Is the Holy Spirit an important per­son in your life? He should be. But what does this mean, to have the Holy Spirit as an important per­son in your life? How can you even really know Him? After all, it’s not like you can sit down with Him and chat over a cup of coffee.

The Personal Holy Spirit⤒🔗

The first thing we need to know about the Holy Spirit is that He is in fact a person. He is one of the three persons of the triune God. This may sound rather obvious, but it’s important. When we pray that God may fill us with the power of His Spirit, we are not just asking Him to fill us with some impersonal power, like the power we get from caffeine. We are asking God to fill us with His person. We are asking that a person other than ourselves reside inside our heart. The Holy Spirit who lives in us is just as per­sonal as the Father and the Son. The Bible is full of references that show how the Holy Spirit is a per­son. For instance, we read in Acts 8:29, in the context of the story of Philip and the Ethiopian, “And the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and join this chariot.’” Mere impersonal power cannot speak.

Consider also Ephesians 4:30 — “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Can impersonal energy be grieved? This is a truth that the church since the time of the New Testament stressed and emphasized. The Holy Spirit is just as much a person as the Father and the Son, and He is just as much true and eternal God.

Look at it this way: if we were to think of the Holy Spirit in terms of being a power that gives us strength, we might be inclined to take something away from the fact that in and of ourselves, we are completely incapable of turning to God. If knowing Him is just about receiving spiritual energy, then when it comes to believing, we might be inclined to think, “Well, I’ve got what it takes to believe. I just need an extra boost of power supplied by God through His Spirit.”

But we need more than just power. We need another person living in our hearts if we are ever going to be able to believe.

The Role of the Holy Spirit←⤒🔗

Mind you, as much as the Holy Spirit is a person in His own right, He does not exist on his own. He is not a person who can be consid­ered by Himself. He cannot be dis­tanced from the Father and the Son, but proceeds from them. And He has a special role to play in the Trinity. He pushes attention away from Himself and put the fo­cus of our faith on the Father and the Son.

Part of the problem with so much of the contemporary church’s focus on the Holy Spirit is that it risks los­ing sight of the work the Spirit does in pointing us to Christ. So much of contemporary religion is very self-oriented, looking inside our­selves as to what affects us per­sonally. And since the Holy Spirit is the person in the Trinity whom we experience most directly, we like to focus on Him specifically and the effect He has on us. But the Spirit Himself wants us to look to the Father, our creator, and Jesus Christ, our Savior. Without focusing on them, we can never experience true faith.

The Helping Holy Spirit←⤒🔗

What Jesus says in John 15:26 emphasizes this role of the Spirit. “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who pro­ceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.”

Jesus calls the Spirit: “Helper.” The Greek word translated as helper is the word ‘parakletos,’ from which the English word Paraclete is derived.

Now this word ‘parakletos’ is somewhat difficult to translate. ‘Helper’ is a good word, but it doesn’t quite give us the full range of meaning. The NIV uses the word ‘counselor,’ which is also a good translation, but also insufficient. After all, when you go to a counselor, he’s not going to be as intimately involved in your life as the Holy Spirit. You receive his counseling, then it’s up to you to go on with your life. You don’t ask a human counselor to live in your heart.

The King James Version uses the word ‘comforter’, but this also is not entirely adequate by itself. Comforter, counselor, advocate, intercessor, helper, supporter, each of these words helps to give some sense of what the word is getting at.

However we may want to trans­late ‘parakletos,’ we know this word tells us something very important about who the Holy Spirit is and what he does. He is our helper, our supporter, helping us to serve God, living in our hearts and teaching us what it means to serve God, teaching us to know and live the truth. The Holy Spirit strengthens us, enabling us to live according to the will of God. The Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth of Jesus Christ, and helps us and enables us to live according to that truth. The Holy Spirit does all of this, and so much more. In short, He pro­vides us with whatever help is necessary.

