Jesus and the Holy Spirit

Jesus had a special relationship with the Holy Spirit, a relationship that is most important for our own personal lives.

Many Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah specifically predicted that He would be guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Both Matthew and Luke state clearly that Jesus came into this world as a result of a miraculous act of God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Because of His miraculous conception, Jesus was completely "holy." This meant that Jesus came into the world unstained by sin and free from spiritual corruption. This made Him completely worthy to become the perfect sacrifice required for sins of humanity. He was able to take our total guilt on Himself and pay in full our penalty for sin.

When John the Baptist baptized Him, Jesus was personally anointed by the Holy Spirit. At that time, the Spirit came upon Him in the form and appearance of a dove equipping Him with great power to fulfill His ministry, including His work of redemption. When Jesus went into the desert He was "full of the Spirit" (Luke 4:1).

Immediately after His baptism, the Spirit led Jesus into the desert, where He was tempted by the devil for forty days. It was only because He was full of the Holy Spirit that Jesus - as a human - was able to face satan and resist his temptations. In the same way, it is God's intention that3we never face the spiritual forces of evil and sin without the power of the Holy Spirit. We must be equipped with His full authority and follow His leading in order to be victorious against satan. In fact, in God's sight we are not God's children - and do not belong to Christ - unless His Spirit lives in us (Romans 5:9, 16; 2 Co. 1:21-22) continually empowering us to overcome sin and do what is right.

When Jesus referred to Isaiah's prophecy about the Spirit coming on Him, He used the same passage to outline the primary purposes of His ministry: preaching, healing and liberating. The Spirit anointed Jesus for His mission. Though Jesus was God, He was also human (1 Ti. 2:5). As a human being, He had to rely on the Spirit's help and power - just as we do - to fulfill His responsibilities. It was only as a Spirit-anointed, Spirit-led man that Jesus could live, serve and proclaim the gospel as God intended. Jesus is the perfect example for all Christians, who should receive all the Spirit has to offer and rely completely on the Holy Spirit for guidance and power.

As one of His present tasks, the Holy Spirit honors Jesus by revealing Jesus' truth and purposes to His followers (John 16:14-15). The benefits of spiritual salvation and a renewed relationship with Christ are made available to us through the Holy Spirit. The most important benefit is Jesus' nearness to us (John 14:18). Through the Spirit, Jesus remains with us constantly. The Spirit makes us aware of Jesus' personal presence, His love, blessings, help, forgiveness, healing and all that is ours through faith. The Spirit inspires us to pursue a deeper relationship with God through His Word, prayer, and worship.

Jesus has promised to return and take His faithful people to be with Him forever. This is referred to as "the blessed hope" of all believers (Tit. 2:13); it is the event that we should pray and long for (2 Ti. 4:8). The Bible reveals that the Holy Spirit inspires our hearts to cry out to God for our Lord's return. In fact, God's Word describes the Holy Spirit as "a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come" (2 Co. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14). It is the Spirit who testifies within our hearts that our restoration and relationship to God remain incomplete until Christ returns. At the very close of the Bible, the Holy Spirit inspired the words, "Come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20).