 Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is the one who helps us to understand the word of God. The Holy Spirit is our comforter, our friend, our teacher, our advocate. I want to go through the scripture today and show you how Jesus himself describes the third person of the Trinity. Now the Holy Spirit is often surrounded in mystery and misunderstanding, but today we're going to present to you a very simple, very practical lesson on the person of the Holy Spirit. Stephen Moctezuma is here with me as usual. He's going to lead you in some worship, and then we're going to get right into this lesson. This is going to be a two-part lesson that covers a lot of material concerning the Holy Spirit. So my first point, who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, number one, is God. I didn't ask what is the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is not an object. He is not a force. He is not an idea. The Holy Spirit is a personal being. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is just as divine as the Father and the Son. Now when I say that to some, that's a shocking statement to many believers. That's not such a shocking statement, but the truth is that the divinity of the Holy Spirit is not as widely accepted in the Christian world as it should be. The Holy Spirit is just as divine as the Father and the Son. He is distinct from the Father and the Son, and he is just as divine. The scriptures I'm going to share with you, I've shared before on a lesson called Don't Grieve the Holy Spirit, and so some of this material is repeated material, but I think it's so important that we get into what the scripture has to say about the identity of the Holy Spirit because he is God. He is an equal member of the Trinity. He is not lesser. He is not less divine. He doesn't have less power. He doesn't have less say. The Holy Spirit is just as divine as Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is just as divine as the Father. So on this first point, the Holy Spirit is God. I want to lay down three simple thoughts for you. And that is, number one, the Holy Spirit is personal. Number two, the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son. And number three, the Holy Spirit is just as divine as the Father and the Son. In John chapter 15 verse 26, the scripture says, But I will send you the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. Now in that verse, the scripture uses the masculine pronoun he, not it. It's not describing an object. The scripture is describing he, the Holy Spirit. It is using the masculine pronoun because the Holy Spirit is a person. John chapter 16 verses 13 to 14 say, But when he, the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own initiative. But whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and will disclose it to you. First John chapter 5 verses 6 to 8 say, And Jesus Christ was revealed as God's Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross. Not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit who is Truth confirms it with his testimony. So we have these three witnesses. The Spirit, the water and the blood and all three agree. The Holy Spirit can fellowship with us. And he cannot fellowship with us if he is not a person. Second Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14 says, May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. The Holy Spirit also has a will and only personal beings can have a will of their own. First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 11 says, But all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will. The Holy Spirit can also speak and only personal beings can speak. The Scripture says, Acts chapter 8 verse 29, The Holy Spirit said to Philip, Go over and walk along beside the carriage. He said to Philip. Now why then is the Holy Spirit called the Holy Spirit? That's a question that many people ask. They say if he's a person why do we call him the Holy Spirit? Well it's a very simple answer really. The Scripture says in Matthew chapter 28 verse 19, Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. The article the does not automatically take from what it is describing personality. Think of this, we say the doctor, the police officer, the employee, the boss. All of those words the are describing pronouns or personal beings. And so the Holy Spirit is a title of a person. Now if we take away the personality from the Holy Spirit simply because he has the article the describing him, then we must do the same for the Son and the Father. Because in that same verse the Scripture describes them using the same word. So we see here from Scripture that it's very clear that the Holy Spirit is a personal being. And number two, the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son. The Scripture says in Matthew chapter 3 verses 16 and 17, After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, This is my dearly loved Son who brings me great joy. In that portion of Scripture in Matthew chapter 3, We saw the Father speaking, this is my beloved Son, the Son being baptized and the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus like a dove. All three were present and all three were distinct from one another. In Matthew chapter 28 verse 19 we just read this, Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Scripture is very clear that these three are distinct from one another. Now nobody really debates, I should say no believer really debates the divinity of Jesus. And no believer debates the divinity of God the Father. Really the only one that people take issue with sometimes is the Holy Spirit. They say, well Jesus is God, the Father is God, and the Holy Spirit is just one of the expressions but not equally God. Or they'll say something like, I don't believe in three gods. There's nowhere in Scripture that we see that there are three gods. Well neither do I. We do not believe in three gods, we believe in one God in three persons, the Trinity. Now they say, but there is no real evidence for the Trinity in Scripture. Really the premises for this are very simple. That they are distinct from one another and they are equally divine. We've already seen that all three of them are distinct from one another. But is the Holy Spirit just as divine as the Father and the Son? Yes he is. The Holy