Fuchsia Pickett - Understanding the Personality of the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirits Work in You

Most CHARISMA HOUSE BOOK GROUP products are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchase for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, and educational needs. For details, write Charisma House Book Group, 600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, Florida 32746, or telephone (407) 333-0600.

UNDERSTANDING THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

by Fuchsia Pickett

Published by Charisma House

Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group

600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, Florida 32746

www.charismahouse.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked ASV are from the American Standard Bible. Copyright 1901. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked NAS are from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org).

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked PHILLIPS are from The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition. Copyright 1958, 1960, 1972 by J. B. Phillips. Macmillan Publishing Co. Used by permission.

Cover design by Rachel Campbell

Copyright 2004 by Fuchsia Pickett

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Pickett, Fuchsia T.

Understanding the personality of the Holy Spirit/Fuchsia Pickett.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-59185-283-8

1. Holy Spirit. I. Title.

BT121.3.P53 2004

231.3--dc22

2003021563

ISBN-13: 978-1-59185-283-4

E-Book ISBN: 978-1-59979-830-1

CONTENTS

S ome readers might think it rather abstract and impractical to write a book that answers the question, Who is the Holy Spirit? Others may deem it presumptuous of me to say, I would like to present to you the Holy Spirit. To many people the Holy Spirit is nothing more than a name in a religious creed recited in liturgical services. To others He is merely a vague influence mentioned in the Scriptures. Even those Christians who think they know who the Holy Spirit is many times do not recognize Him as a divine Person. I do not blame anyone for thinking about the Holy Spirit in these ways, for I remember the time in my life when I too would have thought it strange to address the Holy Spirit as a personal Friend and Teacher. Even though I referred to Him as the Third Person of the Godhead, when speaking theologically, He was not a real Person to me.

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit as a divine Personality is not only extremely practical, but also fundamental to our knowledge of God and our relationship to Him. Anyone who knows God the Father and God the Son without having a true understanding of God the Holy Spirit has not attained the Christian conception of God, nor has he come to the fullness of Christian experience.

I must mention the doctrine of the Trinity here to give us a proper foundation for the study of the Holy Spirit. In Genesis 1:26 reference is made to the plurality that exists in the Godhead: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. God referred to our image and our likeness, using plural pronouns to refer to Himself. Many such references confirm the reality of the Triune Godhead. Even the passage in Deuteronomy that some use to discount the validity of the Trinity actually confirms the fact of the Trinity. We read there, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah (Deut. 6:4, ASV). The Hebrew word for God that is used here is a plural form. That indicates, in spite of the intense monotheism of the Hebrews, the plurality of persons in the one Godhead. So we refer to the Godhead in its original state, in the eons of eternity, as the Triune Godhead. Our study here focuses on the Person of the Holy Spirit, but we cannot ignore His integral relationship to the Triune Godhead.

The importance of understanding the Person of the Holy Spirit is seen first of all in His effect on our perspective of worship. If we think of the Holy Spirit as merely an impersonal influence or divine power, we will inevitably rob Him of the honor and the worship He is due. We will not relate to Him properly or give Him the love, trust, surrender, and obedience that we should. We need to acknowledge this Third Person of the Godhead as He does His work on the earth, and yield to Him in complete obedience to His will.

It is important that we not relate to the Holy Spirit only as an influence or power so we dont try to use Him, or it, for our own purposes. This mistaken concept of the Holy Spirit inevitably leads to self-exaltation. It causes us to strut in pride, thinking that we have received the Holy Spirit and therefore belong to a superior order of Christians. Instead we need to think of Him correctly in the biblical wayas a divine Person of defined majesty and glory. Then we will relate to Him properly by asking questions such as: How can I surrender more completely to the Holy Spirit? How can the Holy Spirit possess me and use me in a greater way? Relating to the Holy Spirit as a divine Person is one of the most fundamental truths of the Bibleone that we must understand if we are to enjoy right relationship with God. Many earnest Christians are going astray on this point. They are trying to obtain some divine power they can use according to their will or giftings instead of surrendering their lives to the Person of the Holy Spirit. True maturity in Christ only comes through cultivating a right relationship with the Holy Spirit.

We need to acknowledge the Holy Spirit as a divine Person of infinite majesty who has come to dwell in our hearts, take possession of us, and work out Gods eternal plan and predestined will in us, for us, and through us, until we are a praise to the glory of the Father. Then we will experience true holiness in the reality of self-renunciation, self-abnegation, and self-humiliation. I know of no other truth that can humble us and put us on our faces before God more quickly than this: The blessed Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Godhead who has come to dwell in our hearts and to restore us to the image of our God as He, in His infinite wisdom, unfolds His predestined plan for our lives. Such love and infinite desire of the Godhead to dwell with mankind is incomprehensible to our finite minds.

Many Christians testify to the entire transformation of their lives and service to God when they become acquainted with the Holy Spirit as a Person. That is my personal testimony as well. After serving God as a Methodist professor and pastor for many years, I came into a fuller relationship with the Holy Spirit. I realized then that Someone had come to live in my life, Someone with whom I was not personally or intimately acquainted. When I surrendered my life completely to Him, He began to reveal to me that He had come to be my Teacher. He had come to unveil the Christ who had been living in me for seventeen years. It was then that I began to become intimately acquainted with the Holy Spirit as a Person.

People often misunderstand what we are saying when we refer to the Holy Spirit as a Person. They think we are saying that He has hands, eyes, and ears and operates in a physical body as we know it. But those physical characteristics are attributes of corporeality, not personality. The generally accepted attributes of personality are intellect, volition, and emotionsknowledge, will, and feelings. One who thinks, feels, and exercises his will is a person.