The Holy Spirit

What has happened to the Holy Spirit in the Family? In early years, Family writings made a big deal of the Holy Spirit, claiming that it is female, the ‘Mother’ in the holy Trinity. Countless pictures were published depicting the Holy Spirit as a sexy woman, with a similar role to that of the numerous ‘spirit helpers’ that were also promoted.

In recent years, however, there appears to be hardly a mention of the Holy Spirit, apart from the Family’s standard doctrine that Christians should pray to receive the Holy Spirit at some point soon after they have been born again. Aside from this, the Holy Spirit is largely ignored.

This study will look at a few questions: Is it legitimate to claim that the Holy Spirit is female? When do believers receive the Holy Spirit? What is the function of the Holy Spirit? Why does the Family for the most part ignore the Holy Spirit in its internal publications published in recent years?

Is the Holy Spirit male or female?

It should be noted that the Family’s ‘Statement of Faith’ does not insist on the Holy Spirit being female. There is only a token reference, which says:

The Holy Spirit is also known as “the Comforter”, Who--like a mother--loves, nurtures and comforts the born-again child of God.

Family doctrine for a female Holy Spirit is based on three arguments:

In the story of creation in the book of Genesis, God decides to make man ‘male and female’ in ‘our image’, thereby implying both male and female natures in the Godhead.
In the book of Proverbs, ‘Wisdom’ is described as being female, and as having been with God since the beginning.
The third argument is more of a logical nature, saying that it doesn’t seem right to have ‘three men’ in heaven running everything. Or in other words, the Trinity is a picture of the nuclear family, having Father, Mother and Son. The attributes of the Holy Spirit seem more feminine, comforting and nurturing.

If we look at these arguments, we can see that the Family’s doctrine appears to be reasonable and logical and so if we wish to adopt the idea as a helpful picture or analogy, then it shouldn’t be a problem, as long as we remember that there is also Bible evidence for a ‘male’ Holy Spirit. In particular, if we go to the highest authority, Jesus Himself talked of the Holy Spirit using the pronoun ‘He’. Therefore we may see that an argument over whether the Holy Spirit is male or female is little more than a dispute over one’s personal preference, but is not an attempt to establish Biblical truth.

However, when we consider for a moment the nature of God, any such argument over whether the Holy Spirit is male or female becomes totally irrelevant. God is God, and we cannot picture Him as ‘male’ or ‘female’. In fact the only part of God that we can really consider to have a sex at all is Jesus, Who is God made flesh. Jesus came to earth fully God and fully man, God incarnate. He is male. There are certainly not ‘three men in heaven running everything’ or even three people. God is one God, not three. Jesus said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30) and He meant one, not three. This is the mystery of the Trinity (which of course is a term that is not in the Bible but which is useful to describe the triune God). We cannot distinguish God from Jesus, because Jesus is God. And although Jesus made numerous references to God the Father, and although Jesus is the ‘Son of God’, we must still affirm that the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. We have one God. It is a very narrow, short-sighted doctrine to picture the Trinity as either three men or as a father, mother and son. These images are only useful to us in our limited human understanding of that which is essentially incomprehensible to us. In other words, if we could actually picture God as He is, He would not be God at all. God is external to our frame of reference, and the best we can do is liken Him to things we can see around us, like people or light, or attributes like ‘love’ or ‘mercy’ or ‘wisdom’ or ‘truth’. God is all these things and far more, but He is none of these things, they are merely sketches to help our poor human brains get a grasp on the nature of God.

Having said that, we will no longer ask whether the Holy Spirit is male or female, as the question is nonsensical: God is far bigger than our human concepts of male or female. As a matter of convenience, though, in order that we may avail ourselves of pronouns when discussing the Holy Spirit, for the remainder of this study we will follow Jesus’ example and refer to ‘Him’ as ‘He’.

When do believers receive the Holy Spirit?

Family doctrine is that Christians receive a ‘measure’ of the Holy Spirit upon salvation, but then must ‘get filled’ in a separate event. For years, Family statistic charts had a separate section for the number of ‘Holy Ghosts’ as well as the number of ‘souls’. For some reason, this ‘Holy Spirit’ statistic has been quietly phased out.

