He Shall Glorify Me
Pentecostals place great emphasis on the active role and power of the Holy Spirit in everyday Christian life. They are right that the Spirit is essential. Without Him no one is born again (John 3:5), no one can truly confess Jesus as Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3), and no believer can bear fruit. The question is not whether to honor the Spirit but how. And the best guide to honoring the Spirit is the Spirit's own ministry as Jesus described it.
“He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”JOHN 16:14 · KJV
On the night before He died, Jesus told His disciples what the Comforter would do when He came. The heart of it is four words: He shall glorify me. The Spirit's great work is to make much of Jesus Christ. A believer who is truly filled with the Spirit will not be preoccupied with the Spirit. He will be preoccupied with Christ.
When you picture a spiritual Christian, what is at the center: the Spirit's power and its displays, or the Lord Jesus Christ?
No Less Honor to the Spirit
None of this lowers the Holy Spirit. He is fully God. Lying to the Holy Ghost is lying to God (Acts 5:3–4). He is the eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14), present everywhere (Psalm 139:7), and He searches the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10). He is a person, not a force: He teaches, testifies, speaks (Acts 13:2), and can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). Believers are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Matthew 28:19): one name, three persons. See The Personhood of the Holy Spirit and The Trinity.
The point of this study is not that the Spirit deserves less. It is that this fully divine person has chosen a ministry that directs attention to the Son, and that we honor Him best when we follow where He points.
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For Deeper Study
- Keep in Step with the SpiritAmazon J. I. PackerThe source of the floodlight picture of the Spirit's ministry, and a careful study of the Spirit's work in holiness (1984).
- The Holy SpiritAmazon Charles C. RyrieA clear, compact survey of the Spirit's person and work by a dispensational Bible teacher.
- The Holy SpiritAmazon John F. WalvoordA classic doctrinal study of the Spirit's person and work, including the gifts.
- Strange FireAmazon John MacArthurA biblical critique of the charismatic movement (2013), arguing that true honor to the Spirit exalts Christ and His Word.
- Charismatic ConfusionAmazon Ernest PickeringA Baptist pastor's short evaluation of charismatic teaching on the Spirit and the gifts.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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The Personhood of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit teaches, speaks, can be grieved, and can be lied to. He is a divine person, fully God with the Father and the Son, not an impersonal power.
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