You are invited to move beyond viewing the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force and recognize Him as a divine Person who lives within you. Start listening for His voice in your daily life, trusting that He empowers you to walk in faith just as He did for the pastor's family.
Welcome to the Real Church Podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
In this series, we will be answering questions like, who is the Holy Spirit? What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit? Do I have the Holy Spirit? Can I have the Holy Spirit? How do I live by the Holy Spirit?
And is there more? So who is the Holy Spirit? Once again, I know the series is titled ghost, but he's not a ghost. Many see him as a thing. They see him as an it.
They see him as an impersonal power. But the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a person. Now what is a person? A person has a mind, a will, and emotions. And and and just so you know, there's gonna be a lot of bible in these messages.
Okay? So I'm gonna I'm gonna wax teacher on us for a little while, and then I'm gonna show us how it applies to our life in the here and now and today. If you have your phone on YouTube and you'd like to follow along with the notes, I have them all online, realchurch.us, click on this Sunday, then click on view sermon notes. And it'll pull up in the Bible app, and it'll all be there, and you can take notes and all that kind of stuff. So the Holy Spirit is a person.
The original if if you didn't know the Bible was written in a couple different languages. Most of the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, and most of the New Testament is written in Greek. Now we read because we speak in English. We read it in translations that translate the Greek to English in in ways that we can understand in the here and now. Those translations are good.
You know? Most translations are really, really good and translate the Greek well. But in Greek, when it's talking about the Holy Spirit in the New Testament or we're talking about a spirit in the New Testament, there's this word called pneuma. Alright. Pneuma is the word for spirit.
Now when it's translating that, you know, there are spirits. There's evil spirits. Right? There a lot of times it talks about angels as spirits, and then it talks about the Holy Spirit. Now pneuma, if and just bear with me if you're not an English person, just stick with me here.
But pneuma is is a it's a noun. And, you know, most nouns, let's say, if it's a if it's a boy, we say, you know, he. Right? It's a personal pronoun that we use he with the boy. Well, for a girl, we say she.
And for a neuter, that's not a boy, not a girl, not masculine, or not feminine, it's an it. Okay? So when the word pneuma is usually translated as it. When it's translated in the Bible and it's talking about a spirit, it will say it. But when it's specifically talking about the Holy Spirit, the pronoun used is he.
Okay? Just a hint that the Holy Spirit is a person. In John-15, I'll just give you an example real quick. *John-15:26* says, when the advocate comes whom I will send to you from the father, the spirit of truth who goes out from the father, he will testify about me. Okay?
And then in John-16 13 and 14 says, but when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. Okay. So the Holy Spirit there, just from grammatical things, can see that he's a person.
But a little bit more about the Holy Spirit. Just like your son or your daughter, you know, by what they do, you can tell the personality who they are, by by the characteristics of what they do. So if they run really fast, you'll say, he is a fast runner. Right? If they're a nice person, then when you when you talk about them, you're talking about what they've done in the past and you're describing them so you're describing their nature because what they just do describes their nature.
So if they're very nice, you'll say, he is nice. If they're, you know, all the different characteristics there. Now with the Holy Spirit, in the same way, the person of the Holy Spirit is shown by what he does. He was personally involved in creation. The Holy Spirit gives life.
*Romans-8:2. So he's a life giver. The Holy Spirit* has a will. The Holy Spirit is all knowing. The Holy Spirit is eternal.
The Holy Spirit is omnipresent. All of these statements, by the way, have a scripture attached to them. So you can go into that that online like I talked about and look it up and look up each scripture to show that I'm not just pulling this out of thin air. So he is omnipresent. Now the question then is, is the Holy Spirit less than the father?
Is the holy because you have the father God, you have the son Jesus, and you have the Holy Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit because we've shown that he's a person, but is he somehow less in any way? What where where does he he he come on the on the scale of things? Well, in Acts-5:3-4, Peter referred to the Holy Spirit as God. It says in Acts-5:3, Ananias, how is it that Satan has filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some money you received from the land?
Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? After it was sold, was it the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings, but to God. So Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, and later it says he lied to God.
So basically, in lying to the Holy Spirit, he was lying to God. The Holy Spirit is God. So you're like, wait. Wait. How how can that be?
We have the father who's God. We have Jesus who's God, and we have the Holy Spirit who's God. I I don't get it. Like, how does that work? I've put this up before in the asking for a friend series, but it's I just think it's a really good visual on how this all works.
