Overqualified and Superior

Clearly the Holy Spirit can do anything angels can do, but since God has limited angels to the external ministries, they often manage them. The Holy Spirit can speak to us audibly, touch us physically, or close the mouth of lions to protect us, but he’s overqualified for those tasks. God instead assigns the Holy Spirit greater things than these.

When we examine the difference between external and internal ministries, we note that the Holy Spirit is superior to angels. If we come to recognize the Holy Spirit’s superiority to angels, we’ll understand something else: that the Holy Spirit’s greatness is the reason why God has entrusted us to him. Yes, God has entrusted to the Holy Spirit the care of the supremely valuable, precious, and autonomous human spirit!

God assigns to the Holy Spirit the exclusive task of indwelling human beings, but God has prohibited angels from the same. God puts great trust in the Holy Spirit—leagues more trust than he puts in angels. If from God’s perspective the Holy Spirit is the superior spirit-being, then shouldn’t you have the same perspective?

Can you see the difference between a spirit that has the human nature (you or Jesus in the days of his flesh), a spirit that has the angelic nature (Michael, Gabriel, or Lucifer), and a spirit that has the divine nature? Do you have spiritual discernment? Are you clear to whom the Bible refers when it speaks of the One Spirit?

Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. There is one Body and One Spirit, just as you were called to one Hope… (Ephesians 4:3-4)

Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that One Spirit… All these are the work of One and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines (1 Corinthians 12:7-11).

… we were all baptized by One Spirit so as to form one Body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the One Spirit to drink… (1 Corinthians 12:13)

The Holy Spirit is a spirit-being who has the divine nature! [So is Jesus and so will you and I be!] The Holy Spirit has so many of God’s qualities: The Holy Spirit is immortal, he is all-knowing, he has authority, he gives life, he loves, and he is holy—hence the name! He is the Holy Spirit.

Indwelling a Person

Indwelling people is a huge responsibility—one of the biggest responsibilities in the Universe. God doesn’t give it to just anybody. Neither would you give that responsibility to just anybody.

Who do you allow to enter your body? Surgeons enter our bodies with a scalpel, but if you needed an operation, you would only subject yourself to a well-trained and certified doctor, we presume. On a spiritual level, would you allow any unknown and untested pastor lay their hands on you to pray? Of course not. Or would you consume the food of some vagabond who calls themselves a “chef” even if they have no proven restaurant experience? You wouldn’t put their food in your mouth.

Just like surgeons, pastors, and chefs, the Holy Spirit gets inside you. That’s his specialty. To receive him, you must trust him as a righteous, skillful, blessed, and holy expert. You must have found him to be trustworthy. Well, you can trust him because God has approved of the Holy Spirit and sent him to us. And Jesus sent him to us. Can we trust the Spirit who God and Jesus have sent? Of course.

High-Level

The Holy Spirit’s ministry is a privileged and  high-level responsibility. It’s what we called an “internal” ministry as opposed to an “external” ministry. To understand how high-level this ministry is, consider how among angels not even Gabriel or Michael have God’s authorization to enter into a person’s body.

Only demons dare violate God’s rules. Only demons dare enter the human body, soul, or spirit. And the Bible is filled with illustrations of such demonic attacks. The Bible uses the term impure spirits or just spirits—but it’s talking about the very real phenomenon of demon possession. The following three Old Testament passages illustrate the perfidious impact of demons on people:

And a man or a woman, if a spirit of the dead or a spirit of divination is in them, they shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones… (Leviticus 20:27; LEB)

… a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know the LORD (Hosea 5:4; NASB).

If a man walks about in a spirit of deception and lies, saying ‘I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,’ then he would be a preacher for this people! (Micah 2:11; LEB)

The New Testament reinforces how common demonic attacks are. It tells dozens of stories of the damage demons wreak on people’s lives (demons are mentioned more than 80 times in the New Testament). Here are a few:

Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice… (Luke 4:33; NKJV)

… there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up (Luke 13:11; NKJV).

… a certain female slave who had a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing a large profit to her owners by fortune-telling (Acts 16:16; LEB).

Today’s modern society normally chalks up abnormal behavior to “psychological illness.” Psychiatrists medicate people or commit them to mental institutions, but how many of the patients demonstrating epilepsy, gender dysphoria, schizophrenia, or other “psychological illnesses” are in reality possessed by demons? How many drug addicts, homosexuals, and mass-shooters are demon possessed? Not that all of them are demon possessed. Some are what the Bible calls madmen or lunatics.