While the doctrine of receiving the Holy Spirit on a separate occasion to getting saved does not seem to be a ‘bad’ doctrine (i.e. we can believe it if we want to), it should be pointed out that there are other equally viable doctrines, one of which we will discuss here. Which is the right doctrine? The answer cannot come from this web page or from Family teaching. Each believer should read the Bible and let it speak to them personally.

There is also a commonly held doctrine that says that the Holy Spirit comes to believers at the moment of salvation, and in fact is the means of salvation, the power of salvation, and it is impossible to get saved without also receiving the full measure of the Holy Spirit at the same time. The Holy Spirit was first given at the day of Pentecost, and since then it is not necessary to pray for Him to come as He is with believers and is in fact instrumental for their salvation. If we don’t have the Holy Spirit in full (for there is no ‘partial measure’ of the Holy Spirit) then we are not saved.

Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Ron R. Ritchie

Who is the Holy Spirit? Scripture teaches that there is one God, but in the unity of the Godhead there are three eternal and co-equal Persons, the same in essence, but distinct in character. They all function in different ways, so their methods of ministering to God’s people are very distinct. In the words of the Nicene Creed (589 AD), “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified.” The Holy Spirit, then, is God in this mystery form called Spirit, not body. The Holy Spirit is God in us, all of us, at the same time. Each one of us who has accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior is indwelt by the Spirit of God. But the disciples had to wait for this. Jesus had told them, “John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. You will all be identified with, placed into the Body of Christ, spiritually, by the Holy Spirit.” The disciples, of course, were believers before the age of the Spirit began. The issue was not their relationship with God, rather it was that God was designing a whole new thing called the Body of Christ into which they would all be placed so that they could all function together by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, therefore, is the gift of the Father to all believers, Jew and Gentile. As 1 Cor. 12:13 says: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Gentile, whether slave or free, and were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

Ray C. Stedman

The fourth characteristic, Jesus says, is that the Spirit would operate from within the believer: “You know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.” The primary reference here undoubtedly is to his disciples. Jesus could never say that of us, nor of anyone after the Day of Pentecost. We don’t have to go through a process in which the Spirit first is with us and then is in us. But these men did. At this point in their experience Jesus had been with them, and thus the Spirit of God was with them, because Jesus was filled with the Spirit. Everything he did was by means of the Holy Spirit who was in him, but with them. But now Jesus is going away, and when he goes he will send the Spirit. And the Spirit will come to be in them. Everything they do, then, they can do by the power of the Spirit living in them.

What is the function of the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is the agency by which we are brought to new life in Christ Jesus.

John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

He is the power by which we were born again, the transforming power that makes us into new creatures in Christ Jesus.

Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

The Holy Spirit is the One Who brought us to the point where we wanted to get saved, Who put within our hearts the knowledge that we needed to reconcile with God.

Rom 8:15-16

15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

He is the One Who witnesses to us, and calls us within our hearts to come to God. We were not saved because someone convinced us to believe what they were saying about asking Jesus into our heart. Our salvation came only because God Himself was drawing us, pulling us towards Himself, by the power of the Holy Spirit in our own hearts. The Holy Spirit was, of course, witnessing to us through the other person, but it was all a work of God, a work of the Holy Spirit.

Heb 3:7-8

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice,

8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness,

Heb 10:15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us

The Holy Spirit is our Helper, our Comforter, our Counsellor, to strengthen us as Jesus no longer walks the earth in His human form.

John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

The Holy Spirit brings us the truth about Jesus the Son of God, and about God the Father.

John 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

It is the Holy Spirit Who witnesses to the lost through us.

Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Our Christian faith is no mental acceptance of our favourite doctrines, rather it is the Holy Spirit in us revealing truth to us.

1 Cor 12:3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

All the gifts that enrich us are from the Holy Spirit. They do not come through studying about our weaknesses, nor through our contact with angels or spirit helpers with these talents. If we have any of these gifts, it is because the Holy Spirit lives within us. The Holy Spirit is not separate from God, He is not a ‘spirit helper’ with many talents sent to enable us according to the need of the moment. He is the power of God in man, the means by which Jesus can continue to live His life through us on earth. Thus it is God in us, and no special talent of our own, and certainly no special talents of any angelic beings or spirit helpers.

1 Cor 12:4-11

4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.

6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.

7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:

8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit,

9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit,

10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

The Holy Spirit is the spirit of God in us, calling out to our Father in heaven.

