Doctrine of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, was present and at work in creation (Gen 1:2; 26) and He is in every way equal with the Father and the Son in His deity (Matt 28:19; Acts 5:1-4). The Holy Spirit, therefore, is not some kind of force or power of God, but is a person within the Trinity (Eph 1:13; 2 Cor 13:14) who contains all the attributes of Yahweh (1 Cor 2:10-11).  The Holy Spirit is the means by which depraved mankind can be regenerated or made alive (John 3:5-15; 1 Cor 2:14-16).  At this point the unbeliever, who was once spiritually dead, is now capable of belief and faith (Eph 2:1-6).  Therefore, it is through the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration that the unbeliever is able to repent and put their faith in Christ (Eph 2:8-9).

The salvation of the believer is sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13) and this sealing is a guarantee which identifies that the believer belongs to God until the day Christ returns (Eph 1:14; 4:30).  Discernment and the understanding of the significance of the scriptures is given by the Holy Spirit, so that the believer is able to know how he should live in light of what is said (1 Cor 2:14-16; Eph 1:17).  The Spirit also makes known to the Father that which the believer is unable to utter or communicate (Rom 8:26-27).   This became available when the believer was baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5-2:2) and He made His dwelling place in the believer (Eph 2:22). The believer is progressively transformed into the image of Christ through the dwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:18; Rom 8:9-17).  When the believer submits to the Spirit, he walks with Him, which in turn produces in the believer evidences of their new life in Christ (Eph 5:18-21; Gal 5:16; 22-25). The Holy Spirit also gives gifts to individual believers within the body of Christ for the edification of the church and the fulfillment of her mission (Rom 12:4:8; 1 Cor 12:4-11).  Therefore, it is through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, the believer can walk worthy of God’s calling on his life (Eph 4:1).