God, the Holy Spirit

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16)

Our blunder (or shall we frankly say our sin?) has been to neglect the doctrine of the Holy Spirit to a point where we virtually deny Him His place in the Godhead. This denial has not been by open doctrinal statement, for we have clung closely enough to the biblical position wherever our credal pronouncements are concerned. Our formal creed is sound; the breakdown is in our working creed.

This is not a trifling distinction. A doctrine has practical value only as far as it is prominent in our thoughts and makes a difference in our lives. By this test the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as held by evangelical Christians today has almost no practical value at all. In most Christian churches the Spirit is quite entirely overlooked. Whether He is present or absent makes no real difference to anyone. Brief reference is made to Him in the doxology and the benediction. Further than that He might as well not exist. So completely do we ignore Him that it is only by courtesy that we can be called Trinitarian. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity boldly declares the equality of the Three Persons and the right of the Holy Spirit to be worshiped and glorified. Anything less than this is something less than Trinitarianism.

Father, help me to be conscious of the Holy Spirit within me today. I yield my temple to Him, that He might indeed make a difference in my life. Amen 

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Deity Present Among Us

"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit and these three are one." (1 John 5:7)

How shall we think of the Holy Spirit? The Bible declares that He is God. Every quality belonging to Almighty God is freely attributed to Him. All that God is, the Spirit is declared to be. The Spirit of God is one with and equal to God just as the spirit of man is equal to and one with the man. This is so fully taught in the Scriptures that we may without loss to the argument omit the formality of proof texts. The most casual reader will have discovered it for himself.

What we have in the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit is Deity present among us. He is not God's messenger only, He is God. He is God in contact with His creatures, doing in them and among them a saving and renewing work.

Yesterday I thought of my body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, and since He is Goa, that means God Himself is within me. Lord, if You'll seal that truth in my heart, I'm sure my life will be transformed. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~