Daughter of the late great Billy Graham, Evangelist Anne Graham Lotz spoke at the Closing Gala Dinner at NRB’s 2020 Christian Media Convention, Feb. 28, sharing a message on the need to be bold in the Holy Spirit amid society’s current “moral and spiritual free fall.”
According to The Christian Post, in her message, Lotz highlighted seven aspects of the Holy Spirit found in John 16:5-15.
1. The Personhood of the Holy Spirit
Lotz pointed out that the Holy Spirit is not an “it”, but more like an “invisible person.” She said, “The Holy Spirit is not an 'it'. He’s not a dove. He’s not a flame of fire. He’s not an ecstatic experience. The Holy Spirit is a divine, invisible person. He has a mind to think. He has a will to act. He has emotions to feel.”
According to Bible Study Tools, in the 10 above-mentioned verses alone, the Holy Spirit is referred to as a “He” 11 times.
2. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers
In receiving Christ as Savior and Lord, Lotz says, “He comes into us in the person of the Holy Spirit.” She continued, “He will never leave us, and He will never forsake us. It’s a permanent relationship. Praise God.”
3. The power of the Holy Spirit
Lotz then stresses that “in our politically correct culture”, there is a need of the Holy Spirit’s “courage, boldness, and strength to stand against that tide and hold the line for the Gospel and the Word of God.”
4. The precepts of the Holy Spirit
Here Lotz encourages the importance of constantly being in God’s Word as the Holy Spirit
“works through the Word that He has breathed Himself.”
Moreover, one must take God’s Word to heart that “every word is from the Lord, and you listen for Him to whisper to you through the pages.” In the same passage she speaks on, the Holy Spirit is referred to as “the spirit of truth” (John 16:13)
5. The purity of the Holy Spirit
As the Holy Spirit dwells in believers, Lotz describes how He leads to holiness just like Christ.
“In Jesus, there’s no meanness. There’s no unkindness. There’s no selfishness. There’s no unforgiveness. There’s no pridefulness. There’s no bitterness. There’s no sinfulness at all,” Lotz asserts.
“And when the Holy Spirit comes into you and me, He begins to make us holy as He is holy,” she added.
6. The prayers of the Holy Spirit
As seen in Romans 8:26, “The Holy Spirit takes my cries before the Father. He puts words to them, dresses them up, and turns them into prayers,” Lotz said. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit can take a Christians thoughts, feelings, and hurts, “and translate it into a prayer before the Father.”
7. The priority of the Holy Spirit
Lotz’s final point addresses the Holy Spirit’s priority of the Word so “that we might know the Living Word. His priority is Jesus, and He wants us to know Jesus, to love Jesus, to obey Jesus, to serve Jesus, to bring Him glory.”
As Christian Headlines previously reported, Lotz has shared how the Holy Spirit comforted her while she completed treatment for breast cancer last October. She speaks on this experience in her latest book, Jesus in Me: Experiencing the Holy Spirit as a Constant Companion.
Photo courtesy: AnGeL Ministries/Wikimedia Commons, cropped and resized.
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
