The Person And Work Of The Holy Spirit As Revealed In His Names

The chapter explains that the Holy Spirit has many names in the Bible, each revealing different aspects of His nature and work. He is like the invisible but powerful wind life-giving, mysterious, and essential. The Spirit is God’s presence in the world and believers, making God real and alive in their hearts. Closely connected to Jesus, the Holy Spirit reveals Christ and forms His presence within us. As the promised Holy Spirit and Comforter, He guides, empowers, and transforms believers for a holy life.

At least twenty-five different names are used in the Old and New Testaments in speaking of the Holy Spirit. There is the deepest significance in these names. By the careful study of them, we find a wonderful revelation of the Person and work of the Holy Spirit.

I. The Spirit The simplest name by which the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the Bible is “The Spirit.” This name is also used as the basis of other names, so we begin our study with this. The Greek and Hebrew words so translated mean literally, “Breath” or “Wind.” Both thoughts are in the name as applied to the Holy Spirit.

a) The thought of breath is brought out in John 20:22, where we read, “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.” It is also suggested in Genesis 2:7, “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” This bec omes more evident when we compare with this Psalm 104:30, “When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.” And Job 33:4, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” What is the significance of this name from the standpoint of these passages? The Spirit is the out-breathing of God, His inmost life going forth in a personal form to quicken. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive the inmost life of God Himself to dwell in a personal way in us. When we grasp this thought, it is overwhelming in its solemnity. Just stop and think what it means to have the inmost life of that infinite and eternal Being whom we call God, dwelling in a personal way in you. How solemn and how awful and yet unspeakably glorious life becomes when we realize this.

b). The thought of the Holy Spirit as “the Wind” is brought out in John 3:6 - 8, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” In Greek, it is the same word that is translated in one p art of this passage, “Spirit,” and in the other part, “wind.” And it seems the word should be translated the same way in both parts of the passage. It would then read, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the ‘Wind.’ ” The full significance of this name as applied to the Holy Spirit or Holy Wind may be beyond us to understand, but we can see at least this much of its meaning: (1) The Spirit, like the wind, is sovereign. “The wind blows where it wishes” (John 3:8). You cannot dictate to the wind. It does as it wills. Just so with the Holy Spirit, He is sovereign, we cannot dictate to Him. He “divides to each man” severally even “as He will” (1 Corinthians 12:11). When the wind is blowing from the north you may long to have it blow from the south, but cry as clamorously as you may to the wind, “Blow from the south” it will keep right on blowing from the north. But while you cannot dictate to the wind, while it blows as it will, you may learn the laws that govern the wind's motions, and by bringing yourself into harmony with those laws, you can get the wind to do your work. You can erect your windmill so that whichever way the wind blows, the wheels will turn and the wind will grind your grain, or pump your water. Just so, while we cannot dictate to the Holy Spirit we can learn the laws of His operations and by bringing ourselves into harmony with those laws, above all by submitting our wills absolutely to His sovereign will, the sovereign Spirit of God will work through us and accomplish His glorious work by our instrumentality.

(2) The Spirit, like the wind, is invisible but noticeable and real, and mighty. You hear the sound of the wind (John 3:8), but the wind itself you never see. You hear the voice of the Spirit, but He is ever invisible. (The w ord translated “sound” in John 3:8 is the word which elsewhere is translated “voice.”

We not only hear the voice of the wind, but we also see its mighty effects. We feel the breath of the wind upon our cheeks, we see the dust and the leaves blowing before the wind, we see the vessels at sea driven swiftly towards their ports, but the wind itself remains invisible. Just so with the Spirit; we feel His breath upon our souls, we see the mighty things He does, but Himself we do not see. He is invisible, but He is real and noticeable.

I shall never forget a solemn hour in Chicago Avenue Church, Chicago, and Dr. W. W. White was making a farewell address before going to India to work among the students there. Suddenly, without any apparent warning, the place was filled with an awful and glorious Presence. To me, it was very real, but the question arose in my mind, “Is this merely subjective, just a feeling of my own, or is there an objective Presence here?” After the meeting was over, I asked different people whe ther they were conscious of anything and found that at the same point in the meeting, they, too, though they saw no one, became distinctly conscious of an overwhelming Presence, the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Though many years have passed, some speak of that hour to this day.

On another occasion in my own home in Chicago, when kneeling in prayer with an intimate friend, as we prayed, it seemed as if an unseen and awful Presence entered the room. I realized what Eliphaz meant when he said, “A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.” (Job 4:15). The moment was overwhelming, but as glorious as it was awful. These are but two illustrations of which many might be given. None of us has seen the Holy Spirit at any time, but of His presence we have been distinctly conscious. His mighty power we have witnessed, and His reality we cannot doubt. Some tell us that they do not believe in anything that they cannot see. Not one of them has ever seen the wind, but they all believe in the wind. They have felt the wind and they have seen its effects, and just so we, beyond a question, have felt the mighty presence of the Spirit and witnessed His mighty workings.

(3) The Spirit, like the wind, is mysterious. You cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.

