A fellow pastor once tried to explain to me that there should be a "legitimate de-emphasis on the Holy Spirit" in the church because the job of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Son (Jn 16:14), not glorify Himself and that too much focus on the Holy Spirit will distract us from Jesus.

I was intensely grieved by this and have thought about it frequently ever since. Jesus came to reveal and glorify the Father, should we de-emphasize Jesus so that we don't get distracted from the Father? Is there a glory-competition among the Trinity? Do we have to pick just one person of the Godhead to glorify? Isn't the Holy Spirit equally divine?

De-emphasizing the Holy Spirit in order to focus on Jesus is like dimming the lights in order to see better. If anything, you should turn the lights UP in order to get a better view.

The Holy Spirit is equally a person of the God-head. There is no legitimate reason to de-emphasize any member of the Trinity. The New Testament tells us not to quench or grieve the Holy Spirit. A low view of the Holy Spirit means less conviction of sin, less illumination of scripture, less glorifying of Jesus, less exercise of spiritual gifts, etc... If anything, we need MORE of the Holy Spirit, not a de-emphasis on the Holy Spirit.

Many Christians think that the Holy Spirit is a force, a feeling or a symbol, but not a divine person. In fact, a survey from 2009 revealed that 58% of self-described Christians believed that the Holy Spirit is a "symbol of God’s power or presence but is not a living entity." (Survey in comments below).

I think the reason that most people think of the Holy Spirit as a FORCE, a FEELING, or a SYMBOL is because we don't understand that the Holy Spirit is a DIVINE PERSON. In the absence of a correct view of the Holy Spirit, we've adopted several wrong views.

When I say that the Holy Spirit is a PERSON, I do not mean that He is a human being. I mean that the Holy Spirit possesses the attributes of personhood or personality. For instance:

The New Testament (NT) refers to the Holy Spirit with personal pronouns like "He" instead of "it." A force, feeling, or symbol might be an "it," but a "He" is a person.

Eph 4:30 and Heb 10:29 refer to the Holy Spirit as having emotions (being "grieved" or "insulted"). The Holy Spirit is not an emotion, but the Holy Spirit does HAVE emotions.

The Holy Spirit has a will and makes choices (Acts 15:28, 16:6). If the Holy Spirit were an impersonal force, He wouldn't make decisions or exercise a will.

The Holy Spirit has an intellect or a mind (Rom 8:27) that thinks thoughts (1 Cor 2:11) and knows truth from error (Acts 5:3).

Finally, the Holy Spirit speaks (Acts 13:2) which is an expression of His mind, will, and emotions - the very things that make us "persons" as well.

If we want to stop thinking about the Holy Spirit as a force, feeling, or symbol we're going to have to start thinking of the Holy Spirit as a divine person.