He loves you too

The Spirit of God is a person. “That’s why you can vex Him, resist Him,” says Jordan. “That’s why you can quench Him--because you have the capacity to relate as people.

“Sometimes we need to spend a little time getting to know the third person of the godhead who dwells within us. Now, the first thing I know about the Holy Spirit, when you begin to talk about Him, is He doesn’t like to talk about Himself.

“Some of you, your favorite conversation is to talk about yourself, but the Holy Spirit is like some of the rest of us where He’d just as soon talk about somebody else than talk about Himself. But it is important that you know who He is and it’s important to understand that He’s a person. He’s the third person of the godhead.

“I John 2 says ‘we have an advocate with the Father; Jesus Christ the righteous.’ Do you know where the word ‘advocate’ comes from? It comes from a word decide, add, and the ‘vocate’; to stand. It literally means to stand beside. It’s the same word, same idea. The Stand-besider. An advocate is used for a lawyer who stands beside his client. That’s the idea here. Jesus is one who stood beside them and now, the Holy Spirit is going to come and He’s going to take the place of a person.

“You see, He’s not a force; He’s a person. And the pronouns used here, over and over, He’s called a ‘he.’ Somebody says, ‘Well, what about Romans 8, where it calls him an ‘it’?’ People say, ‘Ooh-ooh, denying the personality of the Holy Spirit.’ You know, you ought to just sit down awhile and cool your jets when you start talking like that, because that’s just so silly.

‘While there’s some technical reasons in the translation, it’s interesting Romans 8:16 says, ‘The spirit itself beareth witness,’ because that reflects a pronoun; it’s a neuter because the word spirit is neuter.

"Verse 26: ‘Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.’ There it is, but look at verse 27: ‘And he (Jesus Christ) that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he (the Holy Spirit) maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.’

“Even in verse 27 He swaps over and says ‘he.’ So the pronouns are pretty clear that you’re expecting a person to be involved in this.

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“Now when you have a personality, you have the ability to have certain kinds of characteristics. You have knowledge, will, the ability to have emotions and so forth. In I Cor. 2:10, notice the characteristics of personality that are applied to the Holy Spirit: ‘But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.’

“How did He reveal them? By His Spirit. Notice the Spirit of God, He has knowledge. He has the ability to search knowledge and He has ability to teach and reveal knowledge. They’re all characteristics of a person.