Nothing in nature is more mysterious than the wind. But more mysterious still is the Holy Spirit in His operations. We hear of how suddenly and unexpectedly in widely separated communities He begins to work His mighty work. Doubtless, there are hidden reasons why He does thus begin His work, but oftentimes these reasons are completely undiscoverable by us. We do not know where He comes from or where He is going. We cannot tell where next He will display His mighty and gracious power.

(4) The Sp irit, like the wind, is essential. Without wind, that is “air in motion,” there is no life, and so Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” If the wind should cease to blow fo r a single hour, most of the life on this earth would cease to be. Time and again, when the health reports of the different cities of the United States are issued, it has been found that the five healthiest cities in the United States were five cities located on the Great Lakes. Many have been surprised at this report when they have visited some of these cities and found that they were far from being the cleanest cities, or most sanitary in their general arrangement, and yet, year after year, this report has been returned. The explanation is simply this: it is the wind blowing from the lakes that has brought life and health to the cities. Just so, when the Spirit ceases to blow in any heart or any church or any community, death ensues, but when the Spirit blows steadily upon the individual or the church or the community, there is abounding spiritual life and health.

(5) Closely related to the foregoing thought, like the wind, the Holy Spirit is life-giving. This thought comes out again and again in the Scrip tures. For example, we read in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. “ The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life . ” Perhaps the most suggestive passage on this point is Ezekiel 37:8-10, “And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.

So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.” (John 3 -5). Israel, in the prophet's vision, was only bones, very many and very dry, until the prophet proclaimed to them the word of God; then there was a noise and a shaking and the bones came together, bone to his bone, and the sinews and the flesh came upon the bones, but still there was no life, but when the wind blew, the breath of God's Spirit, then “they stood up upon their feet an exceeding great army.” All life in the individual believer, in the teacher, the preacher, and the church is the Holy Spirit's work.

You will sometimes make the acquaintance of a man, and as you hear him talk and observe his conduct, you are repelled and disgusted. Everything about him declares that he is a dead man, a moral corpse, and not only dead but rapidly decaying. You get away from him as quickly as you can. Months afterwards, you meet him again. You hesitate to speak to him; you want to get out of his very presence, but you do speak to him, and he has not uttered many sentences before you notice a marvelous change. His conversation is sweet and wholesome, and uplifting; everything about his manner is attractive and delightful. You soon discover that the man's whole conduct and life has been transformed. He is no longer a decaying corpse but a living child of God. What has happened? The Wind of God has blown upon him; he has received the Holy Spirit, the Holy Wind.

On a quiet Sabbath day, you visit a church. Everything about the outward appointments of the church is all that could be desired. There is an attractive meeting-house, an expensive organ, a gifted choir, and a scholarly preacher. The service is well arranged, but you have not been long at the gathering before you are forced to see that there is no life, that it is all form, and that nothing is being accomplished for God or man. You go away with a heavy heart. Months afterwards, you have to visit the church again; the outward appointments of the church are much as they were before, but the service has not proceeded far before you note a great difference. There is a new power in the singing, a new spirit in the prayer, a new grip in the preaching; everything about the church is teeming with the life of God. What has happened?

The Wind of God has blown upon that church; the Holy Spirit, the Holy Wind, has come.

You go some day to hear a preacher of whose abilities you have heard great reports. As he stands up to preach, you soon learn that nothing too much has been said in praise of his abilities from the merely intellectual and suggestive standpoint. His expression is faultless, his style beautiful, his logic unimpeachable, his orthodoxy beyond criticism. It is an intellectual treat to listen to him, and yet after all, as he preaches, you cannot avoid a feeling of sadness, for there is no real grip, power, and reality of any kind in the man's preaching. You go away with a heavy heart at the thought of this waste of magnificent abilities. Months, perhaps years, pass by, and you again find yourself listening to this celebrated preacher, but what a change! The same faultless diction, beautiful style, unimpeachable logic, skillful elocution, sound orthodoxy, but now there is something more, there is reality, life, grip, power in the preaching. Men and women sit breathless as he speaks, sinners bowed with tears of repentance, pricked to their hearts with conviction of sin; men and women and boys and girls renounce their selfishness, and their sin and their worldliness and accept Jesus Christ and surrender their lives to Him.

What has happened? The Wind of God has blown upon that man. He has been filled with the Holy Wind.

(6) Like the wind, the Holy Spirit is irresistible. We read in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” When this promise of our Lord was fulfilled in Stephen, we read, “But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.” A man filled with the Holy Spirit is transformed into a cyclone. What can stand before the wind? When St. Cloud, Minn., was visited by a cyclone years ago, the wind picked up loaded freight cars and carried them away off the track. It wrenched an iron bridge from its foundations, twisted it together, and threw it away.

When a cyclone later visited St. Louis, Mo., it cut off telegraph poles a foot in diameter as if they had been pipe stems. It cut off enormous trees close to the root, it cut off the corner of the brick buildings where it passed as though they had been cut by a knife; nothing could stand before it; and so, nothing can stand before a Spirit-filled preacher of the Word. None can resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he speaks. The Wind of God took possession of Charles G. Finney, an unknown country lawyer, and sent him through New York State, then through New England, then through England, mowing down strong men by his resistless, Spirit-given logic.

