The Holy Spirit is a Person: A Critical Teaching Kathryn Kuhlman Part of 1 of 2

Well, for a few minutes, you and I are going to have a good heart -to -heart talk about a person who is most important. Some time ago, a representative of a ministerial association asked me to speak at their ministerial meeting. I smiled and I said, oh, sir. Those men are so much more intellectual than I am. What in the world would they like for me to speak about? And immediately the representative turned without hesitation and said, they have asked me to ask you to tell them the secret of your ministry. I said, go back. Tell those gentlemen that I can give them that answer in just one word. The Holy Spirit. The secret of this ministry, the secret of the power in this ministry, the secret of the hundreds of lives that have been transformed by the power of God, the secret... of the power in the healing of sick bodies in this ministry can be attributed to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. You want to know something? Theoretically, thousands of professing Christians worship the Holy Spirit every time they sing the doxology. Every Lord's Day morning, literally hundreds and thousands of good, honest Christians stand in their churches. And as they sing the doxology, praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below. Praise him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father. Son, and Holy Ghost. Theoretically, they worship the Holy Spirit every time they sing those words. And yet, few believe in Him as a person. It's one thing to sing words, and quite another thing to realize the meaning of what we say. are what we see. I can prove to you from the Word of God that the Holy Spirit is a person, as definitely a person as Jesus Christ, the Son, is a person, as definitely a person as God Himself is a person. And remember, the doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit, is of the highest importance from the standpoint of worship. If the Holy Spirit is a person, and a divine person, and He is, and if you and I do not know Him as such, if we think of the Holy Spirit merely as an impersonal influence or power, as so many do, then we are robbing a divine person of the worship. which is His. We're robbing a divine person of the love which is due Him and of the faith and confidence and surrender and obedience and worship which are His. It is most important that we realize that the Holy Ghost is a definite person with a definite personality. Pause with me just a few moments as I give you proof of the personality of the Holy Spirit. All the distinctive marks or characteristics of personality are ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the Word of God. What are the distinctive marks or characteristics of personality? What are they? Knowledge, feeling, and will. Any being who knows and feels and wills is a person. Oftentimes when you say the Holy Spirit is a person, people understand you to mean that the Holy Spirit has hands and feet and fingers and toes and eyes and ears and mouth and so on. No, not at all. These are not the marks of personalities. Know that. The marks of personality are knowledge, feeling, and will. And any being who knows, any being who thinks, feels, and wills is a person, whether he has a body or not. You and I, if our earthly life ends before the Lord's return, will cease to have bodies for the time being. For the word of God says, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We shall not cease to be persons. We will be persons still, even though we have no body. I will be me forever and ever. You will be you forever and ever and ever. If in this moment my whole heart should stop its beating, and word would go forth that death had come to Catherine Cooman, I would not cease to exist, even after they have placed my body in the grave, and that body begins to deteriorate. It does not mean that I have ceased to exist. For the very moment that my heart would take its last beat, my personality, that which will be me forever, my spirit and my soul would go to be in the presence of Almighty God. I would continue to be a personality. In exactly the same way, beloved, we take the body, the person of Jesus. Consider something that is most important. Before death came to the Son of the Living God, in that split second, he dismissed his own spirit. All on earth that was placed in that tomb was the... body the personality of jesus the son of living god was never placed in that tomb for he dismissed his own spirit before death came to the body no tomb ever held the personality of the son of living god before death ever came to that physical body, before they ever took that body off the cross, Jesus, the person, the personality of Jesus, had gone to paradise to give deliverance to the prisoners of hope. It's there. It's recorded in the third chapter of 1 Peter, the 18th verse. For Christ... also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh. And it's that flesh that they put in the tomb, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. To whom? Does this scripture refer, when it says, to the spirits in prison? Why, bless your hearts. The spirits of the Old Testament saints, the Old Testament prophets, Abraham, Isaac, Jeremiah, those Old Testament saints, who had confidence in Almighty God, who waited for the crucifixion of the Son of the Living God, that the law might be justified, that the penalty might be paid in full by the shedding of the blood of the Son of the Living God. Their bodies, the bodies of the Old Testament saints, were lying in graves or in tombs someplace out there yonder on the hillside. But their personalities were in... paradise, waiting for that moment of deliverance. It was not the body of Jesus that went to paradise. It was his personality. Know that. In exactly the same way, beloved, the Holy Spirit is a person with a very definite personality. And he is now... in this earth, willing to do everything for you and for me that Jesus would do, were He here in person. I pray that this shall be made very real to your heart. Turn in your Bibles, please, to 1 Corinthians, the second chapter, the 11th verse. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Here knowledge is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Influence does not have knowledge. A person has knowledge. And here knowledge is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Now turn to 1 Corinthians. The twelfth chapter. But all these things worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally, even as He will. The thought is that the Holy Spirit is not merely a divine power that we get hold of and use according to our will, but that the Holy Spirit is a divine person who gets hold of us and uses us according to His will. And this is one of the most fundamental truths in regard to the Holy Spirit. And we must ever bear it in mind if we are to come into right relationship with Him and continue in right relations with Him. Countless earnest -minded Christians are going astray at this point. They're trying to get hold of some divine power which they can use according to their will. I... Thank God for the day when I learned that the Holy Spirit is not a power, a person that I can use. The Holy Spirit is a person that uses the individual. There is a divine person. who can get hold of me and use me according to his wise and loving will. Now then, turn to the 8th chapter of Romans, the 27th verse. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. What I wish you to note here is the expression, the mind of the spirit. An influence does not have a mind. Only a person, a personality, has a mind. Now we turn to a most remarkable passage in the 15th chapter of Romans. I read it to you. Now I beseech you, brethren. For the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. Oh, what I wish you to notice here, all these five words, the love of the Spirit. It's a wonderful truth. It teaches that the Holy Spirit is not a mere blind influence or power. He is a divine person loving us with a tenderest love. I wonder how many of us have ever thought much regarding the love of the Spirit. I wonder how many of us ministers have ever preached a sermon on the love of the Spirit. I wonder how many of you ever heard a sermon on the love of the Spirit. And yet this portion of the Word of God teaches definitely. that the Holy Spirit loves. To sum it all up, the Holy Spirit is a person. Theoretically, we probably all believe that He is an influence, that He is a great power. but how many of us treat him as a person? Do you really regard the Holy Spirit as a person, as much of a person as Jesus Christ, just as loving, just as wise, just as tender, just as strong, just as faithful, just as worthy of your confidence in your love and surrender as he? It will be the greatest day of your life when you realize that the Holy Ghost is a person and the secret of the success of this ministry is found in and through the person of the Holy Ghost, the mighty third person of the Trinity. Amen.