When the Holy Spirit comes to bring new birth and adoption to those who believe in Christ, it is God who has come. He is not the same as the Father or Son, but the new Advocate, one with the Father and Son and sent by them, to create our new life, awaken us to the fellowship in which we now move, and to empower our ministry.
Jesus says to his followers, 'You know him….' so the Holy Spirit can be known as a divine person. The obstacle to this is not his being Spirit but the loudness of the world, the temptations of the flesh and our sinful pride. God calls us to remain in the love he has brought to us, to hear the Spirit's witness to the Father and Son, especially in the Bible, and, in this way, to be led by him rather than by the immediate and insistent calls of what can be seen. |