One night in Rochester, scores of lawyers, led by the justice of the Court of Appeals, filed out of the pews and bowed in the aisles and yielded their lives to God. The Wind of God took possession of D. L.

Moody, an uneducated young business man in Chicago, and in the power of this resistless Wind, men and women and young people were mowed down before his words and brought in humble confession and surrender of sin to the feet of Jesus Christ, and filled with the life of God they have been the pillars in the churches of Great Britain and throughout the world ever since. The great need today in individuals, in churches, and preachers is that the Wind of God blow upon us. Much of the difficulty that many find with John 3:5, “Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one i s born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” would disappear if we would only bear in mind that “Spirit” means “Wind” and translate the verse literally all through, “Except a man be born of water and Wind, he cannot enter the kingdo m of God.” The thought would then seem to be, “Except a man be born of the cleansing and quickening power of the Spirit (or else of the cleansing Word, John 15:3, Ephesians 5:26, James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23, and the quickening power of the Holy Spirit).”

II. The Spirit of God The Holy Spirit is frequently spoken of in the Bible as the Spirit of God. For example, we read in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you[a] are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?”

In this name, we have the same essential thought as in the former name, but with this addition, that His Divine origin, nature, and power are emphasized. He is not merely “The Wind, as seen above, but “The Wind of God.”

III. The Spirit of Jehovah This name is used of the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 11:2, A. R. V ., “A nd the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him.” The thought of the name is, of course, essentially the same as the preceding, with the exception that God is here thought of as the Covenant God of Israel. He is thus spoken of in the connection in which the name is found; and, of course, the Bible, following that unerring accuracy that it always exhibits in its use of the different names for God, in this connection speaks of the Spirit as the Spirit of Jehovah and not merely as the Spirit of God.

IV. The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of the Lord Jehovah in Isaiah 61:1-3 A. R. V., “The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me; because Jehovah hath anointed Me to preach good tidings to the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the broken- hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, etc.” The Holy Spirit is here spoken of, not merely as the Spirit of Jehovah, but the Spirit of the Lord Jehovah because of the relation in which God Himself is spoken of in this connection, as not merely Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, but as Jehovah Israel's Lord as well as their covenant-keeping God. The name of the Spirit is even more expressive than the name “The Spirit of God.”

V. The Spirit of the Living God The Holy Spi rit is called “The Spirit of the living God” in 2 Corinthians 3:3 : “And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” What is the significance of this name? It is made clear by the context. Apostle Paul is drawing a contrast between the Word of God written with ink on paper and the Word of God written on “tables that are hearts of flesh” by the Holy Spirit, who in this connectio n is called “the Spirit of the living God,” because He makes God a living reality in our personal experience instead of a mere intellectual concept. Many believe in God and are perfectly orthodox in their conception of God, but after all, God is to them only an intellectual, theological proposition. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to make God something greatly more than a theological notion, no matter how orthodox; He is the Spirit of the living God , and it is His work to make God a living God to us, a Being whom we know, with whom we have personal acquaintance, a Being more real to us than the most intimate human friend we have.

Do you have a real God? Well, you may have. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the living God, and He is able and ready to give to you a living God, to make God real in your personal experience. Many have a God who once lived and acted and spoke, a God who lived and acted at the creation of the universe, who perhaps lived and acted in the days of Moses and Elijah and Jesus Christ and the Apostles, but who no longer lives and acts.

If He exists at all, He has withdrawn Himself from any active part in nature or the history of man. He created nature and gave it its laws and powers, and now leaves it to run itself. He created man and gave him various abilities, but has now left him to work out his destiny. They may go further than this: they may believe in a God who spoke to Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jesus, and the Apostles, but who speaks no longer. We may read in the Bible what He spoke to these various men, but we cannot expect Him to speak to us.

In contrast with these, it is the work of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the living God , to give us to know a God who lives and acts and speaks to-day, a God who is ready to come as near to us as He came to Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Apostles or to Jesus Himself. Not that He has any new revelations to make, for He guided the Apostles into all the truth (John 16:13): but though there has been a complete revelation of God's truth made in the Bible, still God lives to-day and will speak to us as directly as He spoke to His chosen ones of old. Happy is the man who knows the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the living God, and who, consequently, has a real God, a God who lives to-day, a God upon whom he can depend to-day to undertake for him, a God with whom he enjoys intimate personal fellowship, a God to whom he may raise his voice in prayer and who speaks back to him.

VI. The Spirit of Christ In Romans 8:9, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ in this passage does not mean a Christ-like spirit. It means something far more than that; it means that which lies back of a Christ-like spirit; it is a name of the Holy Spirit. Why the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ? For several reasons: (1) Because He is Christ's gift. The Holy Spirit is not merely the gift of the Father, but the gift of the Son as well. We read in John 20:22 that Jesus “Breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit is therefore the breath of Christ, as well as the breath of God the Father. It is Christ who breathes upon us and imparts to us the Holy Spirit. In John 14:15 and the following verses, Jesus teaches us that it is in answer to His prayer that the Father gives us the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:33 we read that Jesus “Being therefore exalted a t the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,” pour Him out upon to believers; that is, that Jesus, having been exalted to the right hand of God, in answer to His prayer, receives Holy Spirit comes from the Father and pours out on the Church the One He received from the Father.

