Pastor Ayo Ajani
02.06.24
Hello, Ayo Ajani here, and you are welcome to Day 2 of 30 days to spiritual mastery. Our focus here is on the Holy Spirit – teachings on the ministry, the person, the character, and the work of the Holy Spirit for 30 days. This is first to bring you knowledge of the Holy Spirit, but most importantly to develop a desire in your heart for fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Knowledge by itself is not what really changes our lives. Truth is a person, and the essence of truth is to come into fellowship with that person.
The Holy Spirit is a person
Yesterday we talked about the all importance of the Holy Spirit. Today we are looking at “The Holy Spirit Is A Person. This is foundational, because as long as we think of the Holy Spirit as a force or a thing – like some people will say “Something said to me” – you can’t develop a relationship with Him. You can only develop a relationship with someone.
Symbolism versus personality
A lot of times many believers are more conscious of the symbolisms of the Spirit than the person of the Spirit. This makes us miss out on the bigger part of what the Holy Spirit has come to do in our lives, which is to bring us into fellowship with deity. When you think of symbolism, you think of functionality. Let me explain. You’ve heard people say, Fill me with the Holy Spirit – and is there anything wrong with that? No. However, they are thinking of the Holy Spirit here as water. Then they say, “Holy Spirit burn in my heart.” What is the symbolism there? They are thinking of the Holy Spirit as fire. Is there anything wrong with this, no. However, you can’t have a relationship with fire or with water.
There is no other member of the Trinity that has more symbolism attached to them than the Holy Spirit. It is easier for us to see God the Father and Jesus the Son as persons, as there are very few symbolisms attached to them. However, there are many symbolisms attached to the Holy Spirit; oil, water, wind, fire, etc. What this does to us is it makes us more focused on functionality than personality. The thing with functionality is that you will get some results and then it will cap there, it will not go any further. You can’t have a relationship with a symbol, you can only have a relationship with a person.
The Holy Spirit is a person. What does that mean to you? What is the impact of that statement in your life.
Explaining the Trinity
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, but a distinct person in the trinity. There is one God, there are three distinct personalities that make up that one God. Some people find this hard to comprehend. If there is one God, then how is there a trinity? Let me ask you, how is it possible for water to exist in 3 states? It’s still water, but you can have it as steam, as flowing water and as solid water. Three forms, but still one; water. This is the same with God. You look at the Trinity, you see three distinct persons but one God.
Genesis 1:26a “And God said, Let US make man in our image, after OUR likeness:…”
Who is referred to as ‘our’? Who is ‘us’? This shows the plurality of this God.
In Mathew 3:16-17 we see the Trinity being displayed beautifully. Jesus was being baptised in water and the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit descended upon Him as a dove and God the Father spoke out of heaven. That’s the whole Trinity displayed here – Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God the Father. All the same God. God was being baptised in the water, God descended upon God in the water and God spoke from heaven to God in the water. Same God but expressed in three separate distinct entities.
The Holy Spirit introduced
One important thing to note about the Trinity is that the very first member to be introduced as a person is the Holy Spirit.
Genesis 1:1-2 “In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
The word translated ‘God’ here is Elohim which means ‘Gods’ (plural). The next verse says the Spirit brooded over the waters. This tells you of the priority of the Holy Spirit, I can’t stress it enough. The first member of the Trinity to be introduced was the Holy Ghost.
Now, when we say the Holy Spirit is a person, we are not saying He is human. Being a person means He has attributes that give Him a personality. The Holy Spirit has a mind of His own – a will.
He has emotions – He can be grieved.
He can speak, and He can understand.
Seek the person, not the symbol!
Stop seeking symbols! Start seeking the Person! People are looking for the fire, wind, oil of the Spirit, but what they should be looking is for the Person of the Spirit. Because when the person comes, He comes with everything that is attributed to Him. If I know the Holy Spirit, I will have the oil of the Spirit in my life. If I have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, by necessity the fire of God will be found in my life. We have to give attention to the person not the symbols. The Holy Ghost is a person, and if He is a person, then He can be related with.
He wants fellowship!
2 Corinthians 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.”
Grace comes from our Lord Jesus. Love comes from God the Father. Fellowship – not fire, oil, water, anointing, or power – comes from the Holy Ghost. All those are symbols, but the Holy Spirit is a person. People are looking for the power of the Spirit instead of looking for the person of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not power, He has power. When you have the person of Holy Spirit, you will have all that He represents. I see a lot of believers go on retreats for days seeking the power and the anointing of the Spirit – and I absolutely believe in that, but if you are not careful you can make a religion and idols out of these things.
What the Holy Spirit wants is a fellowship, a relationship. You know why? He is a person and the desire of this person is fellowship.
You can be intimate with the Holy Spirit
The word ‘communion’ here means fellowship, intimacy. The Greek word is koinonia which refers to a depth of fellowship and intimacy that exists between man and wife. This doesn’t mean a mere talking to or acquaintance with. It refers to the deepest level of intimacy that can exist between two persons. Koinonia stems from the same Hebrew word transliterated into the Greek that was used in Genesis 4:1: – “And Adam knew his wife…” That depth of fellowship that is reserved for just two persons; a man and his wife. You can have friends, but there is a depth of intimacy a husband and wife will share that cannot be shared with their friends.
He uses this word to describe what the Holy Spirit has brought to you – that’s powerful! It’s not just a loose fellowship; an acquaintance, a talking to, a knowing or relating with. It’s talking about a depth of fellowship that is only possible between a man and his wife, that depth of fellowship that only happens behind closed doors.
He has strong emotions, and these strong emotions are for fellowship.
Tomorrow I’m going to talk to you about how to build that fellowship with the Spirit of God because you see my goal is not to increase your knowledge of the Spirit of God but to increase your desire for Him till you have encounters with Him
BIG BOLD FACT
What is today’s Big bold fact? Because you are a spirit-being created in the image and order of the Holy Spirit, you have greater capacity for fellowship and intimacy with Him than with the humans you see around you. Let me tell you what that means; it means that I can know the Holy Spirit even much more than I know my spouse and until this happens, we are not stopping!
Welcome again to 30 days of spiritual mastery!!