And and trust me, stick with me through the first half of this message. It's gonna become real practical in how this impacts your life later. You have the father who is God. You have the son who is God, and you have the Holy Spirit who is God. But you have the son who is not the father.
You have the father who is not the son, and you have the holy spirit who is not the son. You have the holy spirit who is not the father. Right? So the holy spirit's neither 1 of those. The holy spirit is his own person, but yet the holy spirit is God.
So 3 separate persons, 1 essence. It's amazing and it's wonderful. It's perfect unity. The Holy Spirit is God. Follow me so far?
Alright. Let me let me give you a verse where they're all 3 linked together just so so we can see it. In John-14:16-17, it says, and I will I don't know if I have it up there, but and I will ask the father. So this is Jesus speaking. I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the spirit of truth.
The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he lives with you and will be in you. So first point is you see in this these 2 verses, you see the father. It's the son speaking about the father, but the son is also speaking about the Holy Spirit. Now what's very interesting is Jesus says that the world does not know him because they can't see him, and they will not know him.
Period. But then it says, but you, talking to those that are following Jesus, you know him because he's with you. And then he says, he will be in you. So the scripture makes clear he's a person and as such he's be is to be revered as God and he serves in perfect unity with the father and son to lead us in our spiritual lives. The Holy Spirit is God, Period.
In reference to the Holy Spirit, the Bible says, when it's referring to it, the Bible says these things. It names him as these things. Let's put that collage up there. It says, about the Holy Spirit, it says, spirit, 96 times. There's a there's a collage of different words.
There we go. Spirit 96 times. Spirit of the Lord 28 times. Spirit of God 26 times. Eternal spirit helper, comforter.
He's our helper. He's our comforter. He's holy 1. He's the Lord. He's the spirit of truth, spirit of Christ, spirit of counsel, spirit of your father, spirit of the fear of the Lord, spirit of glory, spirit of grace, spirit of Jesus Christ, spirit of judgment, spirit of burning, spirit of knowledge, spirit of life, spirit of love, spirit of might, spirit of power, spirit of prophecy, spirit of revelation, spirit of a sound mind, spirit of understanding, spirit of wisdom, spirit of holiness, and spirit of the holy God?
Man. That's a good question, Tony. He's in all and through all, which is pretty awesome. So he's pretty important. I think we should probably teach on the Holy Spirit.
So also, some more things about relating to the Holy Spirit. It says, also, we're not to grieve the Holy Spirit. The Bible says in Acts-5:3, which we just read, the Holy Spirit can be sinned against and lied to. Says we are to obey the Holy Spirit, Acts-10:19 through 21, and we're to honor him. And as I talk about these next things about the Holy Spirit, think about this in the context of *relationship* to the Holy Spirit.
Okay? He empowers *God*'s people. He leads us. *Romans-8:14*, he comforts us. *John-14:26*, he convicts us.
And and just to sit there for a second, in John-16:8, it's it talks about the Holy Spirit convicting. The Holy Spirit convicts the world. It convicts followers of Jesus. I'm sorry. It he he convicts followers of Jesus, and he convicts Satan.
Let's look at it. *John-16* verse 7, but very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. That's Jesus talking.
He's gonna send the Holy Spirit who before, just before this, he said was with them, but not in them yet. Verse 8, when he comes, he will prove or convict the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment. About sin because people do not believe in me. So who does he convict about sin? About sin because people do not believe in me.
He convicts those who do not believe in him about sin. Have you ever I've done this before. I've been around someone, and I'll just I mean, maybe I'll I'll pay for their meal, you know, or maybe it's a waitress that, you know, maybe she didn't do as good as she knows she should type of deal, and I give her this radically generous tip that she didn't deserve. It's grace. It's radical kindness.
The bible says it's the kindness of God that leads a person to repentance. Immediately, or or maybe I'll I'll see somebody walking out of a store, and I'll have this thought, and I'll go over, and I'll talk to them, and I'll just say, hey, look, I just saw you. I I feel like God just wanted to tell you that he loves you so much, and I just wanted to ask if I could pray for you. And they'll say, well, yeah. And then I'll pray for them, and a lot of times I'll I'll just pray that and and in my prayer, I'll be telling them how much God loves them.
Like, how much God loves them. When I get done praying, sometimes they'll look at me, and they'll they'll start talking about their sin. Why? They'll start talking about how they've been messing up in here and here and here. I haven't been going to church.
I haven't been doing this, or I have never been in church before, but I'd like to come and try. Why? It's the Holy Spirit convicting the unbeliever of sin by using a believer to show them how much he loves them. And they're convicted because they don't know the love that I'm praying for them for. And they want to know the love, and they know that it's sin separating them from that love.