John 14:16-17

16 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--

17 “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

It doesn’t matter if we do not understand what’s going on, God is in us, and if let Him have His way, He will bring us to the right answer, and to the point where we do at last understand.

Rom 8:26-27

26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

1 Cor 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

The Holy Spirit is the guarantee we’ve been given that we are in fact saved. We know we are saved because God works in us and through us. We know we are saved because the Holy Spirit cries out within us to God the Father, because Jesus continues His life in us, because we see within us the yearning to learn of God, we feel the overwhelming desire to come as children to God the Father.

2 Cor 1:21-22

21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God,

22 who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

This ‘guarantee’ has nothing to do with mental acceptance of doctrines. It is not talking about getting answers to our prayers, and it is not talking about our ability to receive a new ‘prophecy’ every morning. It is God powering through us. We cannot control Him, in the sense that we cannot tell Him when to start, or what kind of gift we’d like today. Prophecy that we initiate is no prophecy. Healing that we try to conjure up is no healing. True prophecy will come through us from the will of God, not our own will. The only ‘control’ we may have is perhaps the ability to stop yielding to the Lord, to stop allowing God to use us. Walking in the Holy Spirit is letting God do things His way. It does not mean thinking of ways to let God work; it does not mean deciding that God ought to send a new prophecy or that God ought to work a new miracle. It means letting God decide when or if a prophecy should come or a healing occur. We may pray, cry out in supplication, but then we must trust that what God does, He does, and what He does not do we should not try to engineer ourselves.

Gal 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

The only true love, joy and peace comes as the Holy Spirit lives in us.

Gal 5:22-23

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

The more we yield to the Holy Spirit, the more we are transformed to be like Jesus.

2 Cor 3:17-18

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary

The third person of the trinity, who exercises the power of the Father and the Son in creation and redemption. Because the Holy Spirit is the power by which believers come to Christ and see with new eyes of faith, He is closer to us than we are to ourselves. Like the eyes of the body through which we see physical things, He is seldom in focus to be seen directly because He is the one through whom all else is seen in a new light. This explains why the relationship of the Father and the Son is more prominent in the gospels, because it is through the eyes of the Holy Spirit that the Father-Son relationship is viewed.

Why does the Family for the most part ignore the Holy Spirit in its internal publications published in recent years?

This is the part of the study where we must ask some very searching questions. These questions are not intended as general condemnation of the Family or of Family members themselves. These are questions that all believers must ask, regardless of their church affiliation, or lack of affiliation. Although the questions are tailored to be more specific to those of us who’ve had experience with the Family, they are questions that should search the heart of every believer.

The first question is not an easy one to ask ourselves. It is difficult because of the tendency of our own human nature to veer away from anything that has the potential to change our lives.

Do I have the Holy Spirit?

As we have seen, this is not so much asking whether we have any gifts of the Spirit or whether we can receive a prophecy or work a miracle. This is a far more fundamental question: Am I saved? Do I have the Holy Spirit of God within me calling out to God my Father? Does the Holy Spirit teach me of Jesus, and draw me towards God? Do I know that God is my Father?

Is the Holy Spirit working within me and through me or do I look to some other source of power?

Am I trying to obtain assistance from angels or spirit helpers, when the Bible says that it is the Holy Spirit Who is my Helper? Do I pray for spirit helpers or angels with certain gifts, talents or abilities to come, when it is the Holy Spirit Who is the power behind all spiritual gifts? Does the Holy Spirit call on God from within me, or do I look elsewhere, for example to the ‘the keys of the kingdom’?

Have I been regenerated by the Holy Spirit working within me?

Is the power of God in me changing me into a new creation, or do I always need a new set of rules and guidelines? Am I ruled by schedules and laws or do I have God’s Spirit within me working His righteousness? Am I a new creature in Christ Jesus, or is it a constant struggle to let Him live through me?

Does God initiate His mighty works by the power of the Holy Spirit through me?

Are any prophecies that come the initiation of God, or do I say to myself, ‘I need to get a prophecy now’? Does God do the miracles or do I decide to ‘command’ God what to do? Is it God Who starts His work or do I take it upon myself to work in His place?

Does the Holy Spirit witness through me?

