What the Bible Says About the Holy Spirit: Revised Edition

194 Pages·2011·1.92 MB·English

by  Stanley Horton

What the Bible Says about the
HOLY
Spirit
Stanley M. Horton
REVISED EDITION
ISBN: 978-1-60731-112-6
Gospel Publishing House
Springfield, Missouri
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. NIV®.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Scriptures marked KJV are from the King James Version.
©2005, 1976 by Gospel Publishing House, Springfield, Missouri 65802-1894. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without
prior written permission of the copyright owner, except brief quotations used in connection with reviews in magazines or newspapers.
First edition 1976
Revised edition 2005. 3rd printing 2007.
The text revision of What the Bible Says about the Holy Spirit was undertaken to include the New International Version of the Holy Bible.
Corresponding adjustments were made to the author’s text.
ISBN: 0-88243-359-8
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-43154
Contents
Foreword
1. The Spirit in the World Today
2. The Spirit in the Pentateuch
3. The Spirit in the History of Israel
4. The Spirit in the Writing Prophets
5. The Spirit in the Life and Ministry of Jesus
6. The Spirit in the Teaching of Jesus
7. The Spirit in the Book of Acts
8. The Spirit in Everyday Living
9. The Spirit in the Ministry of Believers
10. The Spirit in the Ministry of the Church
11. The Spirit in Supernatural Demonstrations
Appendix: Is Mark 16:9–20 Inspired?
Notes
Subject Index
Scripture Index
Foreword
With the events of what is happening in our world politically, economically and on the religious
scene, it is certainly evident that we are living in the days that Peter spoke about on the Day of Pentecost
when he quoted the prophet Joel, “In the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh”
(Acts 2:17, KJV).
This promise was fulfilled when Jesus said it was expedient for Him to go away for if He did He
would send the Holy Spirit. Jesus went and the Holy Spirit was sent. It is a joy to stand on the threshold
of the soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ and see the role the Holy Spirit is playing in this great end-time
harvest.
One will capture the deep appreciation the author, Dr. Stanley Horton, has for the Third Person of
the Godhead, the Holy Spirit and His work. This book is written as a result of a life lived in the presence
of the Holy Spirit. As one reads and studies the contents of Dr. Horton’s writings, one will come to a
deeper and fuller revelation of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in one’s own life. It is a book that can be given
to others so that they might more fully understand and enjoy the work, teachings, and giftings of the Holy
Spirit.
Dr. Horton is viewed by many in and out of this church as one of the great Bible scholars of our day
and has been used by God to unfold eternal truths contained in the Word of God. His writings have
brought instruction and inspiration to Bible readers. We would encourage everyone reading What the
Bible Says about the Holy Spirit to open one’s heart, mind, and spirit to what the Holy Spirit would have
us to know.
The Scriptures state in the Book of Revelation: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith
unto the churches” (Revelation 2:7, KJV). This is a most timely book for the Church of Jesus Christ at
large.
Thomas E. Trask
General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God
1
The Spirit in the World Today
“It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28). How clearly this indicates the reality of
the Holy Spirit and the personal relation the first-century believers enjoyed with Him!
The scene was the Jerusalem Council, the first council of the Early Church. The question had arisen:
How could the Jewish believers maintain fellowship with Gentile Christians who were not circumcised,
who ate nonkosher food, and who came out of the highly immoral Greek culture of the day? Apostles,
elders, and a whole multitude of believers had gathered together to resolve the question. Some converted
Pharisees insisted that the Gentile converts must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. Peter
reminded them how God gave the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius before they had any
opportunity to do good works, to say nothing of keeping the Law! Paul and Barnabas told of the miracles
God had performed through them among the Gentiles.
James, the brother of Jesus, finally gave a message of wisdom that pleased the whole church. Then
they wrote letters telling of their decision. But they did not say, “It seemed good to James, as the chief
elder of the Jerusalem church,” nor did they say, “It seemed good to Peter and the apostles,” nor even, “It
was the consensus of the brethren as indicated by a majority vote.” In all their “discussion” (investigation,
debate; Acts 15:7), they were conscious of the presence of a divine Person among them, leading them,
guiding them into truth. Thus, it was not mere pious language when they said, “It seemed good to the Holy
Spirit and to us.”
