Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast. My name is Kosti Hinn, and I am your host today. We are all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. And on today's episode, I want to begin a stretch of episodes where we dig into key doctrinal truths from the Bible that will change your life and shape the way that you view God. And to start out, I really want to get one thing straight, and it's this theology is for everyone. Doctrine is for everyone. There's this notion, usually propagated by people who don't know their Bible or would prefer to lean into mysticism or emotional experience, that theology is just a bunch of head knowledge, and it'll make you prideful. And it really shouldn't. And I know that Paul says knowledge puffs up, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't know about our God. That means we need to keep knowledge in its place. The word theology basically means God logic. It's what you know about God and can understand about God. And I'll say this the more we know about God, the more humble we should become. We should have a greater awareness of who God is, and that should lead to a greater awareness of who we are, which is sinners saved by the grace of God. So don't be afraid of theology. Don't be afraid of doctrine. That's really what our ministry is all about. We want to present it to you in ways that are easy to understand. We're everyday guys, and whether you have an education in theology or not, it is so important for us to remember God put his truth in a simple language. Uh, what Koine Greek really is, is common Greek. So we don't need to make it really complicated, and we want to dig into doctrine and make it simple. So, this episode, I want to provide you with some key truths about the Holy Spirit. Great place to start doctrinally because he gets a ton of bad press these days, and he really has for a long time. I would say that the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit gets a lot of press in general, but the Holy Spirit is one of the most neglected and misunderstood and misrepresented persons in the Trinity. And yet he's an equal part of the Godhead. Many of his works go unnoticed, and while many foolish and outlandish practices are credited to him, the Holy Spirit's work is tremendous. It's a beautiful work and it's a clear work in Scripture. Uh, some people will uh set themselves up to be some mystic or prophet or apostle who can give you the power of the Holy Spirit or impart to you some greater knowledge so that you can access the Holy Spirit. I want to help you right off the bat and say this the Holy Spirit is accessible for all believers. He indwells all believers, and he is at work in hearts. You don't need some special apostle or prophet to impart the Holy Spirit to you. The Holy Spirit is available. And so you must know him, understand him, and I want you, especially if you're one of our regular listeners, to have him. I want him indwelling you, filling you. I want you to be saved, is really what I'm saying, if you're not already. And the Holy Spirit's work is huge in the process of salvation. So let's start with some basics on the Holy Spirit. Number one, the Holy Spirit is a person. He's not an it. A lot of people call him an it. He's not an it. He's not a mystical blue genie, like uh one famous singer lady says, and uh maybe jokingly or not, he's not a white sheet, sort of covered ghost. He's not like the force from Star Wars. Jesus describes the Holy Spirit in John chapter 16 by describing him as a he. If you were to read verses 5 to 15 in John 16, you're gonna count 13 masculine pronouns used to describe the Holy Spirit. He is a he. He is a person, he is not an it. And that's a great starting point because often people think the Holy Spirit is just a force, or he's like gravity, or he's like the you know, a tsunami or an earthquake, or um, he's like electricity, right? All those things are it's it lights up the room, it shakes the ground. That's an earthquake, that's electricity. No, he, the Holy Spirit, is a person. Another reality, the Holy Spirit is incredibly active in the life of true believers. Jesus says to his disciples when he's preparing to leave, but I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper shall not come to you. He calls the Holy Spirit a helper when he's telling his disciples about his role and the role that he's going to play in the life not only of them at the time, but also believers to come and disciples of the disciples. He says, if I go, I'll send them to you in John 16, verse 7. That has got to really perk our ears up as believers, because the question might be asked, Well, isn't Christ the ultimate? Well, of course he is. He's everything, he's our treasure. I've heard it well said before, you know, I don't want to go to heaven if Jesus isn't there. Heaven isn't even heaven without Christ. Without Christ, heaven is actually hell. Without God there, heaven is not our motivation. Going to some far-off place and having a good time with our dead loved ones, although that'd be great if we're believers, is not our ultimate motivation for heaven. Being with Jesus is. So let's just say Jesus is the ultimate, and yet the ultimate one himself says that it's advantageous for him to go away. Why would he say that? Because there's an advantage, obviously, if Jesus said it. The Holy Spirit's gonna come. Many people say, oh, this is you know, where we're gonna do signs and wonders, and the Holy Spirit's gonna come, and he's gonna empower us, and so that's why Jesus was saying it, because we're gonna do miracles and we're gonna go around and do this and do that and do this and do that. That's not the best we can do with that verse. Bottom line is Jesus is highlighting the spiritual advantages that are gonna happen when the Holy Spirit comes. He's not left us as orphans. And so let me lay out some of those advantages when we're talking about the Holy Spirit as a person and that he's incredibly active in the lives of believers. The first advantage is obviously regeneration. The Holy Spirit takes sinners and he turns us into saints. He takes people that are broken, sinful, wicked, and turns them into righteous, glorious, useful vessels for Christ. The Holy Spirit through regeneration, which is to regenerate something, to make it new, does what 2 Corinthians 5 17 describes as becoming a new creation. The old is gone, the new is come, and that happens when we're in Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the one doing that work. You can basically