"All" of "More" of the Holy Spirit?

“We’ve already received the Holy Spirit, why would we ask for more?” Asking the question in this form simply reveals the inadequacy of human speech to encompass the realities of God. The Holy Spirit is one way of experiencing the one God, the Creator, in the same way that the Father and the Son are ways of experiencing the Creator. If Jesus says, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), then the Son (the Lord) is equivalent, in our experience, to the Father. And if Paul says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17), then the Spirit, in our experience, is equivalent to the Son, or Lord. Father, Son and Spirit are experienced as “Persons,” to use the classical Trinitarian term.

Asking whether we could have either “all” or “more” of the Spirit is to reduce a Person to a quantity — as though the Spirit were a substance, like ethanol or corn syrup, that could be added to something else as an ingredient. Since the Spirit is a Person, he cannot be quantified in a literal sense. “All” and “more” are simply metaphorical ways of speaking of something that cannot literally be quantified. You could say that you have “all” of your husband, and at the same time you want “more” of him, but these are only quantitative analogies. Because of the depth of personhood, you have both “all” of him at the same time you want “more” of him.

God operates beyond the four dimensions of our space-time universe, but because of the restrictions of our perceptions we are forced to speak of him, and his ways, by analogy. It is a mistake to consider such metaphorical expressions as literal “facts” about God; it is only the limitation of our language that makes them necessary and, when not misapplied, useful.

Consider the analogy for the Spirit that the Bible itself uses. Recall that, in the biblical languages, “spirit,” “wind” and ”breath” are the same word. So the Spirit is spoken of only by analogy with something to which we can relate in our physical world, just as Jesus points out in John 3:8: “The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit.” Applying this analogy to the question of “all” or “more,” we realize that a person has “all” of the earth’s atmosphere available to breathe; yet that same person, to stay alive, has to constantly seek “more.” So the Bible sees no inconsistency between having “all” of the Spirit and still asking for “more.”

The Bible often presents truths that seem inconsistent to those who insist that everything has to fit within the logical paradigm of Western science. With respect to the “all-or-more” issue, consider the way Paul speaks of the resurrection. To the Colossians he writes, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). So Paul insists that Christian believers are already living the resurrection life. Yet, in Philippians, he expresses the desire “that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own” (Philippians 3:11-12). Which is it — do Christians have “all” the resurrection, or do they need “more?” Is it resurrection now, or resurrection to come? It is both.

Biblical logic does not operate with the cause-and-effect logic of the Western mind. Instead, biblical logic surrounds an issue and approaches it from a variety of angles that may appear, to us, to be inconsistent among themselves. This is so because it is an authoritative Person (i.e., the Lord), who utters the final word, and not whichever debater brings the most “reasoned” argument. The best example of this is the Book of Job. (See my article Biblical Logic and Interpretation) on our web site.)

So to speak of having “all of the Spirit, or of desiring “more” of the Spirit, are simply metaphorical, or analogical, ways of expressing our commitment to the Person of the Creator. We may indeed have “all,” in the sense that we are potentially “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) through our membership in Christ, the Son. The Spirit, as a Person, cannot be divided so that to have the Spirit at all is to have “all” of the Spirit. Yet, through self-centeredness or fear, we may have not surrendered our wills to him so that his creative life and ministry gifts can be more fully released in us. In that sense, we desire “more” of the Spirit than what we currently experience. It is not that we need more of the Holy Spirit, but that the Spirit needs more of us.

It is not that we have “all” the quantity of the Spirit as a substance, or that we need “more” or a greater quantity of the Spirit. In this sense, it is not so much a question of who is right — the dispensationalists who say we have received “all,” or others who say they want “more.” It is a question of recognizing how we are using those terms, and what we really mean by them.