It's the Holy Spirit showing them that, showing them that they need a savior. Ain't that amazing? And it says, so when he comes, he will convict the world and the wrong about sin, righteousness and judgment about sin because people do not believe in me. Then it says about righteousness because I'm going to the father where you see me no longer. Who's he talking to?
You. He's talking to those his followers, his disciples. So he convicts who about righteousness? Those that are following him. See, we're so used to hearing condemnation that we think the Holy Spirit condemns us.
But the Bible says he convicts us of righteousness. He convicts you of your right standing with him because if you're a believer, you're his son. If you've given your life to him, you've been born again, you have the spirit in you. We're gonna talk about in a second. So, you're in relationship with him.
You can run into his presence in right standing knowing that you're forgiven and it it when you fall, you fall forward instead of falling back. That's amazing. He says, when he comes, he will prove the world to be wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment. There's a lot of people in the world who are wrong about the holy how the holy spirit convicts them. They've been believers for a long long time and when they're feeling condemned, they think it's the holy spirit.
No, the holy spirit convicts you of righteousness. Hey, that's not who you are. Why'd you do that? You're in right standing with me. Someone in right standing with me doesn't do that.
You're you're you're a son. You're a daughter. You're loved. You don't have to run from god anymore. You can "run to him".
Isn't that amazing? And then it says about judgement because the prince of this world now stands condemned. See, the prince of this world is judged already and he wants you to feel judged by the father in heaven when the but the father in heaven judges you as righteous if you've given your life to him. It's awesome. Anyway, sorry.
Had to I had to stick there for a second. So and then the Holy Spirit teaches. He gives commands, which is awesome. And each of these actions of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit does requires the involvement of a person rather than a force or a thing. So he once again, he is the purse he is a person.
Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the most amazing person on this earth. In *Acts-7* and you're like, wait. Wait. Hold on a second.
What about Jesus? What about the father? Well, *Acts-7*. Let's just go to the Bible. Verse 55, Stephen is being stoned for his faith.
Like, stood up for Jesus, and there he's he's being stoned to death. That's that's crazy. Why would somebody stand in the face of death and still proclaim Jesus when they telling him when they're telling him not to? Why? It's because you're overtaken by some kind of love that's bigger than this world.
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven. This is in the middle of them about to stone him. And saw the glory of God, that's the father, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, of the father. And look, he said, I see heaven open and the son of man standing at the right hand of God. So where is God?
Where is the father? The father, our father who art in heaven, "hallowed be thy name", Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. The father's in heaven. He's on the throne.
Where's Jesus? Jesus sitting at the right hand of the father. And where's the Holy Spirit? He's doing his work in the world. How do the 3 work together?
It's the will of the *father* by the voice of the son through the working of the Holy Spirit. John oh, that's it. John-14, once again, verses 16 and 17 says, and I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he lives with you and will be in you. I wanna I wanna sit there for a second on that thought, the Holy Spirit in us.
*2 Corinthians-1:20* 22 or 21 through 22. Listen to this. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us and set his seal of ownership on us and put his spirit in us, in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. His spirit in us welling up to eternal life.
Think about this. *God is infinite*. Right? We have a we we we serve an infinite God. He's all knowing.
He's all powerful. He's everywhere. Right? Omniscient. *God's infinite*.
What's 100 divided by 2? 50. Yeah. What's 100,000,000 divided by 2? 50,000,000.
What's infinity divided by 2? It's infinity. Right. Okay. Well, according to statistics, it would say that there's 2 approximately 2,500,000,000 Christians in the world today.
Now assuming all of them have given their life to Jesus, they're not just claiming to be Christians and going to church on a Sunday and and and calling it good, but they've they've surrendered their life to Jesus. They believe he's their Lord. They believe he died and rose again for them. Right? So they've entered into relationship.
Right? It's all a relationship thing, assuming that's all all 2,500,000,000 of them. Then what's infinity divided by 2,500,000,000? So if you've given your life to Jesus, you have the infinite God inside of you. In you.
The power that shakes the universe, the power that created the universe, the power that raised Jesus from the dead, that same power, the infinite God in you. That's amazing. You can know him. You can walk with him. You can walk in him, and it's and there's more.
And there's more. So what does that look like? Well, Jesus, the Bible says that we are to imitate Christ in everything that we do. Right? As a matter of fact, in 1 John-4:17, which I quote almost every Sunday on purpose, in this world, we are like Jesus.