fake being saved by saying all the right things, but a person who has experienced the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit is gonna prove to be truly saved by bearing fruit. That's what the Holy Spirit will do through a saved person, and that's an advantage for the believer because you can look at your life and say, Wow, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, Galatians 5, 22 and 23, is coming out of my life. Therefore, the Holy Spirit must be indwelling my life. He must have taken over and regenerated me. I don't look like darkness anymore. Darkness has died within me. I look like light. I'm following Christ. Titus 3, verse 5 reminds us he saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with his mercy by the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Spirit. So advantage number one, regeneration. He regenerates hearts. Another one, sanctification. The Holy Spirit comes and he sanctifies believers. You say, well, what does that mean? Or boil that down into simple terms. Basically, sanctification is the process of transformation. It's the I'm not who I used to be, but I'm not yet who I'm going to be. Sanctification is being set apart, being cleansed. It's the Philippians 1:6 when Paul says, He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ. Basically, the Holy Spirit is becomes your moral compass. He becomes the one who convicts you. And all of a sudden you don't want to do the things you used to do. You've done a spiritual 180. You were going one direction, living for you, and now you're going a completely different direction. It means that a follower of Christ is always growing, even if slowly. You're not perfect, but you're progressing. And even when times are tough and you're going through trials, you see a upward trajectory, if you will, a slow upward growth pattern. And it continues on and on and on until glory. Listen to 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 to 11, what Paul says that basically we are going to be different, and that is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He says, Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, or the greedy, nor those who are habitually drunk, or verbal abusers, or swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And then listen to this in verse 11. Such were some of you, such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. So ask yourself this. Have you changed from a carefree, habitual sinner who did whatever they wanted, however they wanted, to a saint who cares deeply about dealing with their sin? And by saint I mean one who is a child of God, not a perfect saint, but one who is a child of God. Do you care about dealing with your sin? Have you started hating your sin? Only the Holy Spirit can do that. And he sanctifies you, he cleanses you. If you're not seeing that in your life as much as you would like, or if there's areas that you haven't yet conquered, then here's a simple prayer. You say, Holy Spirit, please help me in that area. Please bring strong conviction upon my life in that area. Sanctify me. Cleanse that sin from my life. Take it away. I don't want to do it. It doesn't honor Christ. Please sanctify me. You could pray for it because sanctification is God's will. And so another advantage, illumination. Okay. Illumination. You can think of a light bulb. A light bulb going on in your mind. You ever have one of those moments where you're reading the Bible or you're listening to something and you go, oh man, that's what it is. Yes. And it clicks. And almost in a funny way, maybe like me, you've done this. I think we've all done this a time or two. You go, has that always been there? Man, I've read the Bible. I've read that area, that section, I've read that book. I've thought, I've been sitting in church all my life, etc. And you go, that clicked for me. Okay, that's illumination. It's the moment that the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of a believer to the truth of scripture. And some people, you know, kind of think falsely that the Holy Spirit just sort of comes in and he automatically downloads your brain with everything as a Christian. There'll be some people that tell you that, by the way, that they got special revelation from God and they're extra anointed. Bottom line is this isn't like an automatic download of all knowledge, and now you don't need to read your Bible. It's the light bulb going off as the Holy Spirit teaches you and opens the eyes of your heart. And so while you put your work boots on, if you will, your Bible work boots, and you work diligently to the study of the scriptures, don't ever forget to pray. In fact, I would say this: don't ever read your Bible without praying first. Ask the Holy Spirit, please illumine the scriptures, open my eyes, open the eyes of my heart, open my mind, help me to understand this truth so that I can live out what you have instructed me to live. If you're not experiencing a deep love for the scriptures, if you're not experiencing a hunger, you can pray the prayer that Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus in Ephesians 1, 17 to 18. He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what the hope of his calling is and what the riches of his glory are and the inheritance of the saints. You can pray that prayer. And then I want to unpack a few more things that are there in John 16. Another advantage, the Holy Spirit gives sinners truth. So he regenerates, he sanctifies, he illumines us, and then he gives sinners the truth. Basically, he convicts the world of unrighteousness. That means that every single human being experiences to some level conviction. They might, like Romans 1 says, suppress the truth in their unrighteousness. But the bottom line is believers are indwelt by and controlled by the Holy Spirit. But the Bible teaches, and Jesus says it flat out, that the Holy Spirit is going to convict the world, which means he is pressing in on every life and every heart. And some people run from that conviction and some people run to it. That's why in church you preach hard and some people can't stand it. They leave and they tell their friend or their mother-in-law or their whoever who invited them, don't ever invite me to that place again. I don't want to hear that guy talk to me like that again. They run from conviction, where other people, they run to it and they say, That's what I needed to hear. Well, John 16 says, basically, the Holy Spirit convicts people to see that they're a sinner because they don't believe in him, Jesus