We are on safe ground only if we read carefully what the Bible says about this important subject.
The Holy Spirit Is God
“But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, … thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” (Acts 5:3-4)
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through (in the power of) the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God” (Hebrews 9:14). As only God is eternal, this verse further proves that the Holy Spirit is God.
What Is The “Trinity”?
The Trinity is one God, but three Persons in the Godhead,
This is the way that God has revealed Himself through His inspired Word, the Bible, and so we believe it.
“One God” is revealed as follows:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)
“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord.” (Mark 12:29)
The “Trinity” is revealed as follows (and below):
“And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: v17 And lo a voice from heaven (God the Father), saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)
Why three Persons? Because this is the way that God has revealed Himself. Some might question, “How can you have one and yet three or three in one?” There are at least two illustrations. With an egg you have three parts and yet it is one egg. Also with a triangle you have three sides but it remains one triangle. So with God you have one God Who is revealed in the three Persons of the Father, the Son (the Lord Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit.
The members of the Godhead are known as Persons because a person has a will, and can know, feel or display emotions and take actions. However with God He does these things without any sin.
God has a will, “good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2)
God has complete knowledge “for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts.” (1Chronicles 28:9)
God is almighty “With God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26).
Also “God is Light” (implying He has full knowledge, warmth, holiness, perfection, goodness etc as the opposite of darkness) (1 John 1:5).
“God is (absolute) love” (1 John 4:8).
The Holy Spirit Is A Person
He is a Person, never a mere influence, because when our Lord Jesus Christ spoke of Him, He used the masculine pronoun “He”:
“And when he (the Comforter v7) is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” (John 16:8)
“He (the Holy Spirit of truth v13) shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” (John 16:14) We should never refer to the Holy Spirit as “It”.
“And he (God from OT e.g. Psalm 139:1) that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, …” (Romans 8:27)
The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity
Some people say that the word “Trinity” is not mentioned in the Bible, which is true, and so how can we say that there is the Trinity? Since God, in different Bible verses, calls the different members of the Godhead “God” and then puts their three names together, we can therefore rightly conclude that They are a Trinity as follows:
“Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name (singular showing that there is one God) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19).
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion (fellowship) of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; v5 One Lord, one faith, … v6 One God and Father of all …” (Ephesians 4:4)
The Holy Spirit is not in any way inferior to the Father or to the Son although He is generally called the Third Person of the Trinity.
“Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name (singular) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19).
So in that verse there is the unity of the Godhead, and the co-equality of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
“And I (Jesus v9) will pray the Father, and he shall give you another (allos) Comforter” (John 14:16). Who is the Comforter? “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name” (John 14:26). “Another” has two Greek words “allos” (distinguishes individuals of the same sort) and “heteros” (two a different kind) (Thayer’s NT Greek\English Lexicon). So by using the word “allos” the Lord Jesus said that the Holy Spirit has the same Divine character as Himself.
What Happens When A Sinner Trusts In The Lord Jesus Christ As Their Saviour?
2Peter 3:9 “The Lord … is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish (i.e. go to hell), but that all should come to repentance.” So God does not want your best friend or your worst enemy or any person elsewhere to be in hell.
For those who have trusted in Christ we read, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us (past tense) with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3)
Part of the “all spiritual blessings” is the amazing fact that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit come to dwell in that believer.
The shows the completeness of the work of Christ in dealing with our sin so that the Godhead can be happy to dwell in believers. It does not mean that when a person trusts in Christ that they automatically get wonderful feelings or live a perfect life. Our salvation does not depend on our good, or otherwise, feelings but on what God says in the Bible and our faith in those promises.
“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God” (1John 4:15). This confession includes faith in Christ from the heart as the foundation of that confession.
“But as many as received him (the Light i.e. Jesus Christ v7), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). Christ coming to live in a believing sinner is what automatically happens when a sinner trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Nowhere in the Bible are we told to “open our heart to Jesus” but we told in various places to believe in Him for the forgiveness of our sins and all the other spiritual blessings.
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1Corinthians 6:19).
In the New Testament the permanent possession of the Holy Spirit is an essential fact and privilege about a christian. “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9). So if you do not have the Holy Spirit you are not saved. However this was not always the case in the Old Testament as the Holy Spirit came upon people and could leave them. This is seen by David who in Psalm 51 was confessing his sin and in v11 said, “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.”
Also the Lord Jesus came from the eternal glory so that God “… called us (believers v6-9) unto his eternal glory (the state or realm of glory) by Christ Jesus, …” (1Peter 5:10).
“Who (the Lord Jesus Christ v20) shall change our vile body (meaning our bodies that humiliate us through sickness and aging etc), that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body (exalted in heaven), according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” (Philippians 3:21).
So God will amazingly glorify the bodies of believers to be forever like Christ’s body of glory in heaven.