Do You Love
The Holy Spirit?

 By Dennis Pollock

Many Christians have a hard time appreciating the Holy Spirit. They recognize God the Father as the One who gives every good gift, and love Jesus as their Savior and faithful Shepherd, but somehow have difficulty figuring out just how to relate to the Holy Spirit.

 There are so many erroneous notions about Him. The worst, of course, is that the Holy Spirit is not a Divine Person at all. Over half of Americans identifying themselves as Christians stated in a survey that the Holy Spirit was merely a symbol of God’s presence and power, and not a real Person. Others see the Spirit as a force, similar to electricity or atomic power. They give away their wrong concept by referring to Him as “it.”

 Then there are those who can only identify with the Holy Spirit in terms of an experience they had at some point in their lives. They talk of being filled with the Spirit (which is certainly a legitimate experience) but never see Him as a distinct Personality with feelings, will, and mind. Clearly the Holy Spirit gives powerful experiences to God’s children, but we err when we only see Him in this light and fail to appreciate His gentle and beautiful personality.

 I think there are several reasons for this failure to really know the Holy Spirit, but perhaps one of the most ironic reasons is that the Holy Spirit is so humble that He is far more interested in pointing people toward Jesus than in magnifying Himself or His own ministry. But His humility is no excuse for God’s people to be ignorant of their great Comforter. Jesus Himself had much to say of the Holy Spirit, especially in those critical days when He knew the cross was imminent. In John 14 through 16 He seemed determined to emphasize the role of the Spirit for the disciples in those days when He would be taken from them. And if Jesus saw fit to speak about the Holy Spirit, how eagerly should we desire to learn of His ways, His power, and His personality.

 Through most of my adult life, I have been fascinated by those men and women whom God chose to use in powerful ways to serve as catalysts to revival. Other than the Bible itself, the biographies of these anointed servants of the Lord have been my chief reading material and source of inspiration. One of the things I have discovered again and again is that those men and women whom God used so dramatically to bring glory to His name seemed to have a revelation of the Holy Spirit that others of their times and cultures had missed. Often it seemed the spiritual breakthroughs in their own lives came after an intensive study of the Person of the Holy Spirit. As I have seen this pattern repeating itself over and over I have come to the conclusion that knowing and appreciating the Holy Spirit is no small thing. 

Jonathan Goforth 

Allow me to give you one example. Jonathan Goforth ministered in the early part of the twentieth century as a missionary to China. (His name really was Goforth!) In the early days of his ministry he was devoted, conscientious, fearless – and not especially effective. He justified his lack of fruitfulness with the thought that if he continued to sow, he would eventually reap a harvest. But when a decade passed with still relatively meager results, Goforth became discouraged.

 He read with fascination accounts of the Welsh revival and the writings of an earlier revivalist, Charles Finney. As he read, he found himself drawn more and more to study what the Bible had to say about the Holy Spirit. Rising early in the mornings, he took His Bible and his notebook and began to record everything he could find relating to the Third Person of the Trinity. Any spare moments he had throughout the day would find him back in his study, reading and meditating on the Holy Spirit.

 He became so obsessed that his wife feared for his health, both mental and physical. Finding him on his knees early one morning, with his Bible and pencil before him, she asked, “Jonathan, aren’t you going too far with this? I’m afraid you’re going to break down!” He looked at her with a face she later described as “glorious” and told her, “Oh, Rose, even you don’t understand! I feel like one who has tapped a mine of wealth! It is so wonderful. If only I could get others to see it!”

 After this season of study and gaining a revelation of the Holy Spirit, the breakthrough came. In early 1906 Jonathan had gone to a pagan fair and was conducting a street chapel ministry. Many curious unbelievers crowded into the chapel to see what the strange white preacher had to say. That night the Holy Spirit came with power. An unusual divine energy seemed to fill the building and conviction seemed to be written on every face. When he asked those who would receive Christ to stand, nearly everyone stood to their feet. The ten Christian ministers sitting at the front were in awe. They had never seen anything like this!  One of them whispered, “Brother, He for whom we have prayed so long, was here in very deed tonight.”

 It did not stop there. Goforth went on to exercise a revival ministry that was remarkable and resulted in thousands finding the Savior. The “much fruit” he had longed for appeared in abundance. One of the trademarks of his meetings was the phenomenon of Christians being convicted of sin, and confessing their sins in prayer. After the church was cleansed, getting sinners to come to Christ became easy. Goforth would preach, and then allow time for the congregations to pray. The Spirit’s presence seemed to seek out those who had carried secret sins in their lives, while pretending to be good Christians.