Spirit is referred to as the Lord. Second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 17 says, Now the Lord is that Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The Holy Spirit is one with God yet mentioned distinctly. First Corinthians chapter 2 verses 10 through 11 say, But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own Spirit. And no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. The Holy Spirit is omnipresent. Psalm chapter 139 verse 7 says, So think about this. The Holy Spirit is referred to as the Lord. The Holy Spirit is one or equal with God the Father. The Holy Spirit is omnipresent. In fact, the Holy Spirit was present at creation. And the Scripture says that when God created, when He created man, He said, Let us make man in our image. He's referring to the Trinity. Genesis chapter 1 verses 1 through 2 say, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. The Holy Spirit was present at and involved in creation. The Holy Spirit is God. So who is the Holy Spirit? Number one, the Holy Spirit is God. Who is the Holy Spirit? Number two, the Holy Spirit is heaven's greatest evangelist. John chapter 16 verses 7 through 11 say this. But in fact, it is best for you that I go away. Because if I don't, the advocate won't come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And by the way, this is Jesus talking. He's describing the Holy Spirit. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment. The world's sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged. Now, for this two-part lesson, I'm going to be giving you some scriptural references that I'm going to use from time to time, both in part one, which you're watching now, and next week in part two. And here are the references. John chapter 14 verses 15 through 18. John chapter 15 verse number 26. And John chapter 16 verses 5 through 15. This is a beautiful description of the Holy Spirit given by Jesus himself. And so I'm gleaning from these portions of Scripture to pull out these points. Now, obviously the first point, we didn't reference these as much because I felt a case needed to be laid, not only so that it can be persuasive to those who don't necessarily believe in the divinity of the Holy Spirit, but also so that those of you who do believe in the divinity of the Holy Spirit have a firm foundation for the beliefs that you believe so that you can know why you believe what you believe and not just what you believe. And that's a mistake a lot of Christians make. I'm just going to be honest with you. Many believers, if I were to ask them, why do you believe in Jesus? Most of them would give a personal anecdote and say something about how they experience transformation. But if I asked them, why do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus? They couldn't give an answer. If I asked them basic questions about their faith, most believers would have trouble answering. So when it comes to what I present to you, I don't want to just teach you what to believe. I want to show you why we believe these things. I want to show you the Scripture. I want to show you what the Bible says. And so that first point, I didn't necessarily use these portions of Scripture. Instead, I laid out a case. Now, in this next point, the Holy Spirit is Heaven's Greatest Evangelist. We're taking the portion of John chapter 16, verses 7 through 11. And we just read that, how the Holy Spirit will convict the world of its sin. You see, it is the Holy Spirit who draws men unto salvation. It was the Holy Spirit who spoke to your heart and stirred you to repentance. It was the Holy Spirit who in the mercy of God reached out to you and beckoned you to come to the cross of Jesus. The Holy Spirit proclaims the name of Jesus. The Holy Spirit glorifies the Son. And the Holy Spirit convicts the heart. The Holy Spirit draws us to salvation. He so stirs the soul that it is moved to repentance. He pools us. The Holy Spirit has a magnetic, convicting power that draws people unto Jesus. The Gospel has no power outside of the power of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel has no pool outside of the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who is the power behind our preaching. I've seen preachers use pressure tactics and emotional pleas to try to draw people to salvation. But the truth is that carnal efforts cannot produce spiritual results. That which is born of the flesh is flesh but that which is born of the spirit is spirit. We are not salesmen and the Gospel is not a product. We are not supposed to be the ones pooling people to salvation. We present the Gospel but we don't pressure people into getting saved. We can plead with them from the Scripture Paul the Apostle himself reasoned with people when it came to the preaching of the Gospel. But ultimately we cannot rely on our own efforts in presenting the Gospel. It has to be backed by the power of the Holy Spirit. I think of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. The Ethiopian eunuch was studying a portion from Isaiah and asking for understanding. He was seeking understanding. He was seeking truth. You can find that in Acts chapter 8 verses 26 to 40. And Philip the Evangelist hears from the Holy Spirit to go up to the carriage in which the eunuch is writing and reading the Scriptures. And he goes into the carriage and he begins to teach him about the good news of Jesus. The Holy Spirit anointed both the hearer and the speaker. He caused the eunuch to seek Jesus through the Scripture and he caused Philip to go and preach to him the Gospel. It is the Holy Spirit who draws men to salvation, who anoints the Gospel, and who anoints the one who is preaching the Gospel. The same thing happened with Cornelius. The Scripture tells us in Acts chapter 10 verses 1 through 34 that Cornelius who was a Gentile received the Gospel because the Holy Spirit sent an apostle to him. Well, at the same time speaking to Cornelius through a messenger, an angelic messenger. So the Holy Spirit worked both sides. He drew Cornelius to salvation and he sent a messenger to preach the Gospel. It is not by power nor by might, but by my spirit says the Lord. Luke chapter 12 verse 11 to 12 say, and when you are brought to trial in the synagogues and before rulers and authorities, don't worry about how to defend yourself