What does the Holy Spirit do?

The truth relating to the Holy Spirit of God — His deity, His work, His abiding presence with believers — is one of the most important subjects of the holy Scriptures. Sometimes referred to as "the third Person in the Trinity," He is nevertheless possessed of full Deity — He is God. He has His place in the first sentence of the Scriptures. "In the beginning God" (Elohim — Hebrew plural indicating "three"), He "garnished — (Made beautiful) the heavens" (Job 26:13). He is the Source and Power of the new life in the believer; He helps in our warfare with the flesh (Galatians 5:17); He helps us in our infirmities and in our prayers (Romans 8:26); He is the strength and support of even the smallest of God's children against the power of Satan (1 John 4:4); by Him we are "sealed" and "anointed" and have the "earnest" of the inheritance; we belong to God; we have power to walk in the dignity and fragrance of Christ Himself, and the light of the glory to come illumines our path. By Him the love of God has been deluged into our hearts, and He enables us to respond to that love as we say from those full hearts — "Abba, Father" (Romans 5:5; Romans 8:15). He "abides" with us — the Comforter — alongside to help at all times.

Many are the offices He performs for those in whom He dwells. In Rom. 8:2, He is the power of the new life in us. In verses 15-17, He gives the cry "Abba Father." In Gal. 4:6, He is called "the Spirit of His Son," for He gives us the proper feelings of affection as children of God, He is the witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God, He is the firstfruits of the blessing we are to receive later in the glory (Rom. 8:23; Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Cor. 5:5), and He helps our infirmities, making intercession for us when we do not know what to pray for as we ought (Rom. 8:26). He sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts (Rom. 5:5), and takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us (John 16:14-15). He gives comfort and joy (Acts 9:31; 1 Thess. 1:6).

Every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has received the gift of the Holy Spirit, having been sealed for God on believing the Gospel of our salvation, which presents Christ to us as having died for our sins, and as having been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. God's love has been shed abroad in the heart of the true Christian by the Holy Spirit, and He is also the Unction, and the Earnest of our inheritance and of every promise of God. It is by the Spirit that Christ is written on the hearts of believers, and it is by Him that we worship God and are brought into moral conformity to Christ. The New Testament abounds with references to the Spirit's work and function as indwelling the Christian.

The Holy Ghost personally on earth witnesses to the righteousness of God, and to the justification of the believer according to its full display. Eternal life by and in the Spirit, and its conscious possession, communicated to the believer by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost acting as the power of this life in his walk, guiding, directing, controlling, and rebuking him. The believer sealed with the Spirit, uniting him to Christ — a Man in glory, his body a temple for His indwelling; and thus the bond of union between all those who are His, one with another, and with Christ, His presence and baptism constituting "one Body," composed of such, here in this world. God dwelling amongst His saints here, as a habitation, in Spirit, not in flesh.

Those to whom the Spirit came would know Him in a double way, first, as being in them, secondly, as being with them. He would indwell every true believer in the Lord Jesus, being the seal of God's work, the earnest of all that God had promised them, and the anointing to empower them to carry out the will of God. Added to this, He would dwell among the saints, in the habitation that God would form, and there direct all the interests of Christ for the accomplishment of God's pleasure. This two-fold function of the Spirit was clearly indicated on the day of Pentecost, when He "filled all the house where they were sitting," and "sat upon each of them." The Pauline Epistles give us consider-able detail of these functions.

Every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ of the present period is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, even as it is written, “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph. 1:13-14). The indwelling Spirit is the seal of God’s work in the soul, the earnest of what yet awaits us, and is the divine anointing by which we enter into the truth of God, and the power by which we are able to walk for God’s pleasure and carry out His will in our lives and service for Him.

What is the work which the Holy Spirit seeks to do in the souls of believers? It is that of which Paul speaks in Galatians 4:19. He labours to form Christ in us. That is, He works to displace the old motives, desires and inclinations and to make Christ the center of our affections and aims, so that He may be reproduced in our lives and seen in our actions.

The office of the Spirit of God is to bring home to us the infinite fulness that there is in Christ, to make us satisfied with Him, and to produce in our lives an actual response to Himself.

The coming of the Comforter is once more announced by Him. He could not come unless the Lord departed. He is to be sent to His own and when He comes He will make a great demonstration to the world. The word "reprove" in Verse 8 is incorrect; the Greek word is difficult to express in its full meaning. Some have translated it by "rebuke," others use the word "convince" or "convict." The word "demonstrate" seems to be the nearest to the original. "And when He is come He will bring demonstration to the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment." The presence of the Holy Spirit in believers is the proof to the world that the whole world is guilty of the death of Christ; the whole world is under sin and therefore not on probation but under condemnation. The Holy Spirit is also the demonstration to the world of righteousness. This does not mean that He brings righteousness to the world, or makes the world righteous, as so many erroneously believe. Our Lord adds: "Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and ye see me no more." The Holy One was rejected by the world, cast out as an unrighteous One. But He, Who owned and satisfied God's righteousness in dying as the substitute of sinners, is now exalted to the right hand of God; there He is the witness of righteousness. The presence of the Holy Spirit on earth demonstrates this fact. God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory; the world sees Him no more as a Saviour personally on earth; but will see Him again as Judge, when He comes to judge the world in righteousness. Righteousness is fully displayed in the glory, where He is. The hope of righteousness is to be with Him there. (Galatians 5:5.) The Holy Spirit also brings demonstration to the world of judgment "because the prince of this world is judged." Sentence of judgment is pronounced against Satan, but not yet executed. He is the god of this age, but he was judged in His Cross. Judgment must come upon the world and its prince. The Holy Spirit now present upon the earth in the believers demonstrates this fact.

The divine revelations which were to be passed on to the saints of God were first given to His servants, and they have left them on record for us in the Holy Scriptures. To write these things, the servants of the Lord were inspired by the Holy Spirit. The things they wrote about were not their own, nor were the words in which they penned them for us; they were "not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth" (1 Cor. 2:13). God took care that His thoughts would not be affected by the weakness of the human instrument, so the Spirit chose the precise words to convey the divine thought. Spiritual things were communicated by spiritual means, even by the Holy Spirit controlling His instrument. The words of the most learned of men would but have adversely affected the message of God. God's secrets were first revealed to the instrument; the Spirit of God enabled him to understand the truth revealed; then the Holy Spirit inspired the writer to give the truth in writing.