 One of his colleagues described one such meeting thus:

A man started to pray, but had not said more than half a dozen words when another, then another joined in, and in a moment the whole company was crying aloud to God for mercy… All the pent up emotions of a lifetime seemed to be poured forth at that time. All the sin of the past was staring them in the face… Some could only sob, “Oh, God forgive me. Oh God, forgive me.” Some were imploring the Holy Spirit not to leave them.

 In one case Jonathan went to a small missionary station long known for its deadness and spiritual hardness. It was considered such a lost cause that some advised him not to waste his time. In the first meeting he went up to the pulpit. He paused for a moment before praying. So powerful was the Spirit’s presence that before he ever had a chance to speak or even utter a prayer, the people present immediately came under a terrible conviction of their sins and began pouring out their hearts to God in repentance. The revival was on without a word being spoken by the preacher or a song being sung.

 Dr. Murdock McKenzie described the great spiritual power that attended their meetings in those days, relating their new attitude toward the Holy Spirit, and how badly they felt that they had not seen this sooner: “That which weighed most heavily on the consciences of all was that we had so long been grieving the Holy Spirit by not giving Him His rightful place in our hearts and in our work. While believing in Him we had not trusted in Him, to work in and through us. Now we believe; we have learned our lesson – ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts.’ May we never forget that lesson.” 

Faith in God 

Jesus told His disciples, “Have faith in God” Orthodox Christianity has always maintained that God exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. To have faith in God, then, must mean that we have faith in each of the members of the Trinity in accordance with the specific roles that they exercise toward us. Faith in God the Father means faith toward Him for His goodness, His generosity, and His tender fatherly care. Faith in Jesus includes far more than we could recount here, but surely includes faith in Him as Savior, good Shepherd, Keeper of our Souls, and True Vine (the Source of our life and fruitfulness).

 Just as we must have faith in the Father and the Son, so must we exercise faith in our Divine Comforter. He is everything Jesus said He is and will be for us everything Jesus said He will be. But faith never comes without knowledge. You cannot have confidence in someone (or Someone) you have never met, or know only casually. You learn to trust a friend as you discover over a process of time their character, faithfulness, and ability.

 It all begins with the Scriptures. Have you ever bought a car, only to “discover” that this particular car is all over the roads? Suddenly you see it everywhere. And have you realized that multitudes did not suddenly go out and buy that car when you purchased yours? No, the cars were there all along, but you never had eyes to see them. So it is with the revelation God gives of His Spirit.

 When I began to see and appreciate the precious Holy Spirit I suddenly saw Him all over the Bible. I saw Him in Genesis hovering over the face of the waters. I saw Him in the days of Moses, when God told Moses that He had provided him a Spirit filled craftsman (“And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,” Exodus 31:3). I saw Him throughout the book of Judges as God would anoint champions to liberate Israel from their oppressors, and over and over again I would read, “And the Spirit of the Lord came upon ____________.” I saw Him in the prophets, as they would announce the Spirit’s authority to declare their messages (“But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.” Micah 3:8)

 I saw Him in the life and teachings of Jesus, all throughout the book of Acts, in the writings and dynamic ministry of Paul, and even in that mysterious book of Revelation which completes the canon of Scripture. And as I saw Him, and began to experience more of Him in my life I began to appreciate Him more and more, not only for the dynamic experiences that He gives, but for His beautiful, gentle, and loving personality. He seems to be the most sensitive member of the Trinity and for this reason we are warned not to grieve the Holy Spirit and told the awful consequences for those who “insult the Spirit of grace.”

 Do you love the Holy Spirit? If you cannot answer yes to this question, you have far to go in the Christian life. Just as we love the Father and the Son, so must we come to love and appreciate the Holy Spirit. Ignore Him and you forsake the life of effective, fruitful service which should be your inheritance as one of Christ’s disciples. Learn of Him and you begin the process of the “much fruit” life which Jesus promised His abiders.

 Considered the greatest preacher since the apostles, Charles Spurgeon wrote, “If I worship the Father and the Son, but forget or neglect to adore the Holy Spirit, I worship less than God. What a grievous thing it will be if we do not pay that loving homage and reverence to the Holy Spirit which is so justly His due. May it not be the fact that we enjoy less of His power and see less of His working in the world because the church of God has not been sufficiently mindful of him?”

 He will never lead you away from your love for Jesus. His desire is always to glorify the Master, and to empower your witness of His cross and resurrection. For Jesus declared to the disciples, “He will testify of Me.” But lest we think this excuses us from responsibility He went on to say, “And you also will bear witness…” Let us come to know our Divine Partner in this wonderful mission of sharing our amazing Savior with a lost world.