Should we worship the Holy Spirit?

Many who heartily accept what has been said as to the worship of the Father and the Son, will hesitate to say that the Holy Spirit is not presented in the New Testament as the object, but as the power of worship. Let us be clear. We would not hint at the blasphemy of denying that the blessed Third Person of the Trinity is divine. He is God as absolutely as, and equal with, the Father and the Son; and as God surely is entitled to worship. But in Scripture the Holy Spirit is presented as the One who empowers for worship: "We worship by the Spirit of God" (Phil. 3:3, R. V.). He does not present Himself, but takes, as it were, a subordinate place. Reverently speaking, as our Lord took the place of humiliation during His life upon earth, tabernacling in flesh (ever a Man still, in glory) , so too, now the Holy Spirit has come to earth, and is content to dwell in our poor bodies (temples of the Holy Ghost) and in the Church of Christ. He is upon earth, as contrasted with Christ who is in heaven with the Father, the object of worship. From this we trust it will be clear why we say the Holy Spirit is not presented in the New Testament as the object of worship. He is the power for it, however. Our praises must be in His energy, or they are not truly praise. It is so with our prayers (Rom. 8:26). Equally so with praise. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor. 12:3).

But then there is this difference, and it is an important one, that although the Holy Ghost is in His own right and title equally an object of divine worship as the Father and the Son, yet the Spirit of God is now pleased to take the place of giving effect to the counsels of God, and to work for the glory of the Father and the Son in the church. Hence it is observable that, although the Spirit of God be in His own nature entitled to worship, He for the time exalts the Father and the Son, just as the Son on earth was always exalting the Father. This is the real key to the absence of direct worship addressed to the Spirit of God in the New Testament. It must never be supposed that the Holy Ghost is not worshipped; for when we adore God as such, He is worshipped in the unity of the Godhead. "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him [it is not merely the Father, but also God] must worship Him in spirit and in truth." If we say God, the Father only is not meant, but the Trinity. Evidently, then, we worship the Father in saying God, but we also worship the Son and the Holy Ghost; for Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are equally God. And, consequently, it is seen at once how blessedly this fits in with worship. It is not full Christian worship merely to worship the Father. To our Lord Jesus, according to Scripture, not only angels pay homage, but glorified saints praise alike God and the Lamb: He is worthy.

It is not that the Holy Ghost is not worthy of all worship and prayer ― He is God. But since redemption has been accomplished, God has been pleased to take a place with us, and in us, through His Spirit. This precludes the thought of the Holy Ghost being made by us the object of our prayers. Hence we find the Apostles addressing under His inspiration, the saints and assemblies of God; saluting them from the Father and the Son ― the Spirit Himself being the One who, dwelling and acting in the Church, sends the salutation. This is the same in principle. It is, therefore, in Christianity, unintelligent to do so. If done in ignorance, it is one thing, but to do so when we have learned the Lord's mind, and this grand central truth of Christianity, is quite another. Back

[7] A different Greek word is used here (latreuo, worship service, see Q.2) but the same point applies. Worship service is directed by the Spirit of God, not addressed to the Spirit.

· Nowhere in the Bible do we find an example of the Holy Spirit being addressed in worship (or in prayer).

· The Holy Spirit dwells in us and helps us to enjoy our relationship with the Father and the Son (Rom. 8:15–16; John 14:8–17). We are exhorted to pray in the Holy Spirit (Eph. 6:18; Jude 20) and we ‘worship[7] by the Spirit of God' (Phil. 3:3). It is worship ‘by', not ‘to' or ‘of', the Spirit.

It would be nonsensical to speak of praying IN the Holy Spirit TO the Holy Spirit. Scripture speaks of worship BY the Spirit of God (Phil. 3:3 N. Trans.). It also speaks of praying IN the Holy Spirit (Jude 20). Thus Scripture never speaks of worship or prayer TO the Spirit.

What is here advocated is not new, for in the prayers of Christendom and in some of its hymns, the Holy Spirit has been invoked. Christians, however, who have been observant of the way Divine Persons are presented in Scripture, and of Their respective functions, have always refrained from addressing the Spirit. They have recognized that He is presented as the great subjective Worker in us, rather than the objective Person set before us.

We recognize that He dwells in the church as well as in the individual believer: that in the church He is sovereign in His manifestations and actions, according to 1 Corinthians 12 & 14. In both these chapters the Spirit is presented as operating in the various members of the body, but not as the One addressed by the members. So also in Philippians 3:3, where the better reading is that we “worship by the Spirit of God.” Uniformly in the New Testament we find the Holy Spirit presented as the Power by which we worship and serve, and that as regards both the Father and the Son, but not as Himself the Object of worship or service or prayer.

It is not that the Holy Spirit does not speak concerning Himself, for He does, or else how should we know about His being, His presence, His power, His offices? But though not less than God, He never presents Himself as the object of worship. He is the power for worship. Prayer is never addressed to Him. He is the power for prayer.

It is admitted that “it” referring to the Holy Ghost, is used in certain cases, for throughout Scripture He takes the place of Servant; hence by Him believers worship the Father and the Son, but Scripture never speaks of the Holy Ghost being worshipped or invoked in prayer, though nonetheless a Divine Person, co-equal with the Father and the Son—yet ONE GOD. By Him all true worship and prayer are addressed to the Father and the Son.

Praying to the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is in us, and is Himself the moving power and inditer of our prayers, then obviously to address our prayers to Him is an incongruity; it is "by Him" that we "have access to the Father" (Eph. 2:18). For addressing the Holy Spirit, scripture gives us neither precept nor example. Such hymns, therefore, as that commencing, "Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove," however pious their intention, are not framed in an intelligent apprehension of Christian doctrine. When we address God indefinitely, of course the three Persons of the Trinity are included, but when we pray to the Persons distinctively, it can only be to the Father, or to the Lord Jesus Christ.