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Transcript 093D — Who is the Holy Spirit?
CALLER: Good evening. Would you please explain what the Holy Spirit is? And is the Holy Spirit with you all the time, whether you're good or bad?
HC: The question is raised: Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is Eternal God. God manifests Himself as one God, but He also manifests Himself as three Persons. And this is a divine mystery, which no man can unravel. Our finite minds are not capable of understanding an infinite God, and certainly not this particular aspect of Infinite God.
But while there is one God, yet God reveals Himself to us as God the Father, who sent the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is also Eternal God in every sense of the word. And He also reveals Himself as the Holy Spirit, or as the Spirit of God, or as the Spirit of Christ. And the Holy Spirit is Eternal God, although He is a separate Person from the Son or from the Father.
Now the Holy Spirit has been present in the world from the very beginning. We read about Him in Genesis 1:2: "The Spirit brooded upon the face of the waters." We read about Him as He qualified Balaam to prophesy. Balaam was a very wicked man, and yet he prophesied very beautifully things of God, because the Holy Spirit came upon him. You can read about this in Numbers 23.
The Holy Spirit came upon an unsaved king, Saul, so that Saul was qualified to be a wise king, at least to some degree, a wise king over Israel. The Holy Spirit was active in the Old Testament in speaking through the prophets, through Noah, or through Isaiah, as they declared the Word of God.
The Holy Spirit was busy writing the Bible. The Holy Spirit spoke through men of old, and so what they wrote down became our Bible. This was all the activity of God the Holy Spirit.
Now the Father finally sent the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is where the second Person of the Godhead puts in His appearance, when He was born as a baby. And He went to the cross for our sins, and then He returned to the Father.
And then the work of the Holy Spirit began in earnest. And the Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit being poured out, or the Holy Spirit being sent. This is language to indicate that the program of God to save the world, to save people from every nation, began in earnest. And so, beginning with Pentecost, every born again believer was qualified by the Holy Spirit to be a witness. He was filled by the Holy Spirit. This was the way he was qualified to be a witness.
And the Holy Spirit is busy breaking down the hard hearts of those who are being saved. Now the Holy Spirit is also active in restraining sin in the lives of the unsaved, so that they will not be so sinful, which is their basic nature. And such utter sinfulness would make them destroy themselves. Actually God the Holy Spirit is restraining sin in their lives.
So the Holy Spirit is very much present throughout the world. He's present within us, He fills us so that we are qualified to be a witness, He is busy in the world dealing with the unsaved, both in saving them as well as restraining sin in their lives even if they are not saved. God the Holy Spirit is Eternal God, just as much as God the Father or God the Son, who is the Lord Jesus Christ is Eternal God.