In Matthew 3:11, we read that it is Jesus who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. In John 7:37-39, Jesus bids all that are thirsty to come unto Him and drink, and the context makes it clear that the water that He gives is the Holy Spirit, who becomes in those who receive Him a source of life and power flowing out to others. It is the glorified Christ who gives to the Church the Holy Spirit. In the fourth chapter of John and the tenth verse, Jesus declares that He is the One who gives the living water, the Holy Spirit. In all these passages, Christ is set forth as the One who gives the Holy Spirit, so the Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of Christ.”

(2) But there is a deeper reason why the H oly Spirit is called “the Spirit of Christ,” i.e., because it is the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to us. In John 16:14, we read, “He (that is the Holy Spirit) will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” In a similar w ay in John 15:26, it is written, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” This is the work of the Holy Spirit to bear witness of Christ and reveal Jesus Christ to men. And as the revealer of Christ, He is called “the Spirit of Christ.”

(3) But there is a still deeper reason yet why the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ, and that is because it is His work to form Christ as a living presence within us. In Ephesians 3:16-17, the Apostle Paul prays to the Father that He would grant to believers according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

This then is the work of the Holy Spirit, to cause Christ to dwell in our hearts, to form the living Christ within us. Just as the Holy Spirit literally and physically formed Jesus Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:35), so the Holy Spirit spiritually forms Jesus Christ within our hearts today.

In John 14:16-18, Jesus told His disciples that when the Holy Spirit came that He would come, that is, the result of the coming of the Holy Spirit to dwell in their hearts would be the coming of Christ Himself. It is the privilege of every believer in Christ to have the living Christ formed by the power of the Holy Spirit in his own heart, and therefore, the Holy Spirit who thus forms Christ within the heart is called the Spirit of Christ. How wonderful! How glorious is the significance of this name! Let us reflect on it until we understand it, as far as it is possible to understand it, and until we rejoice exceedingly in the glory of it.

VII. The Spirit of Jesus Christ The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Jesus Christ in Philippians 1:19, “For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.” The Spirit is not merely the Spirit of the eternal Word but the Spirit of the Word incarnate. Not merely the Spirit of Christ, but the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It is the Man Jesus exalted to the right hand of the Father who receives and sends the Spirit. So we read in Acts 2:32- 33, “This Jesus God raised, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”

VIII. The Spirit of Jesus The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Jesus in Acts 16:6- 7, “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” By the use of this name, “The Spirit of Jesus,” the thought of the relation of the Spirit to the Man Jesus is still clearer than in the name preceding this, the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

IX. The Spirit of His Son The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of His Son in Galatians 4:6, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!” We see from the context (vs. 4, 5) that this name is given to the Holy Spirit in special connection with His testifying to the sonship of the believer.

It is “the Spirit of His Son” who testifies to our sonship.

The thought is that the Holy Spirit is filial, a Spirit who produces a sense of sonship in us. If we receive the Holy Spirit, we no longer think of God as if we were serving under constraint and bondage, but we are sons living in joyous liberty. We do not fear God; we trust Him and rejoice in Him. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we do not receive a Spirit of bondage again to fear but a Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father (Romans 8:15). This name of the Holy Spirit is one of the most suggestive of all. We do well to consider it long until we realize the glad fullness of its significance. We shall take it up again when we come to study the work of the Holy Spirit.

X. The Holy Spirit This name is of very frequent occurrence, and the name with which most of us are most familiar. One of the most familiar passages in which the name is used is Luke 11:13, “If you then, who are evil, kn ow how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” This name emphasizes the essential moral character of the Spirit. He is holy in Himself. We are so familiar with the name that we neglect to weigh its significance. If we only realized more deeply and constantly that He is the Holy Spirit. We would do well if we, as the seraphim in Isaiah's vision, would bow in His presence and cry, “Holy, holy, holy.” Yet how thoughtlessly oftentimes we talk about Him and pray for Him.

We pray for Him to come into our churches and our hearts, but what would He find if He should come there? Would He not find much that would be painful and agonizing to Him? What would we think if vile women from the lowest den of iniquity in a great city should go to the purest woman in the city and invite her to come and live with them in their disgusting wickedness, with no intention of changing their evil ways? But that would not be as shocking as for you and me to ask the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in our hearts when we have no thought of giving up our impurity, or our selfishness, or our worldliness, or our sin. It would not be as shocking as it is for us to invite the Holy Spirit to come into our churches when they are full of worldliness and selfishness and contention and envy and pride, and all that is unholy.

