"Holy Spirit You are welcome here, Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory God is what our hearts long for, To be overcome by Your presence, Lord." Many of us in the Western church are familiar with these lyrics, which are taken from the song Holy Spirit, You Are Welcome Here. A staple in the modern evangelical church, Holy Spirit is a worship song that vividly describes a deep longing for God's Presence, the Holy Spirit. Coupled with a soothing melody and beat, Holy Spirit invites the singer and the church as a whole to desire the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Just who is the Holy Spirit? In many evangelical circles, the Holy Spirit is seen as the Guide and Helper (paraclete). However, for those new to the faith, the idea of the Holy Spirit may seem foreign. Even a song like Holy Spirit may raise significant questions like:

• Who is the Holy Spirit?

• What does the Holy Spirit do?

• When is the Spirit Talking to Me?

• Can I Pray To the Spirit?

This post will seek to tackle these four questions regarding the Holy Spirit. Additionally, this post will also tackle the two unhealthy extremes associated with the Holy Spirit and provide a healthy approach to understanding the Holy Spirit.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

The first question that needs to be addressed is this: Who is the Holy Spirit? For those new to the faith, this is both a valid and foundational question. The Holy Spirit is God and lives inside Christians immediately after salvation. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal it (i.e., the Force), but a very personal He, God's Spirit. And while the Holy Spirit is God, the Holy Spirit is also the third member of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit can be seen in action from the very beginning of creation, beginning in Genesis. There, God's Spirit (the Holy Spirit) "hovering over the surface of the waters" (cf. Genesis 1:2). It is also implied that the Holy Spirit participated in the creation of mankind (cf. Genesis 1:26, "Let's/Let us"; Genesis 2:7).

Since the creation of mankind, the Holy Spirit has been active in guiding people toward God. Before Jesus' coming, the Holy Spirit empowered certain people for certain tasks. Examples of this can be seen throughout the books of Joshua, Judges, and 1-2 Kings, among others. However, it was also possible for the Holy Spirit to leave an individual if they chose to sin (e.g., Samson and King Saul). In other words, before the coming of Jesus, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was conditional; any attempt to disobey God's commands resulted in the loss of the Holy Spirit. With the coming of Jesus, however, everything changed. The Old Covenant, which relied heavily on obedience to the Law, was fulfilled by Jesus, who then instituted the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, salvation was contingent on whole-hearted obedience to the Law (cf. Deuteronomy 6:2; Hosea 6:6); it was then that the Holy Spirit could indwell an individual. But since Jesus came to be the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, salvation now rests in placing one's trust in Jesus. This makes salvation permanent, and thus the Holy Spirit can forever dwell in a person.

In addition to all this, the Holy Spirit acts as a Counselor (cf. John 14:26), Guide (cf. John 16:13), and the Means of Adoption into God's Family (cf. Romans 8:14-15), among other things.

What does the Holy Spirit do?

The second question that needs to be addressed is this: What does the Holy Spirit do? Again, for those new to the faith, this is a valid and important question. The Holy Spirit is capable of doing many things, with a plethora of stories in Scripture demonstrating the Spirit's power. As mentioned before, the Holy Spirit does empower people. But the Holy Spirit is also capable of other things. The book of Acts is a good example of the Spirit's power and abilities. Looking at the book of Acts alone, some of the things the Holy Spirit is capable of doing include:

• Tongues (cf. 2:4; 19:6)

• Conviction (cf. 4:8; 7:51)

• Appointment (cf. 6:3,5; 13:2; 20:28)

• Wisdom (cf. 6:10)

• Evangelism (cf. 10:44-45; 11:15; 18:5)

• Guidance (cf. 8:29,39; 13:4; 16:6-7; 20:22-23)

• Transformation (cf. 9:17)

• Peace (cf. 9:31)

• Revelation (cf. 10:19)

• Encouragement (cf. 13:52)

• Prophecy (cf. 11:28; 21:11)

And these are just some of the acts of the Spirit where the Holy Spirit is directly mentioned. In Acts, the Holy Spirit is mentioned at least fifty-six times and is associated with other miracles, including healing (cf. 3:6; 9:18,40) and exorcism (cf. 16:18). Additionally, there is the fruit (or deeds) of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23, WEB). In short, the Holy Spirit is able to do many things. 

When is the Spirit Talking to Me? Can I Pray To the Spirit?

Aside from Who the Spirit is and what He does, two other questions are present in the mind of the new believer: When is the Spirit talking to me? and Can I pray to the Spirit?