So let's look at Jesus. Jesus depended on the Holy Spirit. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was taught, especially it says as he was brought up, was taught by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was taught by the Holy Spirit.
*Jesus did not do 1 miracle until he was baptized in the Holy Spirit*. Jesus was led by the spirit. Jesus only spoke when he heard the Holy Spirit speaking, and he only did what he saw the Holy Spirit doing. And in this world, we're like Jesus. *John-3* makes some statements.
Nicodemus came to him and and they were talking and *Jesus replied to him. He said, very truly, I tell you, no 1 can see the kingdom of God* unless they are born again. Now I've talked to some people that before in talking with certain people that grew up in the church, and they're like, what does it mean to be born again? Well, let let me explain. Jesus replied, very truly, I tell you, no 1 can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
How can someone be born again if they're not old? Nicodemus asked. Surely, they cannot enter in a second time into their mother's womb. Jesus replied, very truly I tell you, no 1 can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and of the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit.
You should not be surprised at me saying you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with the person who's born of the spirit. Now once again, Jesus was conceived by the spirit.
He grew up as 1 who was conceived by the spirit. When were the disciples born again? Ever thought about that? When was it that those that followed Jesus in his earthly life, when were they born of spirit? Because it says born of water and born of spirit.
Like, think about the water breaking when you're when you're born. You're you're you're born into this world, born of water, but we must be born of spirit in order to enter in the kingdom of God. We must be born have *relationship* with God through the Holy Spirit. When were the disciples born again? Like, really?
When did that happen? *Romans-8:9* says, You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the spirit if indeed the spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. *Romans-10:9* says, if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Meaning, you will enter into the kingdom.
Meaning, you will be born again. Declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that he died and rose again. When were the disciples *saved*? When were they born again? When did they experience a new heart?
When did they experience a communion with the Holy Spirit? When did that happen? *John-19*. *Jesus* has just risen again. Now what does it take to be born again again?
Born again, we have to to believe that Jesus died, believe that he rose again, and confess him as Lord. Right? Okay. So Jesus had just risen again, but he hadn't appeared to his disciples yet. We had a woman oh, I'm at the wrong place.
Here we go. That's why I'm looking for for things. Mary went to the tomb, and she bent over, looked in the tomb, and wasn't there. And she saw 2 angels in white and said, where's Jesus? Where's his body?
You know? And she asked them, have you taken them? You know, tell me. And and they said, woman, why are you crying? She said, they've taken my Lord away.
She's at the tomb right now. And at this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that was Jesus. She saw the resurrected king, the resurrected lord. He asked her, woman, why are you crying? Who is it you're looking for?
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him, and I will I will get him. Jesus said to her, Mary. He called her by name. She turned toward him and cried, Aramaic, rabboni. Jesus said, do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the father.
Go and said to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. So Mary, the a woman, the first evangelist, goes and tells the disciples of the risen Lord. She goes and tell the tells them of Jesus resurrected. They believed he died. They saw him.
Right? They ran in fear when he died on the cross. They they knew that. They didn't yet believe that he was risen again. So Mary went to the disciples.
I've seen the lord. She confessed him as lord. On that evening, the first day John-20:19. On the on that evening, the first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked, fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands in his side.
The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. In that moment, the disciples believe. They believe he died. They believe he rose again, and they see him as Lord. What does it take to be saved?
Believe he died? Believe he rose again? See him as Lord. Right? In that moment, that's what happened.
And Jesus said, peace be with you. As the father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. Now if Jesus breathed on you and said, receive the Holy Spirit, you think you'd receive it? Yeah.
You know, when when when you gave your life to *Jesus* and you believed that he died and rose again, confessed him as Lord, he breathed on you. And you received you received the spirit in you, in you, welling up to eternal life is what the Bible says. That's amazing. What is eternal life? Eternal life is knowing God.
Like, the veil when Jesus died, the veil, this big barrier that prevented mankind from experiencing the intimate presence of God was torn into. Now because of Jesus, we can freely and intimately walk into the presence of God and know his presence, know him from within, in relationship with him. Daily in Acts and I I have a lot of scriptures here, but I don't have time to go through them. But I'm gonna tell you, in Acts, the Holy Spirit warns people. Like, think about the relationship here.
He warns them. The Holy Spirit spoke to Peter and told him that people were seeking after him when he was up on a roof. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, hey, Philip. Go over there by that chariot and talk to that guy. The Holy Spirit as they were going through a certain region, the Holy Spirit didn't let them go to that region.