But if the people from the lowest and most wicked place were to go to the purest and most Christ-like woman, asking her to go and dwell with them to put away everything wicked and give this holy and Christ-like woman the entire control of the place, she would go. And as sinful and selfish and imperfect as we may be, the infinitely Holy Spirit is ready to come and take His dwelling in our heart if we will surrender to Him the absolute control of our lives, and allow Him to bring everything in thought and fancy and feeling and purpose and imagination and action into obedience with His will. The infinitely Holy Spirit is ready to come into our churches, however imperfect and worldly they may be now, if we are willing to put the absolute control of everything in His hands. But let us never forget that He is the Holy Spirit, and when we pray for Him, let us pray for Him as such.

XI. The Holy Spirit of Promise The Holy Spirit is called the Holy Spirit of promise in Ephesians 1:13, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” We have here the same name a s that given above, with the added thought that this Holy Spirit is the great promise of the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is God's great all-inclusive promise for the present era; the one thing for which Jesus bade the disciples wait after His ascension before they undertook His work was “the promise of the Father,” that is, the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4 -5) The great promise of the Father until the coming of Christ was the coming atoning Saviour and King, but when Jesus came and died His atoning death upon the cross of Calvary and arose and ascended to the right hand of the Father, then the second great promise of the Father was the Holy Spirit to take the place of our absent Lord. (See also Acts 2:33).

XII. The Spirit of Holiness The Holy Spirit is cal led the Spirit of holiness in Romans 1:4, “And was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” At first glance, it may seem as if there were no essential difference between the two names, the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of holiness. But there is a marked difference. The name of the Holy Spirit, as already said, emphasizes the essential moral character of the Spirit as holy, but the name of the Spirit of holiness brings out the thought that the Holy Spirit is not merely holy in Himself, but He imparts holiness to others. The perfect holiness which He possesses, He imparts to those who receive Him (1 Peter 1:2).

XIII. The Spirit of Judgment The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of judgment in Isaiah 4:4, “When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.” There are two names of the Holy Spirit i n this passage: first, the Spirit of judgment . The Holy Spirit is so-called because it is His work to bring sin to light, to convict of sin (John 16:7-9). When the Holy Spirit comes to us, the first thing that He does is to open our eyes to see our sins as God sees them. He judges our sin. (We will go into this more at length in studying John 16:7-11 when considering the work of the Holy Spirit.)

XIV. The Spirit of Burning This name is used in the passage just quoted above. (See XIII.) This name emphasizes His searching, refining, dross-consuming, illuminating, and energizing work. The Holy Spirit is like a fire in the heart in which He dwells; and as fire tests and refines and consumes and illuminates and warms and energizes, so does He. In the context, it is the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit which is especially emphasized (Isa 4:3, 4).

XV. The Spirit of Truth The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth in John 14:17, “Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 15:26, John 16:13). The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth because it is the work of the Holy Spirit to communicate truth, to impart truth, to those who receive Him. This comes out in the passage given above, and, if possible, it comes out even more clearly in John 16:13, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, a nd he will declare to you the things that are to come.” All truth is from the Holy Spirit. It is only as He teaches us that we come to know the truth.

XVI. The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of wisdom and understan ding in Isaiah 11:2, “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” The significance of the name is so plain as to need no explanation. It is evident both from the words used and from the context that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to impart wisdom and understanding to those who receive Him. Those who receive the Holy Spirit receive the Spirit “of power, love, and a sound mind ” o r sound sense (2 Timothy 1:7).

XVII. The Spirit of Counsel and Might We find this name used of the Holy Spirit in the passage given under the preceding head. The meaning of this name too is obvious, the Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of counsel and might” because He gives us counsel in all our plans and strength to carry them out (Acts 8:29, 16:6-7 1:8). It is our privilege to have God's counsel in all our plans and God's strength in all the work that we undertake for Him. We receive them by receiving the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of counsel and might.

XVIII. The Spirit of Knowledge and the Fear of the Lord This name is also used in the passage given above (Isaiah 11:2). The significance of this name is also obvious. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to impart knowledge to us and to beget in us a reverence for Jehovah, that reverence that reveals itself above all in obedience to His commandments. The one who receives the Holy Spirit finds his delight in the fear of the LORD. (See Isaiah 11:3) The three suggestive names just given refer especially to the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in the servant of the Lord, that is, Jesus Christ (Isaiah 11:1-5).

XIX. The Spirit of Life The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of life in Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you[a] free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of life because it is His work to impart life (John 6:63, Ezekiel 37:1-10). In the context in which the name is found in the passage given above, beginning back in the seventh chapter of Romans, seventh verse, Paul is drawing a contrast between the law of Moses outside a man, holy and just and good, it is true, but impotent, and the living Spirit of God in the heart, imparting spiritual and moral life to the believer and enabling him thus to meet the requirements of the law of God, so that what the law alone could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, the Spirit of God imparting life to the believer and dwelling in the heart enables him to do, so that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. (See Romans 2:4- 8) The Holy Spirit is therefore called “the Spirit of life,” because He imparts spiritual life and consequent victory over sin to those who receive Him.