This consciousness of the reality of the Holy Spirit pervades the entire Bible from Genesis to
Revelation. Many Old Testament writers refer to the Spirit, and only three of the New Testament books
do not allude to Him (and these are all very short—Philemon and 2 and 3 John).
It is true that Jesus Christ is the key figure in all God’s plan. The Holy Spirit himself focuses
attention on Christ and seeks to glorify Him (John 15:26; 16:14). But this does not mean that the Holy
Spirit is ever ignored in the Bible or that He is ever treated as some vague influence or imperceptible
energy. He is recognized as a real person with intelligence, feeling, and will.
Both explicitly and implicitly the Bible treats the Holy Spirit as a distinct Person. “He who searches
our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with
God’s will” (Romans 8:27). “The Spirit searches all things” (1 Corinthians 2:10). He thus acts with
intelligence and wisdom. (See Ephesians 1:17; Isaiah 11:2.) He has emotions and can be grieved or
vexed (pained, hurt; Ephesians 4:30; Isaiah 63:10). He distributes gifts “to each one, just as he
determines” (1 Corinthians 12:11). He guided the Early Church and directed the key missionary
movements in definite, specific, personal ways. (See Acts 13:2; 16:6.) John even uses masculine personal
pronouns to draw attention to the Spirit’s personality. (The word spirit in Greek is neuter and
grammatically calls for a neuter pronoun.)
More importantly, it is evident from the Bible that men and women who were moved by the Spirit
knew Him in a definite, personal way. If you were to ask the judges or prophets of the Old Testament if
the Holy Spirit had come upon them, they would never say, “I think so,” or, “I hope so.” We read that “the
Spirit of the LORD came upon [clothed himself with] Gideon, and he blew a trumpet” (Judges 6:34). This
was no mild, secret touch. When a young lion roared against Samson, “the Spirit of the LORD came
[rushed] upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a
young goat” (Judges 14:6).
When the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul, he prophesied and was “changed into a different
person” (1 Samuel 10:6, 10). Amos, after a series of cause-and-effect illustrations, said, “The lion has
roared—who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD hath spoken—who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8).
There was an inner compulsion moving him that was as strong as the fear a lion puts in a man when it
chases him. Micah knew he was “filled with power, [even] with the Spirit of the LORD” to deal with
Israel’s sins (Micah 3:8).
There is no guesswork concerning the reality and definiteness of action of the Holy Spirit in the New
Testament either. For the sake of John the Baptist, the Spirit came upon Jesus in visible form as a dove.
The sound of a wind and tongues of fire heralded His presence on the Day of Pentecost.
Though His other manifestations to the Church were invisible, they were just as definite. On three
occasions it is specifically recorded that the believers spoke with other tongues (Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:6).
Once the place was shaken (Acts 4:31) and they all spoke the word of God with boldness. The comfort
(encouragement) of the Holy Spirit was a very important factor in the growth of the Early Church (Acts
9:31). They did not have to guess whether He was there or not. They knew.
The Holy Spirit provided the warmth, the dynamic, and the joy that characterized the whole
movement of the gospel in the first century. Every part of the daily life of the believers, including their
work and worship, was dedicated to Christ Jesus as Lord and was under the direction of the Holy Spirit.
This does not mean, of course, that their own minds or intelligence had no place, or that they were moved
by emotion only. Emotion did have “a vital place, which the exaggerated intellectual emphasis of many
Protestants today does not adequately value.”1 But they were expected to search the Scriptures, accept
reasonable proofs, and in understanding (thinking) be men (become mature). (See 1 Corinthians 14:20;
Acts 17:11; 28:23.)
Nevertheless, the whole of their Christian life and worship transcended the merely natural and
human. The supernatural was a part of all experience. In their daily lives they did not try to carry out some
things on the human level and some on the level of the Spirit. The qualities they needed in order to work
together and bear testimony by their lives were not ordinary graces, but the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians
5:22, 23). They never supposed that if a person tried hard enough he could live a good life and please
God. They knew they needed the constant help of the Spirit. In their worship they knew they were quite
insufficient in themselves to praise and glorify the Lord. They expected singing in the Spirit, praying in the
Spirit, and gifts and ministries of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:15, 26). They did not claim external
miracles every day, but every day was a miracle as they lived and walked in the Spirit.
This personal experience with the Holy Spirit is still one of the distinguishing marks of Christianity.
In a course which introduced me to the study of comparative religions, the professor pointed out that non-
Christian religions do say good things. Some have high moral standards. A few emphasize one true God.
