What is the Holy Spirit?

God's Spirit: Definition

As God is a real, personal being who has feelings and emotions, it is to be expected that He will have some way of sharing His desires and feelings with us, His children, and of acting in our lives in a way that will be consistent with His character. God does all of these things by His "spirit". If we wish to know God and have an active relationship with Him, we need to know what this "spirit of God" is, and how it operates.

It isn't easy to define exactly what the word "spirit" means. If you went to a wedding, for example, you might comment, "There was a really good spirit there!" By this you mean that the atmosphere was good, somehow everything about the wedding was good; everyone was smartly dressed, the food was nice, people spoke kindly to each other, the bride looked beautiful, etc. All those various things made up the "spirit" of the wedding. Likewise the spirit of God somehow summarizes everything about Him. The Hebrew word translated "spirit" in the Old Testament strictly means "breath" or "power"; thus God's spirit is His "breathing", the very essence of God, reflecting His mind.

It is a common Bible teaching that how a man thinks is expressed in his actions (Proverbs 23:7; Matthew 12:34); a little reflection upon our own actions will confirm this. We think of something and then we do it. Our 'spirit' or mind may reflect upon the fact that we are hungry and desire food. We see a banana going spare in the kitchen; that desire of the 'spirit' is then translated into action - we reach out for the banana, peel it and eat. This simple example shows why the Hebrew word for 'spirit' means both the breath or mind, and also power. Our spirit, the essential us, refers to our thoughts and therefore also to the actions which we take to express those thoughts or disposition within us. On a far more glorious scale, God's spirit is the same; it is the power by which He displays His essential being, His disposition and purpose. God thinks and therefore does things.

Isaiah 14:24, "As I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand."

The Power of God

Many passages clearly identify God's spirit with His power. In order to create the universe, "the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Genesis 1:2,3).

God's spirit was the power by which all things were made. "By His spirit He hath garnished the heavens" (Job 26:13). "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth" (Psalms 33:6). God's spirit is therefore described as: 1) His breath, 2) His word, 3) His hand.

It is His power by which He achieves all things. Thus, believers are born again by God's will (John 1:13), which is by His spirit (John 3:3-5). His will is put into operation by the spirit. Speaking of the entire natural creation, we read, "Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth" (Psalms 104:30). This spirit/power is also the sustainer of all things, as well as the means of their creation. It is easy to think that this tragic life stumbles on without this active input of God's spirit. Job, a man who became weary of this life, was reminded of this by another prophet: "If he (God) gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust" (Job 34:14,15). When pulling out of a similar trough of depression, David asked God to continue to uphold him with this spirit, i.e. to preserve his life (Psalms 51:12).

The spirit given to us and all creation is what sustains our life. We have "the breath of life" within us (Genesis 7:22) given to us by God at birth (Psalms 104:30; Genesis 2:7). This makes Him "the God of the spirits of all flesh" (Numbers 27:16, Hebrews 12:9). Because God is the life force which sustains all creation, His spirit is present everywhere. David recognized that through His spirit God was constantly present with him wherever he went, and through that spirit/power He was able to know every corner of David's mind and thinking. Thus God's spirit is the means by which He is present everywhere, although He personally is located in heaven.

Psalms 139:2,7,9,10, "Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off...Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there... thy right hand (i.e. through the spirit) shall hold me."

A proper understanding of this subject reveals God to us as a powerful, active being. Many people have grown up with a vague 'belief' in God, but in reality 'God' is just a concept in their minds, a black box in part of the brain. An understanding of the true God and His very real presence all around us by His spirit can totally change our concept of life. We are surrounded by the spirit, constantly witnessing its actions, which reveal God to us. David found the encouragement of all this absolutely mind-blowing: "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it" (Psalms 139:6). Yet responsibilities come with such knowledge; we have to accept that our thinking and actions are totally open to God's view. As we examine our position before Him, especially when thinking about baptism, we need to bear this in mind. God's majestic words to Jeremiah apply to us, too: "Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill (by the spirit) heaven and earth?" (Jeremiah 23:24).

The Holy Spirit

We have seen that God's spirit is a vast concept to grasp; it is His mind and disposition, and also the power by which He puts His thoughts into operation. "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7); and so God is His thoughts, in that sense He is His spirit (John 4:24), although this does not mean that God is not personal. To help us grapple with this vastness of God's spirit, we sometimes read of His "Holy Spirit".