They come to another region and they tried to go into it, but the Holy Spirit did not let them. In their daily life, as they're walking in their daily life, they're in communion, co union with the Holy Spirit in relationship with him, listening to listening to him speak, and being led by him in their actions. Who else did that? *Jesus*. Jesus was dependent on the Holy Spirit, conceived by the spirit.
*Jesus* set aside his godhood, *Philippians-2 says, and lived life as a man filled with the spirit* so we could imitate him in our daily life. That's what the incarnation was. So now and I'm not saying Jesus is less than God. Jesus is God. Fully God, fully man, set aside God so he can live by the spirit as 1 in relationship so that we could follow him in our daily life.
And the the apostles and the prophets and the the disciples and the deacons and and the people of the church who aren't mentioned as deacons and and all of those things. They did the same thing. Why? Because we're supposed to do the same thing. You have the same infinite God in you that they had in them if you've given your life to Jesus.
And if you don't, you have no idea what I'm talking about. But probably the Holy Spirit's convicting you of sin so that you can have and experience his relation a relationship with him in a real way because he loves you. I mean, that's just I'll tell you a quick story, what this looks like in my personal life. And I shared this story with our dream team last week, but I just feel like I should share it with you too. We have a dream team service every Sunday.
If you wanna be a part of that, join the dream team, man, so you can experience what we experience because it's just fun. Just another step in the family. Anyway, so my life, personally, and I'm just a guy. Just a guy like you. I just love Jesus, and I'm growing in this thing and trying to to tell you, follow me as I follow Jesus, just like Paul said.
You know? Let's walk in this thing together. Selah, my 5 year old daughter, she just turned 5. When we were the day that we found out we were pregnant, the night before that, we had a friend who had a dream that we were gonna have a a little girl named Selah. And we were gonna name her Lilah Rain.
But our friend told us about this dream, and it was the very day that we found out Selah would you know, we we were pregnant. And so we we changed her name to Selah Rain. Because Selah, theologians kind of disagree on what it means, but but they say, you know, pause, rest, God has spoken. Ain't that cool? So say a lot to me as God has spoken.
Pause I'm pausing rest. He's spoken. Like and and what is faith? We've learned about it in the the messages last couple weeks. Faith comes from hearing god.
Right? So if he spoke something into existence, it it sticks. Selah. Destined to be my little that baby little baby girl. The birth was traumatic, to say the least.
I think it was 5 days of labor. That's crazy, miss. You know. It was intense. When and Selah was fine until that last moment when she she came out, she came out blue on the Avgar scale, which, you know, says how healthy the the effort is.
10 is the best. She was a 1. She was the lowest. Her right lung was crushed. They took her over to the corner.
The NICU nurse was there and she's just shaking her head saying, this is not good. This is not good. This is not good. Courtney's kind of out of it. I'm standing by my baby girl.
And I just see her struggling, and she's blue. Life's pouring out of her. And I just like the the disciples, the apostles in Acts, because I'm just a guy like them. I hear the Holy Spirit say, as clear as day, as you grow in your relationship with him, you will know when he speaks. My sheep know my voice, Jesus said.
Lay your hand on her and command her to be healed. I look over kinda timidly at the NICU nurse, and I say, can I lay my hand on my daughter to? She says, yeah. How dumb is that? I should've just did it.
So I lay my hand on my daughter, and under my breath, I just say, the name of Jesus, be healed. And the Holy Spirit rebukes me Just like he told them not to go to certain areas. Go look on your on the app and look up the scriptures. It's pretty amazing. It says, really?
This is your daughter, and you're gonna be timid and under your breath? So I say, as a son, with the authority I have as a son, in the name of Jesus, lung open life. I speak life. Be healed. And instantly, her lung pops open.
And she turns from blue to pink. They don't even take her to the NICU. The NICU NICU nurse was there, but they don't even take her because she's fine. They immediately put her on her mama's breast to breastfeed, and she does instantly. Why?
**God spoke it** into existence when he called her name, Selah. Faith focused on what what God said and obedience to what the the relationship with the Holy Spirit walked it out. And the Holy Spirit manifested what God initiated, and the son spoke. That's how we live our lives, by the Holy Spirit. Doesn't have to be that it is that supernatural every time, but it doesn't have to be seen that way.
He could just say, hey, open your Bible and read. Where did that thought come from? I'll just go do it and all of a sudden, words jump off the page. You're like, wow, this is amazing. I've never seen it.
It's because you're walking in relationship with the god who's in you and he's teaching you just like he did Jesus before he turned 30 and started ministry. How amazing is that?
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