the Anointed One and His anointing. The anointed One is the Person, who is the Holy Spirit. The Anointed One was in the flesh for the purpose of dying for the redemption of mankind. When He died and rose from the dead, the Anointed One and His anointing ascended and sent another Anointed One to come make redemption a reality in man’s heart. Therefore, Jesus does not have a different character and personality from the Holy Spirit.