or what to say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to be said. The Holy Spirit is Heaven's greatest evangelist. Nobody loves Jesus more than the Holy Spirit loves Jesus and nobody can present the Gospel like the Holy Spirit can present the Gospel. Our job is simple. We simply speak to the Holy Spirit and our job is simple. We simply speak it. We simply declare the truth. We simply obey God and fulfill the commission that was given to us by Christ. And when we by obedience declare the truth of the Gospel, when we by obedience preach the good news of forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit Himself anoints that message and convicts the heart of the sinner and draws them to salvation. It is not by our effort. It is not by our intellect. It is not by our gifting. It is not by anything that we can do in the flesh because that which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the spirit is spirit. You cannot get spiritual results from carnal efforts. It's by the Holy Ghost. He is Heaven's greatest evangelist. He is the one who anoints us. He is the one who empowers us. He is the one who puts the magnetism on the message of the Gospel so that when we declare the goodness of God, when we declare the good news of Jesus Christ that there is forgiveness of sins for all who come to Jesus humbly, that is when the Holy Spirit Himself gets involved and he begins to draw all men who hear the Gospel unto Jesus. He is Heaven's greatest evangelist. We must rely upon His power, not on our gifting. I remember one time I was preaching in this church and the Lord told me to have everybody in the room to begin praying in tongues. And so I said, everybody in this room, I want you for the next five minutes, begin to pray in the Holy Ghost. And that room you would have thought there was a thunderous move of the Holy Ghost, and there was, but you could hear it. It was like thunder all over the room. The people began to raise their voices and they began to pray out in tongues and the atmosphere began to change. And something in that room shifted. And so five minutes of this goes by of people praying and interceding in the Holy Ghost. And the enemy tried to assault my mind. The enemy told me things like, well, this is out of order because 1 Corinthians chapter 14. And many of you know I did a study on this in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. There are many ways we can go with that, but I actually encourage you to watch my teaching the truth about praying in tongues. So my religious mindset came up and the Lord told me of the Scripture in the same chapter that says that the gift of tongues is a sign to the unbelievers. How can the gift of tongues be a sign to the unbeliever if the unbeliever isn't there to hear it? So it was not out of order. So we're praying in the Holy Ghost. We're believing God. The flow of the service. Mind you, nobody was disrupting my preaching. The flow of the service was such that we were all praying in the Holy Ghost. And down the aisle comes this man about my age and he kneels at the altar. And I looked at him and he just began to weep. He was weeping and sobbing so hard that his body was shaking. And I went down off of the platform and I went up to him. I had everybody stop praying in tongues so I could talk to him. And I asked him, why are you crying? And he said, because I've been trying to find God for so long and tonight he found me. That guy had just walked in from off the street. I found out later. But he was drawn in by the atmosphere. It was by the power of the Holy Spirit. I didn't even have to preach at that moment. Now, of course, I'm not saying that we shouldn't preach the gospel. That's what we're commanded to do. But that story illustrates the fact that it truly is not by power nor by might but only by the Holy Spirit. Now, I do want to say this. Those of you who are wondering what I mentioned about 1 Corinthians 14, I want to say again, I encourage you, go look at my teaching called The Truth About Praying in Tongues. And I address the misconceptions about the instructions that Paul gave to the church about Praying in Tongues. But that is it for this lesson. And next week I will continue. In fact, next week, let me give you a little preview about next week. This week I covered the Holy Spirit is God, the Holy Spirit is Heaven's greatest evangelist. Next week we will talk about him as teacher, comforter, the revealer of Christ, which you're going to love. He's the one who makes Jesus real. And intercessor. Those are going to be great topics that we're going to cover in next week's edition of Spirit Church in part two of this series, Who is the Holy Spirit? I want to pray with you now. And believe that God will reveal the Holy Spirit to you in greater depths, greater dimensions. Let's pray that God would reveal the Holy Spirit to us and that we would be drawn into a closer fellowship with the Holy Spirit. And that we would have the evangelistic anointing from our friend, the Holy Spirit. I know you want that. Some of you, it's time to start evangelizing again. You've been so concerned with your own troubles and your own cares and all that's coming at you. But it's time to start evangelizing. It's time to get back to the place where you're declaring the goodness of Jesus to all you meet. And I know that you want to get there. Some of you can remember a time when evangelism was just a lifestyle. It just poured out of you and you want to get back to that place. Let's believe God right now for a touch of the Holy Spirit, a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit for you, okay? Stretch your hands toward my Father in Jesus' name. I pray for that one who is receiving this prayer now. And I ask that by your power, by your Holy Spirit, that you would anoint that one receiving this. That you would draw them closer to the Holy Spirit than they've ever known possible. And I pray, Father, that the gift of the evangelist, the gift of the greatest evangelist of all time would be laid upon them. We look to you now. In the Holy Spirit, I pray that your anointing would touch each one believing. Thank you, Father, for a fresh anointing being poured out upon those who are receiving this prayer. