Well, for a few minutes, you and I are going
to have a good heart -to -heart talk about a
person who is most important. Some time ago,
a representative of a ministerial association
asked me to speak at their ministerial meeting.
I smiled and I said, oh, sir. Those men are so
much more intellectual than I am. What in the
world would they like for me to speak about?
And immediately the representative turned without
hesitation and said, they have asked me to ask
you to tell them the secret of your ministry.
I said, go back. Tell those gentlemen that I
can give them that answer in just one word. The
Holy Spirit. The secret of this ministry, the
secret of the power in this ministry, the secret
of the hundreds of lives that have been transformed
by the power of God, the secret... of the power
in the healing of sick bodies in this ministry
can be attributed to the third person of the
Trinity, the Holy Spirit. You want to know something?
Theoretically, thousands of professing Christians
worship the Holy Spirit every time they sing
the doxology. Every Lord's Day morning, literally
hundreds and thousands of good, honest Christians
stand in their churches. And as they sing the
doxology, praise God from whom all blessings
flow. Praise him, all creatures here below. Praise
him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father.
Son, and Holy Ghost. Theoretically, they worship
the Holy Spirit every time they sing those words.
And yet, few believe in Him as a person. It's
one thing to sing words, and quite another thing
to realize the meaning of what we say. are what
we see. I can prove to you from the Word of God
that the Holy Spirit is a person, as definitely
a person as Jesus Christ, the Son, is a person,
as definitely a person as God Himself is a person.
And remember, the doctrine of the personality
of the Holy Spirit, is of the highest importance
from the standpoint of worship. If the Holy Spirit
is a person, and a divine person, and He is,
and if you and I do not know Him as such, if
we think of the Holy Spirit merely as an impersonal
influence or power, as so many do, then we are
robbing a divine person of the worship. which
is His. We're robbing a divine person of the
love which is due Him and of the faith and confidence
and surrender and obedience and worship which
are His. It is most important that we realize
that the Holy Ghost is a definite person with
a definite personality. Pause with me just a
few moments as I give you proof of the personality
of the Holy Spirit. All the distinctive marks
or characteristics of personality are ascribed
to the Holy Spirit in the Word of God. What are
the distinctive marks or characteristics of personality?
What are they? Knowledge, feeling, and will.
Any being who knows and feels and wills is a
person. Oftentimes when you say the Holy Spirit
is a person, people understand you to mean that
the Holy Spirit has hands and feet and fingers
and toes and eyes and ears and mouth and so on.
No, not at all. These are not the marks of personalities.
Know that. The marks of personality are knowledge,
feeling, and will. And any being who knows, any
being who thinks, feels, and wills is a person,
whether he has a body or not. You and I, if our
earthly life ends before the Lord's return, will
cease to have bodies for the time being. For
the word of God says, to be absent from the body
is to be present with the Lord. We shall not
cease to be persons. We will be persons still,
even though we have no body. I will be me forever
and ever. You will be you forever and ever and
ever. If in this moment my whole heart should
stop its beating, and word would go forth that
death had come to Catherine Cooman, I would not
cease to exist, even after they have placed my
body in the grave, and that body begins to deteriorate.
It does not mean that I have ceased to exist.
For the very moment that my heart would take
its last beat, my personality, that which will
be me forever, my spirit and my soul would go
to be in the presence of Almighty God. I would
continue to be a personality. In exactly the
same way, beloved, we take the body, the person
of Jesus. Consider something that is most important.
Before death came to the Son of the Living God,
in that split second, he dismissed his own spirit.
All on earth that was placed in that tomb was
the... body the personality of jesus the son
of living god was never placed in that tomb for
he dismissed his own spirit before death came
to the body no tomb ever held the personality
of the son of living god before death ever came
to that physical body, before they ever took
that body off the cross, Jesus, the person, the
personality of Jesus, had gone to paradise to
give deliverance to the prisoners of hope. It's
there. It's recorded in the third chapter of
1 Peter, the 18th verse. For Christ... also hath
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God, being put to death
in the flesh. And it's that flesh that they put
in the tomb, but quickened by the Spirit, by
which also he went and preached unto the spirits
in prison. To whom? Does this scripture refer,
when it says, to the spirits in prison? Why,
bless your hearts. The spirits of the Old Testament
saints, the Old Testament prophets, Abraham,
Isaac, Jeremiah, those Old Testament saints,
who had confidence in Almighty God, who waited
for the crucifixion of the Son of the Living
God, that the law might be justified, that the
penalty might be paid in full by the shedding
of the blood of the Son of the Living God. Their
bodies, the bodies of the Old Testament saints,
were lying in graves or in tombs someplace out
there yonder on the hillside. But their personalities
were in... paradise, waiting for that moment
of deliverance. It was not the body of Jesus
that went to paradise. It was his personality.
Know that. In exactly the same way, beloved,
the Holy Spirit is a person with a very definite
personality. And he is now... in this earth,
willing to do everything for you and for me that
Jesus would do, were He here in person. I pray
that this shall be made very real to your heart.
Turn in your Bibles, please, to 1 Corinthians,
the second chapter, the 11th verse. For what
man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit
of man which is in him? Even so the things of
God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Here
knowledge is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Influence
does not have knowledge. A person has knowledge.
And here knowledge is ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
Now turn to 1 Corinthians. The twelfth chapter.
But all these things worketh the one and the
same Spirit, dividing to each one severally,
even as He will. The thought is that the Holy
Spirit is not merely a divine power that we get
hold of and use according to our will, but that
the Holy Spirit is a divine person who gets hold
of us and uses us according to His will. And
this is one of the most fundamental truths in
regard to the Holy Spirit. And we must ever bear
it in mind if we are to come into right relationship
with Him and continue in right relations with
Him. Countless earnest -minded Christians are
going astray at this point. They're trying to
get hold of some divine power which they can
use according to their will. I... Thank God for
the day when I learned that the Holy Spirit is
not a power, a person that I can use. The Holy
Spirit is a person that uses the individual.
There is a divine person. who can get hold of
me and use me according to his wise and loving
will. Now then, turn to the 8th chapter of Romans,
the 27th verse. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because
he maketh intercession for the saints according
to the will of God. What I wish you to note here
is the expression, the mind of the spirit. An
influence does not have a mind. Only a person,
a personality, has a mind. Now we turn to a most
remarkable passage in the 15th chapter of Romans.
I read it to you. Now I beseech you, brethren.
For the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the
love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with
me in your prayers to God for me. Oh, what I
wish you to notice here, all these five words,
the love of the Spirit. It's a wonderful truth.
It teaches that the Holy Spirit is not a mere
blind influence or power. He is a divine person
loving us with a tenderest love. I wonder how
many of us have ever thought much regarding the
love of the Spirit. I wonder how many of us ministers
have ever preached a sermon on the love of the
Spirit. I wonder how many of you ever heard a
sermon on the love of the Spirit. And yet this
portion of the Word of God teaches definitely.
that the Holy Spirit loves. To sum it all up,
the Holy Spirit is a person. Theoretically, we
probably all believe that He is an influence,
that He is a great power. but how many of us
treat him as a person? Do you really regard the
Holy Spirit as a person, as much of a person
as Jesus Christ, just as loving, just as wise,
just as tender, just as strong, just as faithful,
just as worthy of your confidence in your love
and surrender as he? It will be the greatest
day of your life when you realize that the Holy
Ghost is a person and the secret of the success
of this ministry is found in and through the
person of the Holy Ghost, the mighty third person
of the Trinity. Amen.