It is amazing how quickly we can forget someone’s name. It is a bit frustrating to meet someone, introduce oneself and then forget who you were talking to five minutes after you part ways. For whatever reasons, we struggle to keep the names in our mind.

I suspect this is how the Holy Spirit feels at times. We pray to the Father and worship Jesus. We are aware of the Holy Spirit but for many of us He is mostly forgotten. We justify this by saying that His whole purpose is to draw attention to the Son. He is not to draw attention to Himself so we can’t do that either. But this always seems to take our finite perspective and impose it on our understanding of the person and work of the Spirit.

But the reality is that the Holy Spirit is just as vital as the Father and the Son. There are several things to remind us about Him and His work:

1. The Holy Spirit is the personal presence of Christ with us. If Christ is ascended and sits at the right hand of the Father, then the Spirit is God with us. He is not a substitute for Christ, but He is a “helper” of the same kind as the Son.
2. The Holy Spirit indwells God’s people. It is clear from 1 Cor. 3:16-17 and 6:19-20, that we are the temple, the dwelling place for the Spirit to inhabit. The church is people indwelt by the Spirit. The church is NOT a building or a place, the church is people.
3. The Holy Spirit is the divine author of the Scriptures. We have heard this so often, the idea has become a factoid for a spiritual trivial pursuit game. Yet special revelation has given us everything that is on the heart of God. Everything we know about God is anchored to the Bible. This is the most amazing and indispensable component of our walk with God.
4. The Holy Spirit gives us everything for life and godliness. He is changing us into the image of His Son. He is the divine catalyst to change us from sinfulness to godliness. He is the energizing force to bring about maturity and Christlikeness in fallen human beings. He takes truth and imprints it on our heart and mind. He is the essential factor in our metamorphosis. He is indispensable.

When we reduce the person and work of the Spirit to simply be a glorified conscience, we diminish and demean His person and His ministry to us. He is as incredibly important to our lives as we value Christ. He is as vital as the presence of the Father. He is not a second-rate substitute for Christ; He is the one who continually makes the reality of Christ real.

The other danger is that we often think we have the Spirit all figured out. We create ideas in our minds about what we think He can do or not do. We manufacture what we think about Him and His person. But the problem is that we do not have the capacity to understand all of Him nor all that He can do. The way we think about God often helps or hinders our ability to believe in Him and have faith in His promises. If our picture of God is shaped by broken or dysfunctional thoughts, we will struggle to live by a faith energized by truth. Of course, the Spirit is not limited by our limitation or our bad thinking.

May we gain a new open heart for all that the Spirit of God can do in us (Eph. 3:16-20).

Pastor Brad