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray. I want you to say it. If you agree, say amen. Well, like I said, this is a two-part lesson and we will get to part two next week. I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. Take a look for your name. We love you. We are praying for you. I always say that because I always mean it. If you like to join Spirit Church, then go ahead and use the information at the bottom of the screen. Go and sign up. It's easy. It's fast. And then you'll get an email from me every single week. I want to read your comments now. And these comments were left on the video entitled Divine Brokenness. Phil commented, I never really knew the Holy Spirit until I started watching your videos, even though I've been a Christian for several decades. Thank you, Pastor David. God bless you and everyone involved with Spirit Church. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, amen. God bless you, Phil. You know, that's one of the passions of our ministry. We win souls and we edify the believer. But our main message to the church, really the message that God has put on my life for the church, is the message of the Holy Spirit. Now I know that our message to the world is the gospel. That's primary. That's number one. That's eternity right there. But my message to the church is fellowship with the Holy Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit. And so I'm so glad to hear that you are being drawn close to the Holy Spirit. And that blesses me like you wouldn't believe. Caroline Jackson writes, I am going through the season of brokenness and I believe God has an amazing plan for my life. This was definitely a message from God. God bless you. Well, God bless you, Caroline. I pray that the Lord would anoint you and use you and that in this season, you would be drawn closer to him than ever before. Mount Zion Network comments. Thank you, Pastor, for the wonderful message. It is really true that only God can fill our emptiness. And apart from him, we can do nothing. God bless you and your ministry, Pastor David. Another commenter writes, Thank you so very much for this blessed video. Yesterday, the Lord told me that the word of God will come to me right where I am. Today, through this message, he clearly spoke to me about my situation. It made me understand the lies of this season I am in. Thanks a lot for sharing this revelation with us. Much love from India. Wow, from India, God bless you. Well, God bless you watching all the way from India. We pray that God would continue to move. I got to get out to India, and I'm believing that I will get to go and be with the believers in India. I know there are many wonderful believers in India, and I want to go out and hold a miracle service there. Let's make that happen. And the final comment. Thank you so much, David. This is the best Encounter TV video yet. From the first line, I had tears rolling down my face. Very timely and prophetic. This is my season, and I am believing God to break me. I am a vessel for his use. Amen. God bless you. I'm so glad that this has blessed you. Go take a look at that teaching when you get a chance titled The Divine Brokenness. I want to update you now on where we are. Don't turn off the video. I want to talk to you. And maybe you come to this point in the video, and you always turn it off, and you never know what I say after this. Listen, after this you'll be able to say that you know what happens after this. But I want you to stay with me here because I need to talk to you. And I'm not talking to those who... I'll put it this way. I believe you're watching this because God has you watching this. There's no accident here. Our ministry is expanding and growing. Even just today I was talking to the team, and man, we are experiencing tremendous growth. But what we need from you is to help us facilitate this next phase of growth. We want to begin doing more for the Lord than ever before. Remember this, our why is souls. We want to win souls. And so right now we have a campaign that we're in. And we are trying to raise the support of monthly partnerships. This means people sign up to become a 35, 10, 20, whatever the Lord puts on their heart. We have some people who sign up for $1,000 a month. And those ones really help us, you know, break past certain goals that we've been trying to get to. And the majority of people sign up to become a $30 a month partner. But you do what you can on a monthly basis. Sign up for the automatic giving plan. And what happens is when you sign up to become a partner, we take that and we note that as this is our monthly support. Because really the one time donations are very sporadic. But the monthly supporters, that is how we plan around our ministry. The monthly sponsorships really help us to vision cast, see where we are as a whole and make wise decisions and be good stewards of God's blessings that he's giving to the ministry. So what we're doing is we're trying to raise new support. Here's where we are in the campaign. We needed a thousand new $30 a month partners. And look, we are more than halfway there. As soon as we finish up with the rest of those partners, as soon as we get that many more to sign up, then we can move into a new facility, produce more programs, do more events, even have you come in for Sunday night meetings, where I'll do teachings live with you in person and on the internet. And Steve Wachtezuma will do the worship. But really the point is this is a milestone. Help us get to that milestone. Sign up today. And when you do that, that's going to help us spread the gospel through media and events. And it really helps us to win souls and build the believer. And of course, after we reach that milestone, we're going to reach for even more. I really am believing for millions of souls. It's going to happen. You're going to see it and you'll be able to say that you were a part of this ministry in the beginning days. You're going to see this ministry. God's going to use it. You're going to see stadiums filled. You're going to see thousands coming to Christ. You're going to see millions reach the media. It's going to happen. It's going to be big and you can be a part of it. We can change the world. We can win souls. Sign up today. Don't wait for that. Do it now. Well, that is it for this edition of Spirit Church. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God. Thank you.