says. Because they don't believe in me. He convicts the world. You're in sin. Christ is the answer. He is God. Or like Romans 1, general revelation. Look around you. God has revealed himself in that way, and yet they trade him in. They'd much rather worship their own idols and do it their way. And so the Holy Spirit convicts. He also bears witness that Christ is righteous. In John 16, 10, he says, because Jesus says, Because I go to the Father and you no longer behold me. Basically, the Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning righteousness, essentially saying the man that was condemned and crucified as a villain has been welcomed to the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit bears witness of that truth, and primarily through the preaching of faithful vessels, as people go out and declare the truth of God's word. The Holy Spirit bears witness that Christ is gone. Think about that. If Jesus is gone, the Holy Spirit came, what does that mean? It means Jesus was telling the truth. He's at the right hand of the Father. So the Holy Spirit's arrival even declares triumphantly there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Christ said he was God, he is the Son of God, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and so confess your sin, place your faith in him, take his righteousness upon you that he is offered to the believer. And so the Holy Spirit bears witness that Christ was and is the perfect righteousness of God. He also bears witness that Satan is condemned. Jesus says in John 16, 11, because the ruler of this world has been judged. The Holy Spirit's arrival confirms that Satan was wrong, that Satan is the one who stands judged and condemned. And the accuser, the brev brethren, has now been found guilty, even though he is the one who condemns and uh tries to prove the believer as guilty day and night, the Bible says. This is triumph for a believer. We are victorious over death, we're victorious over tragedy, we're victorious over sin, we're victorious over this life and its fleeting brevity. And the Holy Spirit bears witness that Christ was who he says he was and that Satan is defeated. But there's another really key point when it comes to the work of the Holy Spirit, and you'll see it as well in John 16, which I would encourage you to read at some point today. And that is that his primary role is to glorify Christ. In John 16, 14, Jesus says, He will glorify me. The Holy Spirit exists not to put the spotlight on himself and his work, not to put the spotlight on you, but to put the spotlight on Christ. In fact, you could say his work is most evident in our lives when we are exalting Christ. Christ didn't say that the Holy Spirit was going to elevate men or he was going to be a slave to your beck and call or whoever commands him or says they're anointed and tells the Spirit what to do or where to go. He never said the Holy Spirit was going to be an entertaining sensationalist full of YouTube clips where he's like a glory cloud or gold dust falling from the rafters of a church. No. He will glorify me, Jesus says. Anything that glorifies you or elevates man or makes uh uh a mockery or a show of the work of Christ is not the Spirit of God. And this has a huge impact on the way that we view the gifts of the Spirit, doesn't it? It's important to note that even though the gifts of the Holy Spirit are available only to believers, they are byproducts of his primary work in applying salvation to us, and then we're being given gifts, and he sovereignly bestows those gifts. But nobody would ever assess their salvation by thinking, you know, do I have a spiritual gift? That's how I know I'm saved. No. We would actually assess our salvation by saying, uh, am I regenerate? Am I being sanctified? Does scripture make sense? Am I growing in holiness? The gifts of the spirit need to be put in their proper place when we understand the work of the spirit. We're not chasing the gifts of the spirit. We ought to be chasing the glory of Christ. We're not looking at all the signs and wonders we can try to do as evidence of salvation. We're looking at our life. Am I different? Am I a new creation? And as wonderful as spiritual gifts are, as the outworking of the Holy Spirit for the common good and the edification of the body, like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, Christ's description of the Holy Spirit in John 16 holds salvation and the glory of Christ above everything else. That is the primary work of the Holy Spirit. This is one of the reasons, if you haven't figured it out already, that you know, I can't stand the cavalier way that people will take YouTube videos of ridiculous slings things and they'll claim, you know, glory clouds and all that in their churches. People get so obsessed with the gimmicks in the show, they completely look away from Christ. And then naturally they'll say, you know, oh no, it's all for the glory of God, but they glorify the gifts of men by their actions. And more than that, I'll tell you this right now. When glory is in our midst and the Holy Spirit is working mightily, an iPhone is the last thing you'll reach for. We'd be on our knees, like we will be one day in heaven, crying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, worthy to receive all blessing and honor and glory. He's worthy of all praise, worthy to break the seal, worthy to open the scroll. He is the Lamb who was slain. He is our great high priest, the one seated at the right hand of God and the righteousness that has been placed upon us. Christ is our substitute. He is our Lord, and the Holy Spirit exists to bring him glory through our lives. And so my prayer for you is that you see the Holy Spirit and his ministry and his work, not as a means to an end for you to make more of yourself, but to make much of Christ. And my prayer is this episode will help you foster a greater appreciation for him as a person and fire you up to glorify Jesus. Thank you for being with me today on this For the Gospel podcast episode. We'll be back again next week with another episode as we dig into more doctrinal truths from the Bible for free video teachings, including our new fused series on marriage, family, and parenting. You can go to our YouTube channel and to make a tax-free donation and help us continue to produce free resources or for articles and more about our ministry, go to for thegospel.org. We'll see you on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. And we'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.