The term "Holy Spirit" is to be found almost exclusively in the New Testament. In the A.V. the term "Holy Ghost" is often used, but it should always be translated as "Holy Spirit," as modern versions make clear. This is equivalent to the Old Testament phrases "the Spirit of God" or "the Spirit of the Lord." This is clear from passages such as Acts 2, which records the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Peter explained that this was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel, in which it is described as the pouring out of "my (God's) Spirit" (Acts 2:17). Again, Luke 4:1 records that Jesus "being full of the Holy spirit" returned from Jordan; later in the same chapter Jesus speaks of this being a fulfillment of Isaiah 61: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me." In both cases (and in many others) the Holy Spirit is equated with the Old Testament term "the Spirit of God."

Notice, too, how the Holy spirit is paralleled with the power of God in the following passages:

Luke 1:35, "The Holy Ghost (Spirit) shall come upon thee (Mary), and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee."

Romans 15:13,19, "The power of the Holy Spirit...mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God."

1 Thessalonians 1:5, "Our gospel came...in power, and in the Holy Spirit."

Luke 24:49, "The promise of the Holy Spirit to the disciples was spoken of as their being "endued with power from on high."

Acts 10:38, "Jesus himself had been "anointed...with the Holy Spirit and with power."

Paul could back up his preaching with undeniable displays of God's power: "My speech and my preaching was...in demonstration of the spirit and of power" (1 Corinthians 2:4).

Is the Holy Spirit a Person?

God's spirit refers to His power, which reflects His "mind" in a very broad way. Because the way God's spirit acts is such an accurate reflector of the essence and personality of God, some have argued that God's spirit is a person who is also God. Since God's spirit is His mind and power, then there is no way that a mind or power can be a person. Electricity is an unseen power that can produce results for the person controlling it, but it cannot be a person. Love is a part of someone's character, but it cannot be a person. God's spirit includes His love, as part of His character, and also refers to His power, but in no way can it refer to a person who is separate from Him.

Obvious and glaring as this mistaken view (of the spirit being a person) appears to be, it is believed by the majority of 'Christians', seeing that they believe in the doctrine of the 'trinity'. This effectively states that there are three gods who are somehow also the same - God the Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus. The same people claim that God is not a person, and yet they say that the Holy Spirit is; there is a flat contradiction here. Also, it would make the Holy Spirit the father of Jesus.

There is good reason to believe that the 'trinity' was fundamentally a pagan idea imported into Christianity - hence the word does not occur in the Bible. Having accepted this idea that God is a trinity, Christians are then forced to reach the positively weird conclusion that somehow God's power/spirit is a person, who is also God, although not God. When confronted with the illogicality of their position, the most popular escape route is for such people to claim that God is a mystery, and we should accept such things in faith without requiring a logical explanation.

This pointedly overlooks the references in the New Testament to the mystery of God being revealed through the word and work of Christ:-

Romans 11:25, "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery."

Romans 16:25, "The preaching of Jesus...the revelation of the mystery."

1 Corinthians 15:51, "I shew you a mystery..."

Ephesians 1:9; 3:3, "Having made known unto us the mystery of his will."

Colossians 1: 26,27, "The mystery...now is made manifest to his saints."

Paul's preaching was "to make known the mystery of the Gospel" (Ephesians 6:19; Colossians 4:3). With all this emphasis - and it is that - on there not now being any mystery attached to fundamental doctrines, it will only be someone still in darkness who will claim that there is. And does such a person not worry that the Bible's name for "Babylon", the system of false religion described in Revelation, is "Mystery" (Revelation 17:5)? The obvious implication is that this system proclaims that its beliefs are a mystery; but the true believers understand the mystery of that woman (Revelation 17:7).

Such hazy reasoning is, of course, to be expected from those who base their understanding of God on subjective things like human experience, or the nebulous, undefined activity of some external spiritual force upon their minds. If we are expected to be truly humble to the teaching of God's Word, it follows that we are also required to use basic powers of reasoning and deduction in order to discover its message.

Never did any preacher of the Gospel, recorded in the Bible, resort to saying, 'This is a complete mystery, you cannot begin to understand it'. Instead, we read of them appealing to people through reason and drawing logical conclusions from Scripture.

