4 Things You Are Misunderstanding about the Holy Spirit

A popular catchphrase which catapulted its way into popular culture in the late 1970s is from the movie “Star Wars” – “may the force be with you.” I can remember at the time hearing and watching several preachers of the day, in attempting to explain the manner of the Holy Spirit, calling Him “a force.” To this day many still would not find it offensive to refer to the Holy Spirit in this way. Jehovah’s Witnesses in particular, who should not be regarded as Christian, offer this definition of the Holy Spirit:

“The holy spirit is God’s power in action, his active force or applied power in the world. God sends out his spirit by projecting his energy to any place to accomplish his will.” (Watchtower online library)

They also add that He is impersonal and deny His deity. As Christians, we should never in any way side with this conclusion. To call the Holy Spirit simply an active force with no personality strips Him of His identity and reduces Him to nothing more than a messenger who is dispatched to wherever He is needed. 

Over the years, I have listened to people refer to the Spirit as a “thing” or an “it,” and it always wrangles me. What must be firmly established is that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. Scripture makes it abundantly clear that He is a person. Of course, the common objection to this is that a person must be referring to someone with flesh and blood — and while this of course is true, a person is defined as “a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness…” The Holy Spirit has such qualities.

Throughout the New Testament we read of the Holy Spirit as having first, intellect:

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26).

Second, emotions:

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).

And third, a will:

“As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’” (Acts 13:2).

When we speak of the Holy Spirit, we never want to misinterpret, undervalue, or malign His character or work. Doing so can interfere with our walk with the Lord by stunting our growth in Christ. A proper view of the Spirit of God will empower us because He will always seek to lift up Jesus and not Himself.

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The Rapture of the Church is the next event on God’s prophetic calendar. It will be sudden, as well as cataclysmic, and it will spell the end of life on earth as we know it, and the end of the Church on earth. 

“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17).

But a common misconception is that when the Church goes, so goes the Holy Spirit along with His ministry. Thankfully, this is not the case, for when one chapter closes for the Holy Spirit (i.e., the Dispensation of Grace, also known as the Church Age), another one will open. The Holy Spirit yet has a glorious post-Church future.

“And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way” (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7).

These verses have long been a point of contention amongst believers. Who is the “He” referred to verse seven? A careful reading of this verse would indicate that the “He” is the Holy Spirit. Yet how can the Holy Spirit not be present in the world, when we know that during the Tribulation period following the Rapture, all over the world, people will be saved? And that salvation cannot happen apart from the Holy Spirit’s conviction and indwelling?

Presently, the Holy Spirit and His indwelling presence within the Church is restraining evil. Simply put, things may get bad – very bad even – but the presence of the Spirit in the body of Christ prevents things from being as evil as they could be. At the Rapture, that restraining influence will no longer be present in the Church, because it will be gone, i.e., “taken out of the way.” With the restraining aspect of His ministry no longer in place, the proverbial doors will be blown open, allowing untold evil and the eventual antichrist to be revealed. Notwithstanding, the Holy Spirit will remain active, and His salvific ministry will not cease, bringing about the salvation of thousands — if not millions during this unprecedented time.

“’Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen” (Matthew 28:20).

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Here we have only one of the many false teachings found within the hyper-grace movement. To take away any one aspect of the Holy Spirit’s ministry is heretical and borderline blasphemous. The Holy Spirit most definitely convicts believers of sin because believers do sin! Do we think that somehow the Holy Spirit otherwise ignores and turns His back on sin in the believer’s life?

The problem stems from the erroneous belief that Christians no longer need to repent for any sin, because when we are saved, all sin past, present, and future has already been forgiven. Indeed, all these sins have been forgiven, but in what sense? Jesus’ blood which He spilled on the cross on our behalf, makes forgiveness possible. When we sin, we can be assured that our sins will be forgiven. However, an unconfessed sin is an unforgiven sin.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

We should not assume or take it for granted that our sins are somehow already forgiven. If and when sin does happen in the believer’s life – and it will – the Holy Spirit will convict, i.e., make us aware that we have sinned and lead us to Christ. Confession and repentance are the proper responses to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit which, through conviction, brings unbelievers into the kingdom, is the same Holy Spirit who lovingly convicts His children whenever sin intrudes upon their life.

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Finally, getting this wrong about the Holy Spirit can throw not just our theology, but our very lives into a spiritual tailspin. Nowhere in Scripture do we read of a Christian ever being possessed by a demon. It is in essence, both a physical and spiritual impossibility.

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

As far as the Christian goes, demons can oppress, they can push, they can prod, they can poke, and they can apply pressure; but that's all external – they cannot enter into the child of God, wreaking havoc in the process. Believers who struggle with sin and cannot seem to conquer it in their lives signals a problem with the flesh and with faith. In such cases, the devil can harass and lie, which can lead the unsuspecting and unlearned Christian to conclude that they must be possessed. Whenever the believer places their faith in anything or anyone but Christ, and not in their own performance, i.e., their own works, then sin will seek to take the upper hand. We do well to remember the words of Paul:

“In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Ephesians 2:2-5).

These verses serve to tell us that as believers, we are not who we used to be — we have been delivered by the power of God. The enemy would tell us that that he is in control and that there is nothing that we can do about it. But something has been done about it: Christ died to make us free, and in Him, we are made free indeed. Satan cannot corrupt what Christ has cleansed. The presence of the Holy Spirit in us, makes it impossible.

The Holy Spirit plays a most vital role in the life of the believer. A proper understanding of His Person and work – who He is and what He has done – will greatly enhance our ability to live out of this great salvation which we have been blessed to enjoy.

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

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