Others even have some sort of trinity (really a triad). Many present a way of salvation of some kind.
Some even speak of a resurrection. But none of them offers anything like the Holy Spirit. They all leave
people to do in their own strength the good things they ask. You might say they ask people to try to lift
themselves out of the mire by their own shoelaces.
Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans” (John 14:18). He went on to promise a Counselor,
Helper, Advocate, Teacher, and Guide. The Holy Spirit is all of these. He is a personal Friend who is
adequate for all our needs.
More and more writers and scholars are recognizing this. John V. Taylor, in his book Go-Between
God, draws attention to Trevor Ling’s argument that what distinguishes Old and New Testament religion
from the great religions of Asia is “the nature of the prophetic experience … the prophet, in the
experience of revelation, is made aware of the personal nature of the transcendent reality which has taken
hold of him.”2
Dependence on the Holy Spirit and on wisdom from above may not have been very popular with the
teachers and philosophers of New Testament times, however. Paul warned Timothy against “the opposing
ideas [objections, contradictions, antitheses] of what is falsely called knowledge” (1 Timothy 6:20).
Some of the objections may have been along this very line of rejecting the person and personal
relationship of the Holy Spirit. At least, it was not long before false teachers were claiming that the Spirit
was only “the exerted energy of God.”3 But all the objections and antitheses of these teachers only lead to
confusion. Dependence on Christ and the Holy Spirit is the only way to peace.
More and more the world today has taken God off the throne and put self and human reason in His
place. The tendency is to exalt the ego with success, money, status, fame. Even projects to help others or
relieve the world’s suffering are often motivated by a desire for satisfaction over what one has
accomplished in himself. Like Pharaoh of old, the world says, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him?”
(Exodus 5:2). It is terribly humbling for the secular man of today to bow before Christ and accept the fact
that he is a sinner who can do nothing to save himself. Yet the fact is that “the high and lofty One … who
lives forever, whose name is holy” and who dwells “in the high and holy place [heaven],” still delights to
come and dwell “with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit” (Isaiah 57:15).
The recognition that we are not self-sufficient, but totally dependent on Christ and the Holy Spirit to
do anything that pleases God, and the willingness to give Him all the praise, is the secret of the success of
the Pentecostal Movement today. More than that, the Pentecostals stand firm at the point that marks off
Bible-believers from so-called liberals. The line of demarcation is not the acceptance simply of the
Virgin Birth, the Cross, or the Resurrection. It is rather the supernatural itself. Those who oppose the
simple gospel of Christ, who try to strip the Bible of its miracles, and who cut up the New Testament and
make Jesus an empty figure—a pale, mistaken teacher—all build their theories on an antisupernaturalistic
bias.
Most of these antisupernaturalists argue that they must remove the supernatural from the Bible in
order to make the gospel acceptable and applicable to modern man. Actually, the reverse is true. I am
constantly meeting people whose lives have been changed and revitalized by the Holy Spirit. One
example is an Episcopal priest from Florida. When he was called on to read the funeral service, he would
mumble as rapidly as possible such passages as “the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are
still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1
Thessalonians 4:16, 17). He hoped no one would understand what he was saying, for he could not believe
it and he did not believe anyone else could either.
He was reading Bishop Robinson’s book Honest to God along with the works of other “God-is-
dead” theologians and existential philosophers trying, as he said, “to find some excuse for an egghead like
myself to stay in the ministry.”
Finally, he determined one day he had performed his last service in the church. He decided he was
through with the ministry. That night he was invited to a home where he found a group of happy, Spirit-
filled Christians. In the presence of the genuine moving of the Holy Spirit all his arguments and
presuppositions fell apart. He found Christ, received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and entered into a
new and wonderful Pentecostal ministry. After that, he loved the Bible and looked forward to the coming
of Jesus with joyful anticipation. Such incidents could be multiplied hundreds of times over.
It is worth noting also that all the major denominations in the United States in their early days put up
barriers of creeds against liberalism and against the destructive criticism of the Bible. Few have
succeeded in keeping this sort of unbelief out. Today the Pentecostals are in the frontline of the battle
against the enemy of the truth who is also the enemy of our souls. Modern man needs the full illumination
that comes through the person of the Spirit when He dwells within in power.
