Sovereign

Sovereign actions are further characteristics of "the only wise God," who acts according to the good pleasure of His will. It was the Holy Spirit who said, "Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto l have called them.... So the being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed" (Acts 13:2, 4). Again, they "were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia.... They assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not" (Acts 16:6-7).
In relation to certain spiritual gifts, they are distributed by the Spirit's sovereignty. "To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit.... But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him" (I Cor. 12:8-9, 18).
We trust that enough Scripture testimony has been brought forward to show the Godhead of the Holy Spirit, so that we can easily understand why those who had connected themselves with God's assembly and had said what was false were spoken of as having lied not to men but to God. For before this, the Holy Spirit had come down, and the assembly was the habitation of God through the Spirit.