Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and as always, I want to welcome our listeners on Apple, Spotify, and those enjoying this on our YouTube video podcast format. If you're new to our ministry, be sure to subscribe on our YouTube channel and get all of our content for free there. We have some great resources on a variety of theological topics that will really bless you. And if you haven't already, uh check us out at forthegospel.org. All of our resources are there. Information about our ministry is there as well. And our social media platforms are all available for you to follow on TikTok and Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. Lots of encouraging resources to invade your scroll, your newsfeed every single week with so much noise out there. We want to encourage you and equip you with biblical truth. On today's episode, it's the third part of this series on the Holy Spirit. I have a forthcoming book called Knowing the Spirit, and it will expand on all of this and more. It's out on September the 12th. And my prayer and hope is that it blesses you with a lifelong understanding of the Holy Spirit and would protect you from confusing teachings that are out there. Last episode, we looked at three essential truths about the Holy Spirit as God, a person, and as approachable for us to have a strong relationship with. And now in this episode, I want to get practical. We're looking at uh the fact that the Holy Spirit is God. Okay, so now what? And that's really the title of the episode. The Holy Spirit is God now what? Instead of being confused or indifferent or stuck in a rut on this doctrine, there are responses that every Christian ought to have based on the truths we've covered so far. If he is God, if he is a person, and if he is approachable and not some far-off deity or some mystical force out there, well then what should we do? Regarding the deity and the active work of the Holy Spirit being so clear in Scripture, fourth century theologian Gregory of Neanzus wrote, Christ is born, the Spirit is his forerunner. Christ is baptized, the Spirit bears witness. Christ is tempted, the Spirit leads him up. Christ ascends, the Spirit takes his place. What great things are there in the character of God which are not found in the Spirit? What titles which belong to God are not also applied to him? He is called the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the mind of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of Liberty, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of might, the Spirit of knowledge, two more, the Spirit of godliness, and the spirit of the fear of God. This only begins to show how unlimited he is. So he is God. How should we respond? Powerful truths to meditate on. First and foremost, if he is God and we believe he is, how should we respond? Number one, worship the Holy Spirit as God. If the Holy Spirit is truly everything we've covered, then he's God and he should be worshipped. You and I ought to include him in our worship and acknowledge him in our worship and remember that he is essential to our worship. This could be as simple as praising the Holy Spirit for his work in your life during a time of worship in your church. It could be including him in your conversations about God with your family and not leaving him out because you're a little unsure what to do with him or how to talk about him. Most certainly it must include singing accurate song lyrics about him. There's a lot of weird lyrics about the spirit these days. Let's sing doctrinally accurate things about him. And might I also add, addressing him in biblical ways during our worship gatherings. I've often lamented the way that we come to him in the modern church, ignorantly perhaps for many people, but still erroneously, begging him to just come in our churches and pleading with him to just show up and not remembering he's already there. He's God, he's omnipresent. So when you worship him, how about saying, Holy Spirit, we know you're here and we are indwelt by your presence? Thank you for your work. Help us to glorify Christ, work in us, convict us, move in power as we worship Christ and as we humbly yield to you in our worship. That's biblical. That's a great way to address him. On the flip side, you know, to addressing him wrongly, the Holy Spirit typically gets neglected because of ignorance, but also sometimes out of fear. So don't be afraid to talk about him and even talk to him in your worship services. And finally, if he is God, then he is to be worshipped, so we ought to. Well then let's be reverent, reverent toward the Holy Spirit. This is not something you see as often as you might want to in the church at large today. The word worship is something to think about here and meditate on by way of definition. In the original language, the word worship in the New Testament Greek means proskeneo, that's the word, and it means to kiss the hand in reverence or to bow down. So when we worship God, we should have a heart, a posture, even sometimes with our bodies on our knees before the Lord, humbly, bowing our heads. Maybe you close your eyes because you don't want to be distracted. It's not a chapter and verse that says you must close your eyes, but maybe you want to, so you cannot focus on other things. Out of respect and honor for him, you give him your full undivided attention. This is the way that we should honor the Holy Spirit if he is God and He is. Number two, seek relationship with the Holy Spirit as a person. So one way to apply what you've learned so far is by living with a resolve to see the Holy Spirit as a person. That's how you got to see him. You remove the idea of him being an it from your spiritual vocabulary or a mystical thing out there. Like any person you have an important relationship with, you talk about him, you think about him, you consider his thoughts, his feelings, what would please him, what would honor him, what would be his will, and what he wants to do in you through you, and what he wants from you by way of obedience to Christ. Now, we all grieve the Holy Spirit at times because of our own sin, but there is a way to walk with him in relationship. I think of Galatians chapter 5 and where Paul says, you know, walk by the spirit, don't