How Well Do You Know the Holy Spirit?

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. – Acts 1:8 (ESV)

How well do you know the Holy Spirit? I was born into a Christian family, went to church my entire life, and even attended a private Christian school for most of my education. Yet, I must admit that as a young adult, the Holy Spirit remained a bit of a mystery to me. I learned a lot about God the Father, and I knew nearly every story about Jesus. But I found that I didn’t know as much about the Holy Spirit as I knew about the Father and the Son. So as I began my years in seminary, I set out to learn more about Him.

Continuing in our Exceptional Christian Book series, today we’ll look at The Holy Spirit in You by Derek Prince. One of the things I love most about this particular book is its simplicity. He clearly explains what we know about the Holy Spirit throughout the Scriptures and how He works in our lives today as Believers. It is just over 100 pages long, so it’s a short read, but it is packed with truth straight from God’s Word.

Within the first few pages of this book, I began to realize why the Holy Spirit can be difficult for us to understand sometimes…

“The first thing we must understand is that the Holy Spirit is Himself a person, just as much as the Father and the Son are people. Because of human parallels, it is comparatively easy for us to realize that God the Father is a person and God the Son is a person, but it is not always as easy to realize that God the Holy Spirit is a person.” – Derek Prince

We can relate to God as our Father, and we can certainly relate to Jesus who became human and endured suffering to save mankind from both sin and death. But the Holy Spirit is different…

As the book continues, we learn about the Holy Spirit’s role in the creation of the world as well as before the arrival of the Messiah. We then learn about His role in the life of Christ. But the truth is that everything changed on the Day of Pentecost. Through the power of the Spirit, we are now transformed from the old creation into a new creation through the “inbreathed breath of God.” The Spirit of the living God now dwells inside every Believer.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. – John 14:15-17 (ESV, emphasis added)

So I come back to my original question. How well do you know the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit in You by Derek Prince is a great place to start. Diving into who He is, what He has done throughout history, and what He is capable of in the life of a Believer today, this book will challenge you to grow as you learn more about Him.