XX. The Oil of Gladness The Holy Spirit is called the “oil of gladness” in Hebrews 1:9 : “ You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” Someone may ask what reason we have for supposing that “the oil of gladness” in this passage is a name of the Holy Spirit. The answer is found in a comparison of Hebrews 1:9, with Acts 10:38 and Luke 4:18. In Acts 10:38, we read “how God anoin ted Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power,” and in Luke 4:18, Jesus Himself is recorded as saying, “ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor ,” etc.

In both of these passages, we are told it was the Holy Spirit with which Jesus was anointed and as in the passage in Hebrews we are told that it was with the oil of gladness that He was anointed ; so, of course, the only possible conclusion is that the oil of gladness means the Holy Spirit. What a beautiful and suggestive name it is for Him whose fruit is, first, “love” then “joy” (Galatians 5:22). The Holy Spirit becomes a source of boundless joy to those who receive Him; He so fills and satisfies the soul, that the soul who receives Him does not thirst forever (John 4:14). No matter how great the afflictions with which the believer receives the Word, still he will have “ the joy of the Holy Ghost ” (1 Thessalonians 1:6).

On the Day of Pentecost, when the disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit, they were so filled with ecstatic joy that others looking at them thought they were intoxicated. They said, “These men are full of new wine.” And Paul draws a comparison between abnormal intoxication that comes through excess of wine and the wholesome exhilaration from which no reaction comes through being filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18-20). When God anoints one with the Holy Spirit, it is as if He breaks a precious alabaster box of oil of gladness above their heads until it runs down to the hem of their garments and the whole person is suffused with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

XXI. The Spirit of Grace The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of grace” in Hebrews 10:29, “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?” This name reveals that it is the Holy Spirit's work to administer and apply the grace of God. He is gracious, it is true, but the name means far more than that; it means that He makes ours experimentally the manifold grace of God. Only by the work of the Spirit of grace in our hearts are we able to appropriate to ourselves that infinite fullness of grace that God has, from the beginning, bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ. It is ours from the start, as far as belonging to us is concerned, but it is only ours experimentally as we claim it by the power of the Spirit of grace.

XXII. The Spirit of Grace and Supplication The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of grace and supplication” in, Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn..” The phrase, “the Spirit of grace and supplication” in this passage is beyond a doubt a name of the Holy Spirit.

The name “the Spirit of grace” we have already had under the preceding head, but here there is a further thought of that operation of grace that leads us to pray intensely. The Holy Spirit is so-called because it is He who teaches to pray. After all, all true prayer is in the Spirit (Jude 20). We of ourselves know not how to pray as we ought, but it is the work of the Holy Spirit of intercession to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered and to lead us out in prayer according to the will of God (Romans 8:26- 27). The secret of all true and effective praying is knowing the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of grace and supplication.”

XXIII. The Spirit of Glory The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of glory” in 1 Peter 4:14, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory[a] and of God rests upon you: on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified.” This name does not merely teach that the Holy Spirit is infinitely glorious Himself, but it rather teaches that He imparts the glory of God to us, just as the Spirit of truth imparts truth to us, and as the Spirit of life imparts life to us, and as the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might and knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord imparts to us wisdom and understanding and counsel and might and knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and as the Spirit of grace applies and administers to us the manifold grace of God, so the Spirit of glory is the administrator to us of God's glory.

In the immediately preceding verse, we read, “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” It is in this connection that He is called the Spirit of glory. We find a similar connection between the sufferings which we endure and the glory which the Holy Spirit imparts to us in Romans 8:16- 17, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” The Holy Spirit is the administrator of glory as well as of grace, or rather of the grace that culminates in glory.

XXIV. The Eternal Spirit The Holy Spirit is called “the eternal Spirit” in Hebrews 9:14, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” The eternity and the Deity, and the infinite majest y of the Holy Spirit, are brought out by this name.

XXV. The Comforter The Holy Spirit is called “the Comforter” over and over again in the Scriptures. For example, in John 14:26 (KJV), we read, “But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” And in John 15:26 (KJV ), “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, w hich proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me.” (See also John 16:27.) The word translated “Comforter” in these passages means that, but it means much more besides.

It is a word difficult of adequate translate into any one word in English. The translators of the Revised Version found difficulty in deciding which word to render the Greek word so translated. They have suggested in the margin of the Revised Version “advocate” “helper” and a simple transference of the Greek word into English, “Paraclete.” The word translated “Comforter” means literally, “one called to another's side,” the idea being, one right at hand to take another's part. It is the same word that is translated “advocate” in 1 John 2:1, “My little children, these things write me unto you, that ye sin not.

And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” But “advocate,” as we now understand it, does not give the full force of the Greek word so rendered.

Historically, “advocate” means nearly the same thing. Advocate is Latin (“advocatus”) and it means “one called to another to take his part,” but in our modern usage, the word has acquired a restricted meaning. The Greek word translated “Comforter” (Parakleetos) means “one called alongside,” that is, one called to stand constantly by one's side and who is ever ready to stand by us and take our part in everything in which his help is needed.

It is a wonderfully tender and expressive name for the Holy One. Sometimes when we think of the Holy Spirit , He seems to be so far away, but when we think of the Parakleetos, or in plain English our “Stand - byer” or our “part - taker,” how near He is. Up to the time that Jesus made this promise to the disciples, He had been their Parakleetos. When they were in any emergency or difficulty, they turned to Him.

