How to Unmask the Error

This then is the first and most important fact about the Holy Spirit: He is God. And we need to relate to Him and treat Him always as God.

The second fact about the Holy Spirit is that He is the servant of God the Father and God the Son. This is an exciting revelation because it gives such a high value to servanthood. Many people today despise the idea of being a servant. They feel it is demeaning and undignified to be a servant.

But I think it’s wonderful that servanthood did not begin on earth. It began in eternity, and it began in God. God, the Holy Spirit, is the servant of the Father and the Son. This does not demean Him or make Him less than God, but it is a fact that we have to recognize about Him which directs His activities and the things He does.

In John 16:13 and 14, Jesus gives us a glimpse of the Holy Spirit’s ministry and activity.

“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own authority,” literally, ‘speak from Himself.’ “But whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”

So we see the Holy Spirit does not speak from Himself. He has no message of His own. Isn’t that remarkable? He only reports to us what He is hearing from the Father and the Son. Secondly, His aim is not to glorify Himself, nor to attract attention to Himself, but always He glorifies and focuses His attention on Jesus. That is the second important way to identify the Holy Spirit.

Now, I want you to listen to this carefully, because it is revolutionary. Any spirit that focuses on the Holy Spirit and glorifies the Holy Spirit is not the Holy Spirit. It is contrary to His whole nature and purpose. Once you grasp that, it will open your eyes to many things which are going on in the church that are otherwise difficult to understand.

For example, we have a very beautiful chorus that we sing about the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The first verse says to the Father, “Glorify Thy name in all the earth.” The second verse says to Jesus, the Son, “Glorify Thy name in all the earth.” The third verse says to the Spirit, “Glorify Thy name in all the earth.”

I love to sing the first two verses, but I decline to sing the third verse because I don’t believe it is scriptural. The Holy Spirit never does glorify His own name. His purpose is to glorify the One who sent Him.

Let me make another statement which may surprise you. I have not found in the Scripture anywhere an example of a prayer addressed to the Holy Spirit. So far as I can understand, no one in the Scripture ever prayed to the Holy Spirit. You probably would do well to check that for yourself, but I have looked carefully and have not found one example.

You might ask, “Why not?” And I would give you this answer: It’s a question of heavenly protocol. There’s so little respect nowadays for protocol on earth that we sometimes don’t realize that there is protocol in heaven. It is protocol relating to a master-servant relationship. In such a relationship, when you are dealing with a servant, you do not speak to the servant, but to the master. You ask the master to tell his servant what to do. It is wrong to directly address the servant when the master is available for you to speak to.

I believe that is heaven’s protocol. When you recognize the relationship of the Holy Spirit to God the Father and God the Son, you understand that we never give orders to the Holy Spirit. When we want the Holy Spirit to do something, we address our request to the Father or to the Son.

When I was looking through this, I found a passage in Ezekiel chapter 37 which I thought at first was an exception. It’s part of Ezekiel’s well-known vision of the valley full of dry bones, with no life in them. First of all, he prophesied and the bones came together, but they were still lifeless corpses. Then, in verses 9 and 10, it says,

“Also He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’”’ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.”

So I thought that the breath is really a picture of the wind, or the Holy Spirit, and so Ezekiel was praying to the wind. But he was not praying, he was prophesying. And it did not come from himself; he merely passed on to the wind a command that he had received from God Himself.

Therefore, as far as I’ve been able to discover, there is not a single example anywhere in the Scripture of praying to the Holy Spirit. Now, I am not seeking to make a big issue out of that. On the other hand, I think it’s very important as we try to discern the nature and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

You would say to me, “Well, doesn’t God hear our prayer when we pray to the Holy Spirit?” I think He does, but we are not praying in full accord with heaven’s protocol. If we really want to please the Lord and show respect for Him, we will show respect for His protocol.