The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit (Pneumatology, Part 1) | Acts 1:8 | Message 6
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8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
1. The Holy Spirit is a Person, not an “it.”
People say, “I think it is working in my life.” The Bible never treats the Spirit of God as an impersonal force. The Holy Spirit is a person — equal in deity, will, mind, and glory with the Father and the Son — yet distinct in personhood. He is God.
Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come. “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever” (John 14:16). Notice those words: “another Helper… He… with you forever.” The Holy Spirit is not temporary, not conditional, not moody, not on/off. He abides with the believer forever.
2. The Holy Spirit indwells, seals, and marks the believer.
Scripture gives us several beautiful pictures of the Holy Spirit’s ministry:
Clothing. Jesus told His followers to wait in Jerusalem until they were “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The idea is being covered, wrapped, empowered. You are not sent out to witness in your own strength; you are clothed in His.
Dove. At Jesus’ baptism, “He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him” (Matthew 3:16). A dove is sensitive. Gentle. Easily grieved. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is grieved when we live in open disobedience. That loss of sensed nearness you’ve felt at times? That’s not God abandoning you — that’s fellowship interrupted by sin (Ephesians 4:30).
Pledge / down payment. The Holy Spirit is God’s guarantee that you belong to Him and that He will finish what He started. “(God) also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” (2 Corinthians 1:22). The word “guarantee” means first installment, deposit, earnest money. God is saying: “You are Mine. I will bring you safely home.”
Our job is “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” (Ephesians 4:30). The seal is His work. Obedience is our response.
3. The Holy Spirit is given to every true believer at salvation.
When do you receive the Holy Spirit? At the exact moment you receive Jesus Christ. The moment you are saved, the Spirit resides in you.
Ephesians 1:13 says, “Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” That’s past tense. That’s immediate. That’s for all who truly believe.
Jesus made the same promise: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink… out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John adds, “This He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive” (John 7:37–39).
This is why some of you can look back at your life and say, “I am not who I used to be.” Habits broke. Desires changed. Bondages loosened. You did not “turn over a new leaf.” The Spirit of God indwelled you. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us… by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
4. The Holy Spirit gives power to live, witness, and endure.
Acts 1:8 is not just a memory verse; it’s a strategy: “You shall receive power… and you shall be witnesses.” God does not call you to represent Christ in your own ability. He supplies the power of the Holy Spirit — boldness, clarity, endurance, conviction.
Look at Peter. Before the cross, Peter denied Jesus three times to protect himself (Matthew 26:74). After the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit, Peter stands in Jerusalem and preaches Christ publicly, and thousands are saved (Acts 2). That is not personality shift. That is Holy Spirit power.
That same Spirit still emboldens ordinary believers — in workplaces, in families, in hard places — to speak Christ with love and clarity.
5. The Holy Spirit helps, comforts, and intercedes.
Jesus called the Spirit “another Helper” (John 14:16). The Greek word is paraklētos: one called alongside to help. You are not alone in temptation. You are not alone in sorrow. You are not alone in decision-making. You have a Helper.
Romans 8:26 says, “The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses… the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” When you don’t even know how to pray, the Spirit prays for you. When you’re exhausted, afraid, empty, and can only manage, “God, please,” the Holy Spirit carries that need perfectly before the Father.¹
6. The Holy Spirit convicts and calls.
Jesus taught that the Spirit convicts “of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). That quiet pressure in your heart that says, “You need to deal with this. You can’t keep living this way”? That is not just conscience. That is not just guilt. That is the Holy Spirit drawing you to repentance and to Christ.
Here is the invitation.
If you have never trusted Jesus Christ, you do not yet have the Holy Spirit living in you. But you can — today. You become a Christian by being “more religious.” You receive Christ, confess you are a sinner, and ask Him to save you. And when you do, the very Spirit of God will take up residence in you, seal you, empower you, comfort you, pray for you, and begin changing you from the inside out.