On one occasion, for example, the disciples were in doubt as to how to pray, and they turned to Jesus and said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” And the Lord taught them the wonderful prayer that has come down through the ages (Luke 11:1-4). On another occasion, Peter was sinking in the waves of Galilee, and he cried, “Lord, save me,” and immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him and saved him (Matthew 14:30-31). In every extremity, they turned to Him. Just so now that Jesus is gone to the Father, we have another Person, just as Divine as He is, just as wise as He, just as strong as He, just as loving as He, just as tender as He, just as ready and just as able to help, who is always right by our side.

Yes, better yet, who dwells in our heart, who will take hold and help if we only trust Him to do it?

If the truth of the Holy Spirit, as outlined in the name “Parakleetos,” once gets into our heart and abides there, it will banish all loneliness forever; for how can we ever be lonely when this best of all Friends is ever with us? In the last eight years, I have been called upon to endure what would naturally be a very lonely life. Most of the time, I am separated from my wife and children by the calls of duty. For eighteen months consecutively, I was separated from almost all my family by many thousands of miles. The loneliness would have been unendurable were it not for the one all-sufficient Friend, who was always with me.

I recall one night walking up and down the deck of a storm-tossed steamer in the South Seas. Most of my family was 18,000 miles away; the remaining member of my family was not with me. The officers were busy on the bridge, and I was pacing the deck alone, and the thought came to me, “Her e you are all alone.” Then another thought came, “I am not alone; by my side as I walk this deck in the loneliness and the storm walks the Holy Spirit,” and He was enough. I said something like this once at a Bible conference in St. Paul. A doctor came to me at the close of the meeting and gently said, “I want to thank you for that thought about the Holy Spirit always being with us. I am a doctor. Oftentimes, I have to drive far out in the country in the night and storm to attend a case, and I have often been so lonely, but I will never be lonely again.

I will always know that by my side in my doctor's carriage, the Holy Spirit goes with me. If this thought of the Holy Spirit as the ever-present Paraclete once gets into your heart and abides there, it will banish all fear forever. How can we be afraid in the face of any threat, if this Divine One is by our side to counsel us and to take our part? There may be a howling mob about us, or a lowering storm, but it does not matter. He stands between us in both the mob and the storm. One night, I had promised to walk four miles to a friend's house after an evening session of a conference. The path led along the side of a lake.

As I started for my friend's house, a thunderstorm was coming up. I had not counted on this, but as I had promised, I felt I ought to go.

The path led along the edge of the lake, oftentimes very near to the edge, sometimes the lake was near the path, and sometimes many feet below. The night was so dark with the clouds that one could not see ahead. Now and then, there would be a blinding flash of lightning in which you could see where the path was washed away, and then it would be blacker than ever. You could hear the lake booming below. It seemed a dangerous place to walk but that very week, I had been speaking upon the Personality of the Holy Spirit and about the Holy Spirit as an ever- present Friend, and the thought came to me, “What was it you were telling the people in the address about the Holy Spirit as an ever- present Friend?” And then I said to myself, “Between me and the boiling lake and the edge of the path walks the Holy Spirit,” and I pushed on fearless and glad.

When we were in London, a young lady attended the meeting one afternoon in the Royal Albert Hall.

She had an abnormal fear of the dark. She couldn't go into a dark room alone, but the thought of the Holy Spirit as an ever-present Friend sank into her mind. She went home and told her mother what a wonderful thought she had heard that day, and how it had banished forever all fear from her. It was already growing very dark in the London winter afternoon, and her mother looked up and said, “Very well, let us see if it is real. Go up to the top of the house and shut yourself alone in a dark room.” She instantly rose to her feet, hurried up the stairs, went into a dark room and shut the door, and sat down.

All fear was gone, and as she wrote the next day, the whole room seemed to be filled with a wonderful glory, the glory of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

In the thought of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete, there is also a cure for insomnia. For two awful years, I suffered from insomnia. Night after night, I would go to bed almost dead for sleep, it seemed as though I must sleep, but I could not sleep; oh, the agony of those two years! It seemed as if I would lose my mind if I did not get relief. Relief came at last, and for years I went on without the suggestion of trouble from insomnia. Then one night I retired to my room in the Institute, lay down expecting to fall asleep in a moment as I usually did, but scarcely had my head touched the pillow when I became aware that insomnia was back again. If one has ever had it, he never forgets it and never mistakes it. It seemed as if insomnia were sitting on the footboard of my bed , grinning at me and saying, “I am back again for another two years.” “Oh,” I thought, “two more awful years of insomnia.”

That very morning, I had been lecturing to our students in the Institute about the Personality of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit as an ever- present Friend, and at once the thought came to me, “What were you talking to the students about this morning? What were you telling them?” and I looked up and said, “You blessed Spirit of God, you are here, I am not alone. If you have anything to say to me,” and He began to open to me some of the deep and precious things about my Lord and Saviour, things, that filled my soul with joy and rest, and the next thing I knew I was asleep until tomorrow morning. So whenever insomnia has come my way since, I have simply remembered that the Holy Spirit was there and I have looked up to Him to speak to me and to teach me, and He has done so, and insomnia has taken its flight.