walk according to the flesh. The word walk being the Greek word parapiteo, which means to be preoccupied, preoccupied with the things of the spirit. Well, what better way to nurture relationship with him and foster a healthy right view of him than to be preoccupied about the things that the Holy Spirit calls you to in Scripture? So that's going to mean devoting yourself to studying the Bible and understanding the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Third, pray to the Holy Spirit as God. When is the last time you addressed the Holy Spirit in your prayer life? Chances are you've addressed the Father and Jesus the Son, but should you address the Holy Spirit? I think based on what we know biblically about the Holy Spirit, the answer is yes. I would hope you are already experiencing that type of relationship with him in prayer, where you would ask him to fill you, and he will according to Ephesians 5.18. Ask him to bear fruit in your life from Galatians 5, 22 to 23. Ask him to use your spiritual gift and help you to be obedient in serving others according to 1 Peter 4, 7 through 11. I believe he will. And ask him to help you glorify Jesus. You know, that's what John 16, verse 14 says that he will do. Jesus himself actually says to his disciples, of the Holy Spirit, he will glorify me, meaning Christ. So if you want to follow Christ and you want to honor the Holy Spirit's ministry, wouldn't you want to pray to him? Holy Spirit, please help me bring glory and honor to Christ Jesus today, since that is what you do. One of the most incredible truths when we're talking about praying to the Holy Spirit as God comes from Romans 8, 26, where Paul says that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. And how does he do this? Well, he actually prays for us when we don't know how to pray or what to pray. That means the Holy Spirit is very much involved in our prayer life and for good reason. We need his help. John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, wisely wrote: prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God through Christ in the strength of and the assistance of the Spirit for such things as God has promised. So here's a great idea. Take a few minutes today, maybe hit pause on this podcast and pray directly to the Holy Spirit in line with Scripture, asking him to do what the Scriptures say he will do in you and through you. And then if you don't know what to pray, or if you're having a hard time right now, pray to him and ask him for help. And you know what's great? Thank him for interceding for you. That is a prayer of thanksgiving and adoration unto God. What a blessing. God himself, who lets you come and pray and commune with him through prayer, is praying for you, one of his children. Number four, base your understanding of the Holy Spirit on scripture alone. So the Holy Spirit's God, now what? Well, you better get them right. There are a lot of weird teachings out there that come from mystical experiences, personal opinions, but also demonic counterfeits. The devil, spiritual warfare, and demonic activity should not be all that weird to us. I think too many Christians relegate these things to sci-fi anomalies and it's nothing to be taken seriously. Rationalists will get uncomfortable with these things, and many more will just dismiss everything as nothing more than fable or just fabrications of your imagination. But what if Satan were an expert at distraction and deception? What if it was, you know, the rationalism that he enjoyed so much? Because now you'll just dismiss certain things that are completely him. Many people don't understand his tactics, that his goal is to lure them away from the truth and veer their eyes away from Christ. And what if one of his favorite tools for doing that was a false spirit to counterfeit people, a spirit of delusion? I mean, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 talks all about this. Well, what if he was counterfeiting the true work of the Holy Spirit through false spirits or a false work to lead people into mysticism and to lead them into living on experiences and trusting in emotional experiences? They say, oh, I just feel like this is God, but it has nothing to do with what scripture describes as God's work. What if he was using all of that to deceive you or to keep you from having a true relationship with God? I think he does that. Why? Because the Bible says that he works overtime to blind the minds of unbelievers. Why does it have to be weird or irrational that the devil is using demonic tactics to deceive people? Well, you say, Well, I don't know what to do with that. Well, yes, you do. Define all of your beliefs and base your understanding and relationship with the Holy Spirit on scripture alone, and you will do what the Bible says to do. You will be able to resist the devil and he'll actually flee. I sensed this. Stick to the word of God and base all of your understanding regarding the Holy Spirit's work on scripture alone. If he is God, if he is a person, if he is approachable and someone to be revered, if he is to be worshipped, well, he is all those things, then we ought to have a healthy relationship with him. And in order to have a healthy relationship, we should get our definition of him from scripture. I would bet my life on that. And I recommend you do the same. In the next episode, I want to answer a question that often comes up when we're talking about having a relationship with the Holy Spirit. It's the question, does he speak? And I've got some good news for you if you're wanting to hear from the Holy Spirit. Join me right back here and we'll dig in for biblical answers to that important question. For more on this topic, for small group discussion material and a lot of other questions about the Holy Spirit that I answer, that you can find in a book titled Knowing the Spirit, and you can pick that up wherever books are sold. As always, thanks for listening, for watching, for sharing, and for supporting what we're trying to accomplish for the glory of God here at For the Gospel. I hope this series is used by the Lord to help you grow stronger and closer and clearer in your relationship with the third member of the Trinity. I'll be back next Monday with another episode.