The Precious Holy Spirit

Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

Matthew 12:31–32 (NKJV)

When God wanted to create the universe, the Holy Spirit carried it out. When He wanted to restore the earth, the Spirit carried it out. When He wanted to create mankind, even then the Holy Spirit was instrumental. He is the most active One in the Godhead; we could even say that He is God in action, because without Him the Godhead does not function and is incapable of active work.

The Trinity comprises the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are coequal in every respect except function, and the Spirit of God seems to be given pre-eminence in the functional operations of the Trinity. He is instrumental in how God operates in the universe, and why this is so rests in the sovereignty of God.

This is even more evident in the life of Jesus Christ, the embodiment of the Godhead. The Scripture declares Him to be the Word of God in the flesh, God incarnate, as fully God as the Father or the Holy Spirit. Yet He could do nothing until the Spirit endowed Him, after thirty years. The fact that He has no miracle or mighty work to His name before the Spirit came upon Him is testament to His utter dependence on the Spirit, even though He was God.

His life proves two things. First, God needs the Holy Spirit to carry out His work and purposes in creation. Second, human beings are incapable of pleasing God and working for Him without the Spirit of God. Nothing done for God is acceptable without the Spirit of God, and all of this is shown in the life of Jesus.

The reliance He had on the Spirit should be the pursuit of every Christian in this world. Jesus proves to us that any life without the Holy Ghost is a failure, and that true success is walking with and following the Spirit of God entirely, because it seems that even He would have failed in His mission on earth without the Spirit.

Lastly, no verse of Scripture validates everything I have written here as the opening scripture does. No sin or blasphemy against the Spirit will be forgiven, in this age or in the next. How very telling this is. The Holy Spirit is most precious to the Father and the Son; He is the most protected member of the Trinity. Yet because of the sacrifice of Jesus, God gave Him to dwell in us forever. Only the love of God for us could cause Him to release His precious Spirit to proceed from Him and live in us.

The day this truth dawns on us, our only ambition in life will be to give His precious Spirit the experience He deserves in these earthly bodies. We will seek to follow, obey and please Him at all costs, because He is the reason for the success of Jesus and of every other person who has yielded his life to Him, and, dare I say, He has upheld the integrity and reputation of God in creation. Honour the Spirit with your time, your attention and your life, and see what He makes of your life, all to the glory of God.