And when Christ returned to Heaven, He promised His followers that He would “send the Holy Spirit,” John 16, verses 7 and 8 [“Nevertheless I tell you the Truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”], and John 15, verse 26 [“But when the Helper comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth Who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.”].

When the Holy Spirit speaks, He does not speak for Himself. Rather, He speaks for the Father and the Son, John 16, verses 13 through 15 [“However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all Truth; for He will not speak on His Own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”].

And on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles, Acts 2, verse 33 [“Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.”], and Acts 11, verses 15 and 17 [“And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”].

And so we see that the Spirit has personal traits and we see those exhibited by His interaction with men. At the same time, He is also Divine. He has Divine qualities, like being omniscient, and like being eternal. He also has a Divine Work in which He is involved and in which He participates. Yes, the Holy Spirit is a wonderful Being for us to consider!

Let’s look now at the WORKS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Since the Spirit is a personality, He can best be understood by looking at the works that He has done in the past, and also by the work He continues to do today. I think maybe the most important part of this study in helping us to understand the Spirit—who He is and what He does and how He works—is to look at what He does.

First, let’s look at His PAST WORKS. These are the things which He did in the past, but which He no longer does today.

Let’s look first at His part in creation. This is mentioned in Genesis 1, verse 2, that “The Spirit of God moved across the face of the deep.” [“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”] The Spirit was there, just as the Son was there, and participated in the creation. Job 33, verse 4 says that, “The Spirit of God made me and gave me breath.” [“The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”] So He had a part, a function, something He did before that He no longer does—a part in the creation.

Also He was responsible in carrying out the instruction of the Father in revealing the Holy Scriptures that make up the Old Testament. In 2 Peter 1, beginning with verse 19, we see Peter makes this statement: “And so we have the prophetic Word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” And then in 1 Peter 1, we’ll look at verses 10 and 11: “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ Who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.” And so the Holy Spirit had a part in revealing the Scriptures of the Old Testament.

He also had a part in the coming of the Lord—in the coming of Jesus Christ. What part did the Holy Spirit have in the coming of our Lord? Well here it is in Luke 1, verse 35: “And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One Who is to be born will be called the Son of God.’” Then over in John 1, verse 32, it tells us that the conception was the responsibility of the Holy Spirit [“And John bore witness, saying, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.’”].

Also, something that the Spirit had done in times past was that He was promised as a Comforter to the apostles by Christ. John 14, verses 16 through 18 [“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”]; John 15:26 [“But when the Helper comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth Who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.”]; other Scriptures to reference are: John 16:7-11 [“Nevertheless I tell you the Truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”]; Mark 13:11 [“But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.”]; Luke 12:11-12 [“Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”]