Of course, this is not the help that an employee offers to his em­ployer. This is not the help that a lawn-mower gives a home owner. This is the help of a person who is intimately involved in our lives. This is the help of one without whom we would be lost.

Think about it. Without the Spirit’s help, without him being our para­clete, we would have no hope. But with him living in our hearts, we can have faith, we can have hope, we can have assurance. We can know that we are a Christian. We can know that we belong to Jesus. We can know that we are saved.

The Helper Who Gives Faith←⤒🔗

If you are a true believer, you per­sonally have been given the Spirit as your helper. If you are a Chris­tian, then you will have the Holy Spirit given to you, no ifs, ands or buts about it. If you truly believe what God’s Word proclaims, then you will confess: “The Holy Spirit has been given to me personally.” But how can we know if we truly have the Spirit as our counselor, or if we are just fooling ourselves? Faith. If the Spirit is at work in us, if he has been given to us personally, then we will believe and trust. If the Spirit helps us to trust, then trusting helps us to know the Spirit.

Simple, childlike faith is the ulti­mate demonstration of the power of the Spirit at work in our hearts. It is the greatest help the Helper gives us, enabling us to have faith in Je­sus Christ and be joined to Him. Some earthly counselors like to talk about putting us in touch with our inner child, or at least our inner selves. Well, quite frankly, I’d much prefer the Spirit as Counselor put­ting me in touch with Jesus Christ. Because being joined to Christ by faith means having incredible bless­ings.

We have the blessing of salvation, the salvation won for us by Jesus Christ. We have the blessing of having our sins forgiven because of the fact that Christ died for us. We have the blessing of hope, hope worked in our hearts by the Spirit, hope in knowing that there will come a time when Christ shall re­turn and our salvation shall be com­plete.

We have the blessing of strength, the strength that belongs to those who share in the victory of Christ. This strength worked in our hearts by the Spirit enables us to perse­vere. We could never persevere on our own, but we can if the Spirit joins us to Christ and enables us to share in all His blessings.

Plus, we can have the blessing of assurance, knowing that our God will accomplish all that he has promised. We could never have this blessing if we had to rely on our own strength, or on our own ability, if anything depended on us whatso­ever. But we can have this blessing because of the faithfulness of God.

The Permanent Helper←⤒🔗

We have been given the Spirit per­sonally, and by the power of the Spirit we are able to be joined to Christ. What more could we ask for? How about permanence? Af­ter all, having the Spirit join us to Christ would not do us much good if we could be un-joined, if we could lose the Spirit. What good would it be to have the Helper if that Helper could leave us hanging high and dry?

Well, if God has chosen us to be saved, if He has chosen us to re­ceive the Spirit, then nothing can ultimately remove the Spirit from us. Irresistible grace. Irresistible Spirit. Sometimes it’s hard to see how this could be. We struggle. We see how much sin is in our lives, and we be­gin to question: is the Spirit of God really still at work in me? And yet, the promise of God is there. And his promise is forever sure. He has given you his word that he will be with his people through the Holy Spirit. He will grant you the faith you need.

As John 14:26, 27 say, “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 that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be trou­bled, neither let them be afraid.” For those who have the Spirit, there need not be any fear. Mind you, being a Christian in name is no guarantee that you have the Spirit in you. There is no room for false assurance, an as­surance based on you, or on any­thing or anyone other than Jesus Christ. Having membership in a church is certainly no guarantee on its own. But being joined to Christ is a guarantee. Truly re­penting of your sins, believing on Him and knowing Him as Lord and Savior, seeking to live for Him, all of this is a guarantee, be­cause you can’t have that sort of faith without the Spirit at work in you.

My friend, I ask you again: is the Holy Spirit an important person in your life? He should be. Do you seek to know Him better? You should. Do you know that the Spirit lives in you? Do you know Him who is the ultimate helper? How can you know Him? Look to Christ. Recognize your need for salvation. Recognize your com­plete and total dependence on the grace of God manifested in Jesus Christ. And know that you are able to do this when you know the Holy Spirit.