Did you know that the Old Testament spoke of active shooters and calls them crazy?

Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death, is the man who deceives his neighbor and says ‘I was only joking! (Proverbs 26:18-19; NKJV)

Compare and Contrast

Our goal in these lessons is to know the Holy Spirit. He is a spirit-being, so to understand him better, it helps to compare his actions with the actions of other spirit-beings. A comparison of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to the ministry of angels is woefully lacking in the Church today.

Why the shyness? Why the hesitancy? It’s the fear the heresy of the Trinity has produced in people. They’re afraid that they might say something theologically "incorrect” about the one their instructors call “the third Person of the Holy Trinity,” and they become intellectually incapacitated. They can’t think for themselves.

But we must be free to think about the Holy Spirit and to study him.

The author of Hebrews freely compared Jesus to angels, so why can’t we compare the Holy Spirit to angels? The stigma surrounding the study of the Holy Spirit comes from the threat of the oppressive theologians who try hard to make themselves out to be the keepers of a mystery—the guardians of theology. However, their rigidity is a far cry from the freedom with which the apostles wrote:

For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father'?

… In speaking of the angels he [God] says, ‘He makes his angels spirits, and his servants flames of fire.’ But about the Son he says, ‘Your Throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your Kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy…’

To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’? (Hebrews 1:5, 7-9, 13)

But what was the reason why the apostle did this? Why did the apostle compare Jesus to angels? He did it to demonstrate the superiority of our Lord Jesus.

Likewise, in order to prove the superiority of the Holy Spirit, we are perfectly free to compare the Holy Spirit to angels. Angels are great, after all! They’re magnificent. They have remarkable power, holiness, and intelligence. But in spite of all that, they are but children compared to the Holy Spirit!

The Spirit vs. the Devil

Once Jesus himself contrasted the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the actions of a demon. Another time he contrasted the Holy Spirit with the Devil. Why did the Lord Jesus do this? Again, it was to give honor to the Holy Spirit for his greatness, but it was based on the principle that the Spirit is a spirit-being just like demons and the Devil. They can be compared because they are all spirit-beings.

Note Jesus’ words about the Holy Spirit and the spirit of the Antichrist:

‘… greater is he who is in you [the Holy Spirit as per vv. 2 and 6] than he who is in the World’ [the spirit of the Antichrist as per v. 3] (1 John 4:4; NASB).

And there’s another passage where Jesus compares the Holy Spirit to demons in the general sense (not specifically to the spirit of the Antichrist, a demon). Note that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit someone stronger. Stronger than who? The Holy Spirit is stronger than demons—and that’s the point!

And another name Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit is the Finger of God.

‘… how much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’ Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute…

‘… you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul… But if I drive out demons by the Finger of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder’ (Luke 11:13-14, 18-22).

How Angels Get into Your Dreams

Let’s say you’re sleeping and you get a revelation from God. It comes in the form of a dream. Let’s say that angels appear in your dream. Their presence in your dream does not mean that they have entered your soul. They are not directing your subconscious thoughts.

How can we be sure? Well, if they’re good angels, they do not give the dreams because that would be disobedience to God. They only appear as guests invited by the Holy Spirit.

He gives the dream and he can include angels in the dream because he has authority over them. Angels simply appear in dreams, but the dreams come from the Holy Spirit. Now, let’s read about two dreams which Jesus’ father Joseph had.

… an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 1:20).

… an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt’ (Matthew 2:13).

In the first dream, an angel told Joseph to keep Mary as his fiancé. In the second, an angel told him to flee with Mary and Jesus to Egypt. In both cases, the Bible is careful to tell us that the angels appeared in the dream. Notice that neither says that an angel gave the dream. The Holy Spirit gave the dreams.

Let’s make a comparison of God-given dreams to movies. When a person sees a movie, the actors in the movie are not making the movie available to the viewer. They’re not running the camera. The video on-demand streaming service (for example, Netflix), or the cable TV company, or the movie theater make the movie available to viewers. These are the providers. The actors do not provide the movie itself.

Actors are not responsible for the viewing. Likewise, angels do not make visions available to us. They simply participate in them—and that’s only because the Holy Spirit authorizes them!