Thank God, there is increasing interest today both in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the
person and work of the Holy Spirit. A number of years ago when I was in seminary, one of my professors
asked a New Testament class of one hundred people from about twenty-five different denominations,
“How many have heard a sermon on the Holy Spirit in the last five years?” Only three or four of us put up
our hands. He added, “In the last ten years?” Two or three more put up their hands. Few books on the
Holy Spirit were available at that time. Owing in part to the faithful witness of the Pentecostals, this is no
longer true. In increasingly large segments of the Church, literature on the Holy Spirit is proliferating.
The purpose of this book is simply to go through the Bible book by book and take a fresh look at
what it teaches about the Holy Spirit and His work. Then a final chapter will summarize and apply further
what we discover.
The book-by-book approach was chosen because it fits in well with the way the Bible was written.
In the Bible we find a progressive, step-by-step revelation of God and His plan.
In the Old Testament the chief emphasis needed was on the one true God. Israel was an island in the
midst of a whole world of polytheism. It was necessary to deal with this first. As long as idols were
worshipped “under every green tree,” as was the case in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Israel was not
ready for the full revelation of the deity of the Messiah and the personality of the Holy Spirit. So these are
only hinted at in the Old Testament.
By New Testament times the Jews had learned their lesson. They were known the world over as
worshipers of one God. It was time for the next step in God’s revelation and plan.
2
The Spirit in the Pentateuch
The Bible introduces us almost at once to the Spirit of God. “In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty [uninhabited], darkness was over the
surface of the deep [the primeval ocean], and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis
1:1, 2). Thus, the Spirit of God is associated with God’s creative activity.
Actually, the Bible ascribes all the works of God in an absolute sense to each member of the Trinity
both individually and collectively. Each of the divine Persons has His specific function. Yet they all work
in perfect harmony and cooperation at all times.
Creation is a prime example. The Bible speaks of God the Father as the Maker of the heaven, earth,
sea, and all that is in them (Acts 4:24). It also speaks of the Son (the same life-giving Word who became
flesh and dwelt among us) as the secondary Agent in creation. “Through him all things were made;
without him [apart from Him] nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3). Here the phraseology is
of God speaking through the Son just as He spoke through the prophets. He was the living Word through
whom God spoke the worlds into existence. From the beginning He was the mediator between God and
man (1 Timothy 2:5).
The Spirit also is recognized in other places. The Psalmist said, “When you send your Spirit, they
are created, and you renew the face of the earth” (Psalm 104:30). The Spirit is thus connected with both
creation and God’s continuing providence. (See also Isaiah 40:12, 13.) Other passages that refer to the
Spirit also use terminology indicating the breath of God (Job 26:13; 33:4; Psalm 33:6).
The Bible also emphasizes that the heavens and earth were created by His power and wisdom
(Psalm 136:5; Proverbs 3:19; 8:23–30; Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15). His power is pictured by mentioning in a
concrete way His hands and His fingers (Psalms 8:3; 95:5; 102:25; Isaiah 45:12; 48:13). This is balanced
by an emphasis that they were all made by His word (Psalms 33:6, 9; 148:5).
Spirit, Wind, Breath
Most scholars take “spirit” in Isaiah 34:16 to mean breath, since it is parallel to “mouth.” Many
today also find difficulty in rendering Genesis 1:2 as “Spirit.” The New English Bible, following some
Jewish and most liberal scholars, reads, “The earth was without form and void, with darkness over the
face of the abyss, and a mighty wind that swept over the surface of the waters,” possibly to keep the
waters in check.
Actually, the Hebrew word for spirit ( ) like the Greek word ( ) can mean wind, breath,
ruach pneuma
or spirit. It is used to represent a wide range of expressions in relation to nature, the life of animals and
man, and God. Someone has figured up that there are at least thirty-three different shades of meaning that
the word may have in different contexts.1
In Exodus 14:21, the word is used of the strong east wind that kept blowing until the Israelites
ruach
could cross on dry land. “The cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8) is the “wind” of the day, referring to the
cool breezes of the afternoon. In the wilderness “a wind went out from the LORD” and brought quail from
the sea (Numbers 11:31). Poetically, the Psalmist speaks of “the wings of the wind” (Psalms 18:10;
104:3). The Lord also sent “a great wind” when Jonah fled toward Tarshish (Jonah 1:4).
Genesis 2:7 uses a different word for “the breath of life” (Hebrew, “lives”). But 6:17 uses for
ruach