In the thought of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete, there is a cure for a broken heart. How many aching, breaking hearts there are in this world of ours, so full of death and separation from those we most dearly love. How many a woman there is, who a few years ago, or a few months or a few weeks ago, had no care, no worry, for by her side was a Christian husband who was so wise and strong that the wife rested all responsibility upon him and she walked care-free through life and satisfied with his love and companionship. But one awful day, he was taken from her. She was left alone, and all the cares and responsibilities rested upon her. How empty that heart has been ever since; how empty the whole world has been.

She has just dragged through her life and her duties as best she could with an aching and almost breaking heart. But there is One, if she only knew it, wiser and more loving than the tenderest husband, one willing to bear all the care and responsibilities of life for her, one who is able, if, she will only let Him, to fill every nook and corner of her empty and aching heart; that one is the Paraclete. I said something like this in St. Andrews' Hall in Glasgow. At the close of the meeting, a sad-faced Christian woman, wearing a widow's garb, came to me as I stepped out of the hall into the reception room. She hurried to me and s aid, “Dr. Torrey, this is the anniversary of my dear husband's death.

Just one year ago today, he was taken from me. I came today to see if you could say some words to help me. You have given me just the word I need. I will never be lonesome again.” A yea r and a half passed by. I was on the yacht of a friend on the lochs of the Clyde. One day, a little boat put out from shore and came alongside the yacht. One of the first to come up the side of the yacht was this widow. She hurried to me and the first thin g she said was, “The thought that you gave me that day in St. Andrews' Hall on the anniversary of my husband's leaving me has been with me ever since, and the Holy Spirit does satisfy me and fill my heart.”

But it is in our work for our Master that the thought of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete comes with greatest helpfulness. I think it may be permissible to illustrate it from my own experience. I entered the ministry because I was forced to. For years, I refused to be a Christian because I was determined that I would not be a preacher, and I feared that if I surrendered to Christ, I must enter the ministry. My conversion turned upon my yielding to Him at this point. The night I yielded, I did not say, “I will accept Christ” or “I will give up sin,” or anything of that sort; I simply cried, “Take this awful burden off my heart, and I will preach the Gospel.” But no one could be less fitted by natural temperament for the ministry than I.

From early boyhood, I was timid. Even after I had entered Yale College, when I would go home in the summer and my mother would call me in to meet her friends, I was so frightened that when I thought I spoke, I did not make an audible sound. When her friends had gone, my mother would ask, “Why didn't you say something to them ?” And I would reply that I supposed I had, but my mother would say, “You did not utter a sound.” Think of a young fellow like that entering the ministry. I never mustered the courage even to speak in a public prayer meeting until after I was in the theological seminary. Then I felt, if I were to enter the ministry, I must be able to at least speak in a prayer meeting.

I learned a little piece by heart to say, but when the hour came, I forgot much of it in my terror. At the critical moment, I grasped the back of the settee in front of me and pulled myself hurriedly to my feet, and held on to the settee. One Niagara seemed to be going up one side and another down another; my voice faltered. I repeated as much as I could remember and sat down. Think of a man like that entering the ministry. In the early days of my ministry, I would write my sermons out in full and commit them to memory, stand up and twist a button until I had repeated it off as best I could and would then sink back into the pulpit chair with a sense of relief that that was over for another week. I cannot tell you what I suffered in those early days of my ministry. But the glad day came when I came to know the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete.

When the thought got possession of me that when I stood up to preach, there was Another who stood by my side, that while the audience saw me God saw Him, and that the responsibility was all upon Him, and that He was abundantly able to meet it and care for it all, and that all I had to do was to stand back as far out of sight as possible and let Him do the work. I have no fear of preaching now; preaching is the greatest joy of my life, and sometimes, when I stand up to speak and realize that He is there, that all the responsibility is upon Him, such a joy fills my heart that I can scarcely restrain myself from shouting and leaping. He is just as ready to help us in all our work, Sunday-school classes, personal work, and in every other line of Christian effort.

Many hesitate to speak to others about accepting Christ. They are afraid they will not say the right thing; they fear that they will do more harm than good. You certainly will if you do it, but if you will just believe in the Paraclete and trust Him to say it and to say it in His way, you will never harm but always do well. It may seem at the time that you have accomplished nothing, but perhaps years after you will find out you have accomplished much, and even if you do not find it out in this world, you will find it out in eternity.

There are many ways in which the Paraclete stands by us and helps us, of which we will speak at length when we come to study His work. He stands by us when we pray (Romans 8:26-27), when we study the Word (John 14:26, John 16:12-14), when we do personal work (Acts 8:29), when we preach or teach (1 Corinthians 2:4), when we are tempted (Romans 8:2), when we leave this world (Acts 7:54-60). Let us get this thought firmly fixed now and for all time that the Holy Spirit is One called to our side to take our part.