The Missing Person

 Have you ever walked down a street and seen small black & white posters with a person’s picture on them and a caption, “MISSING!”?  I have in Los Angeles.  They were nailed to wooden telephone posts in a main street in Burbank.  You could find similar posters throughout most cities and even on TV screens.  Pain and loss accompany these posters.  Did you realise that many Christians, and even churches, have a missing person?  There is also pain and loss accompanying this missing person.  You are probably asking the question - Who is this person?  The answer is staggering, because this person is the Holy Spirit.

 At this point you may be thinking I’ve lost it, but hold your judgment, at least for a few more minutes.  Non-Charismatic evangelical Christianity has reacted to the extreme emphasis on the Holy Spirit within Charismatic Christianity by steering well clear of that topic with the result that the Holy Spirit has become a missing person.  It seems the only input allowed is through music, much of which ironically has been written by charismatic songwriters.  Teaching on the Holy Spirit is rare in non-charismatic churches.  This leaves the Christian and church spiritually impoverished, as we shall see.

 In addition, for some reason, perhaps dispensational teaching, the Holy Spirit has gone missing from the Old Testament.  It is as if the Old Testament believers had to make it on their own without much help from God.  If this is true, then it is remarkable, considering how well many of them did and certainly would leave us somewhat embarrassed, because we are supposed to have so much more of the Holy Spirit in contrast to them.  It's my purpose in this series of blogs on the Holy Spirit to discover what the Bible teaches concerning His person and work, in both the Old and New Testaments.

 We begin in the Old Testament, considering the Holy Spirit's relationship to creation, Scripture and people.  First, it is important to grasp the terminology for the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.  The common word for spirit in the Old Testament is ruah, which is usually rendered pneuma in the LXX (Greek translation of the Old Testament).  It literally means air in motion, such as breath or wind, but often refers to the human spirit as well as God's Spirit.  Context will determine which meaning is in view, as will become apparent in the following treatment.

The Holy Spirit is mentioned in the opening verses of the Bible as "hovering over the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2).  It would appear that He is active in forming the earth into a functional home for humanity.  The reference to God breathing life into Adam also suggests that the Holy Spirit imparts life to God's creation (Genesis 2:7 cf. Psalm 104:30).  It would seem that the Holy Spirit is the energising agent of creation and life.

With respect to Scripture, the Holy Spirit enables its proclamation and subsequent writing.  The clearest references are found in the New Testament, 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:20-21, but there are Old Testament references.  2 Samuel 23:2 and Micah 3:8 indicate that the prophets communicated by means of God's Spirit.  This is further emphasised by the New Testament designations concerning certain Old Testament quotations (Matthew 22:43 cf. Psalm 110:1; Acts 1:16 cf. Psalm 41:8-9; Acts 4:25 cf. Psalm 2:1-2; Acts 28:25 cf. Isaiah 6:9-10; Hebrews 3:7 cf. Psalm 95; Hebrews 10:15-16 cf. Jeremiah 31:33).  Each of these examples affirms that the Holy Spirit was working to give God's truth to humanity through the agency of prophets.

I will cover the last category, the Holy Spirit's relationship to people, next time, because it has more detail and some surprising aspects.  Until then, God bless!