REPOST Todays’ Spiritual Food for Thought for the Weekend, originally posted on January 3, 2013, is written by Pastor Ryun Chang.

Spiritual Food for Thought for the Weekend

“Hey, the Holy Spirit is not a Thing—He is a Person.”

John 14:26

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he [ekeinos, not ekeino] will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

America has given birth to two fast-growing religious groups: the Mormon Church and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. And it is the latter group’s willful misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit that most clearly reveals the intricate relationship between the Trinity and the Holy Spirit. Put simply, if the Holy Spirit is not upheld as a person, then the doctrine of the Trinity collapses. Admittedly, even some evangelicals—if they are honest—struggle with the Trinity because they have difficulty affirming the personhood of the Holy Spirit.

Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, view the Holy Spirit as a force or energy (their translation even refers to the Spirit as “it”), especially since the Greek word for spirit, pneuma, is grammatically neuter. Consequently, they reject the Trinity altogether. However, several neuter Greek nouns refer to people (teknon means “child”; paidion means “infant”), so this objection simply exposes their lack of understanding of New Testament Greek. Moreover, in John 14:26, when John uses a pronoun for the Holy Spirit, he uses the masculine pronoun ekeinos (he), not the neuter ekeino (it). (I hope that explanation didn’t put you to sleep!)

Groups that claim to be Christian yet deny essential doctrines of the historic Christian faith—such as the Trinity—are rightly called cults, and Jehovah’s Witnesses fall into that category. When we speak with them in love, sharing this insight from Greek can help them see what they are missing by not inviting the person of the Holy Spirit to help them in times of trouble.

As for us, although we may not believe like Jehovah’s Witnesses, functionally we may not be too different from them. We often neither seek nor incorporate the presence of the Spirit in our lives—in our worship, prayer, or study of Scripture. And we rarely ask the Spirit to fill us before leaving home for work, school, or the daily responsibilities that await us. Do it today. Don’t leave home without being filled by Him.

Prayer: O Holy Spirit, fill me today. May I live a life empowered by You and Your power so that I may glorify the Triune God through all I say and do each day. Amen.

Bible Reading for Today: Proverbs 12