To tackle the first question, it is important to have a good understanding of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a Person and He lives inside Christians. He is not some abstract force or genie, nor is He your conscience. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the Divine presence of God living inside the soul of a Christian. When a person is unsaved, they have what is called a conscience, a God-given moral mechanism that simulates but is not nor is the equivalent of the Holy Spirit. Meaning, a conscience may analyze a situation and provide the best possible outcome (i.e., doing the right thing), but it cannot save you from sin. The conscience, perhaps, was designed by God to lead you to make the choice to follow Jesus. Upon the choice of salvation, a person receives the Holy Spirit, which takes over the role of yet is greater in every way than the conscience. The Holy Spirit provides a person access to God and guides a person toward God. Now, since we live on a different plane of existence than the Spirit, we cannot see or (in most cases) hear the Holy Spirit; thus, hearing from the Spirit like hearing from a close friend is difficult. However, we can sense the Holy Spirit speaking to us based upon knowledge of God's character and faith. Because the Holy Spirit indwells us, we have the ability to tune into what the Spirit is saying. Oftentimes, the Spirit will speak using Scripture, life circumstances, or other people. On occasion, there may be angels sent to deliver a certain message. 

As for prayer to the Holy Spirit, the Bible does not give explicit instruction on or against the matter. Commonly, people pray to God, the Father, or Jesus. However, since the Holy Spirit is God and is a Member of the Trinity, it would be just fine to pray to the Holy Spirit.

The Two Extremes

Unfortunately, when discussing the topic of the Holy Spirit, Christians may swing to one of two extremes. The first extreme is to attribute everything to the Holy Spirit. This extreme is what I call the Emphasis extreme, since it emphasizes the Holy Spirit. For example, Charismatic churches, especially Pentecostal churches, will hold to the teaching that there must be a baptism of the Holy Spirit before a Christian is truly saved. This teaching, no doubt, stems from a misunderstanding of Acts 19:1-8, where Paul baptizes disciples in Ephesus in the Lord Jesus so they can receive the Holy Spirit. Paul, of course, did this out of necessity since they were baptized by John (a forerunner), not Jesus (the One to come), and thus did not yet receive the Holy Spirit. In short, this passage signifies a transition between covenants, not two different baptisms. Another famous example of the Emphasis extreme is the ability to speak in tongues. This, of course, is a misunderstanding of what "speaking in tongues" is. In Acts 2:1-13, the Holy Spirit fills the disciples so they can share the Gospel in different languages. Notice, however, that the people understand what the disciples are saying (cf. v.6). Notice they are not spouting gibberish like most Charismatics do when they claim to "speak in tongues." Though I believe in the speaking in tongues, I do not believe in the speaking of gibberish. The ability to speak in tongues is just one of the abilities the Holy Spirit gives, and as is indicated in Acts 2, its primary role is to communicate the Gospel to others in an understandable way. Much could be said on this topic, but the point is that the Emphasis extreme portrays the Holy Spirit as a magician or force. Obviously, this opens the door to the occult, as is the case with false teachers who abuse the power of the Holy Spirit (i.e., Benny Hinn).

The other extreme is to avoid the Holy Spirit altogether. This is what I call the Embarrassment extreme. Baptist and fundamentalist churches today hold to the Embarrassment extreme after seeing the bizarre of the Emphasis extreme. Unlike the Emphasis extreme, adherents of the Embarrassment extreme generally avoid discussing the Holy Spirit. While they do not necessarily discourage or deny the Holy Spirit, Embarrassmentalists prefer to keep mum about the Spirit out of fear for the Emphasis extreme. To reference the popular Pixar movie Encanto, Embarrassmentalists have a "We-don't-talk-about-Bruno" approach to the Holy Spirit. Instead of being focused on the showiness of Emphasisizers, Embarrassmentalists choose to stay focused on the truth of Jesus. However, there is a major problem with Embarrassmentalists. Rather than balancing out zeal for the Holy Spirit, Embarrassmentalists choose to shut up the Holy Spirit from all teaching. This is not only unbiblical, but toxic. By refusing to talk about the Holy Spirit, Embarrassmentalists risk blaspheme of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in Matthew 12: "Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men" (Matthew 12:31, WEB). The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit perhaps refers to general disbelief, as some theologians would agree. Now, we know that the Holy Spirit indwells a person upon salvation. So to reject the Holy Spirit would then mean to reject salvation, since the two are inexplicably intertwined. So, the attempt by Embarrassmentalists to keep out the Holy Spirit for fears of spiritual radicalism may indeed bring about spiritual death -- disbelief, that is.

Recap and a Healthy Approach to the Spirit

To recap, the Holy Spirit is our Helper, Counselor, and Guide to the heart of God. We explored a bit more about who the Holy Spirit is and what He does. As I mentioned earlier, the Holy Spirit is a He, not an it. We also looked at how the Spirit responds and even the possibility of talking to the Spirit. Additionally, we identified two dangerous extremes to approaching the Holy Spirit, Emphasis and Embarrassment.

To conclude, I would like to offer a final piece of advice on how to approach the Holy Spirit in a healthy way. As I mentioned earlier, there are two extremes that Christians go toward in regards to the Holy Spirit. One camp seeks to use the Holy Spirit like magic, while the other camp shies away from the Spirit altogether. Instead of either approach to the Spirit, I suggest that we treat the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit. While we should embrace the Spirit, we also must be discerning (another gift of the Spirit).