Is it the Holy Spirit Who witnesses, or am I rather giving a ‘sales pitch’ about the Lord? Are the people to whom I am witnessing pulled by the Holy Spirit to God the Father or are they instead convinced by my spiel?

Does the Holy Spirit reveal Truth to me?

Does God bring the Bible alive through the Holy Spirit speaking directly to my heart, or do I expect some ‘new revelation’ to inspire me? When I have questions about something, can I bring them to the Lord and have Him reveal the answers to me through the Bible, or am I wrapping up bundle after bundle of faith, never getting my questions resolved?

Do I have gifts of the Holy Spirit?

Does God love through me, or is it a big effort on my part? Do I have the peace that passes understanding or am I troubled and flustered? Have I given the Holy Spirit the authority to be my self-control, or am I reliant on man-made or Family-made regulations to keep me in line? Do I have God’s balance between the self-control of the Spirit and the freedom of the Spirit?

Specifically about the Family…

Do Family publications show us how to let the Holy Spirit live in us?

Are we taught in the Family how to walk in the Spirit, so that Jesus lives His life through us, or are we taught to look for more gifts, greater powers, extra helpers and new weapons?

Why does the Family ignore the Holy Spirit?

In its internal publications the Family teaches its members to call on spirit helpers, on the keys of the kingdom, on angelic help, to receive daily prophecies and to avail themselves of the ‘new weapons’. In recent years, however, the Holy Spirit has practically vanished from all except GP publications.

This brings us to the question that might be the most incendiary of all to ask:

Do the authors of the Family publications have the Holy Spirit themselves?

The Holy Spirit has not gone ‘out of style’, He is not an ‘old weapon’, He is the Spirit of Truth and power. God has not changed His way of working and He uses the Holy Spirit because He is the Holy Spirit.

While this question may be the most provocative so far, it is also probably the least helpful. As Christians, our main area of concern is our own heart, not that of others. Reading about the Holy Spirit should convict our own heart to assure ourselves of our salvation and our method of operation.

The Holy Spirit is God Himself working in us and through us, He is the means by which Jesus lives His life on earth, He is the power that brought us to salvation and the power that changed us when we were born again.

It seems, then, that a Christian without the Holy Spirit is not a Christian at all. A Christian who tries to work without the Holy Spirit is operating in the flesh, or is possibly disobeying the Lord. Miracles that happen or prophecies that come without the agency of the Holy Spirit do not come from the Lord at all. Our whole life as believers should be lived in the Holy Spirit, and without Him, we will never accomplish anything much for the Lord at all.

In fact, it may turn out that even after convincing ourselves and others that we were waiting for the Lord, that all our Christianity was no more than an outward show. There is a Bible story of some people who were waiting for Jesus’ return, who outwardly appeared no different from their brethren, but who had not been born again. They went witnessing, they excitedly talked about the 2^nd coming, but they had not had their lives changed by the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit. Salvation is far more than saying the words, ‘Jesus come into my heart.’ Salvation occurs when the Holy Spirit brings us to a place of repentance that we may accept forgiveness for our sins, thus entering into fellowship with God. (There is more on the page called ‘Salvation’). The people in this story had no fellowship with God their Father; the Holy Spirit had not entered them, changing them, bringing them to repentance, Jesus was not living His life through them while they waited for His return. However, from their outward appearance, they looked exactly the same as their brothers and sisters. They sang and danced with their brethren, they had devotions together, they had even forsaken a worldly lifestyle in order to wait for Jesus. Although no one else could tell something was wrong, they themselves knew that something was missing in their lives, they knew that the Lord was not initiating His works through them, they knew they were pushing things along in their own strength, relying on rules and regulations to appear ‘good’. They knew that they were trying to compensate for their own lack of power by calling on other powers. They knew something was wrong. And God knew something was wrong, in fact when eventually the 2^nd coming occurred, Jesus could not receive these people to Himself, because they had not received Him. They did not have the Holy Spirit in them, as God’s presence in them, and so God could not accept them into His kingdom.

Matt 25:1-12

1 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

2 “Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

3 “Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them,

4 “but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

5 “But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’

7 “Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.

8 “And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

9 “But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’

10 “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’

12 “But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

We have one God. God the Father is God, Jesus Christ the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. All three are one. God is one God. If we do not have the Holy Spirit, then we must conclude that we do not have God at all.

Home