In his preaching of the type of Gospel fundamentals, Paul "reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again" (Acts 17:2,3). Here was systematic, logical Bible reasoning par excellence; and the record prefaces this sentence with, "Paul, as his manner was...reasoned..." This was, therefore, his usual style (see also Acts 18:19). In keeping with this, during the great campaign at Corinth, Paul "reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews...(but) when they opposed themselves..." (Acts 18:4-6). Those who were converted went through a process of persuasion by Paul's Bible-based reasoning; here was no 'vision of Jesus in my bedroom', 'an indescribable feeling came on me', 'I just met the Lord one evening'.

Notice, too, that the inspired record makes an appeal to logic and rationality, by pointing out that they "opposed themselves." Likewise at Antioch, Paul and Barnabus "speaking (the word) to them, persuaded them..." (Acts 13:43). Their next stop was Iconium, where they "so spake, that a great multitude...believed" (Acts 14:1).

As he stood trial for his life a while later, the same glorious logic continued to inspire Paul's sure hope for the future: "He reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come" with such penetrating clarity that even his cynical, laid-back judge "trembled" (Acts 24:25).

Because our conversion should be based on such a process of reasoning, we should be able to give a logical Biblical account of our hope and doctrine:-

1 Peter 3:15, "Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you."

To talk in a sober voice about one's personal experiences is not giving a reason of the Gospel hope. The continual reliance on 'personal testimony' as a means of preaching by many 'evangelical' Christians, highlights the lack of "reasoned answer" for their "hope." A whole vocabulary has arisen amongst such Christians to enable them to 'share what the Lord has done in my life' etc. Such personal anecdotes contrast sharply with the words of Paul, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:5) - and that from a man who 'had a personal relationship with Jesus' more than most.

The logical, Biblically reasonable manner of our conversion should set the pattern for our wider relationship with God through the rest of our days. Our examples, as always, are the first Christians who used "reason" to figure out the solutions to their problems of administration (Acts 6:2). The New Testament letters also assume their readers' acceptance of using Biblical logic. Thus "by reason of" what the High Priests were like under the Law of Moses, we can understand details about the work of Christ (Hebrews 5:3). Having spoken of the surpassing love of God in Christ, Paul urges that it is "your reasonable (Greek 'logikos' - i.e. logical) service" to totally dedicate ourselves to Him in response (Romans 12:1). The word 'logikos' is derived from the Greek 'logos', which is the word normally translated "the word" with reference to God's Word. Our "logical" response in Biblical terms is therefore one which is derived from God's Word.

In the light of all this, it should be apparent that it is illogical to claim that the spirit of God is a personal being who is not God and yet is God - and that to counter this by saying that the whole thing is mysterious, and that logic is irrelevant, is just not acceptable in Biblical terms. If we cannot draw logical conclusions from the Scriptures, then all Bible study is vain, and there is no need for the Bible, which can be treated just as sweet platitudes or a piece of fascinating literature. This is all it seems to be on many Christians' bookshelves.

However, to their credit, some who believe that the Spirit of God is a person do try to give Biblical reasons. The verses quoted are those which speak of God's spirit in personal language, e.g. as "the comforter" (John 14:16,26; 15:26; 16:7), or in reference to how the spirit hears (John 16:13), teaches (John 15:26), convicts (John 16:8), comforts (John 16:7), guides (John 16:13), glorifies Christ (John 16:14), reveals (John 16:14), forbids (Acts 16:6-7), intercedes (Romans 8:26), brings into remembrance (John 14:26), separates and sends out people (Acts 13:1-4), sets elders over the church (Acts 20:28), says things (Acts 8:29), cries (Galatians 4:6), and grieves (Ephesians 4:30).

However, the same attributes are given to man's spirit. A man's "spirit" can be stirred up (Acts 17:16), made troubled (Genesis 41:8), happy (Luke 10:21), evil (Judges 9:23), dead (Leviticus 20:27), jealous (Numbers 5:14), sorrowful (1 Samuel 1:15), contrite (Psalm 34:18), broken (Psalm 51:17), haughty (Proverbs 16:18), judgmental (Isaiah 4:4), perverse (Isaiah 19:14), sleep (Isaiah 29:10), troubled (Daniel 2:1), a whore (Hosea 4:12), unclean (Matthew 12:43), dumb (Mark 9:17), foul (Mark 9:25), made infirm (Luke 13:11), divinate (Acts 16:16), be in bondage (Romans 8:15), be of the world (1 Corinthians 2:12), seduce (1 Timothy 4:1), fearful (2 Timothy 1:7), foul (Revelation 18:2), and can be in error (1 John 4:13).

This does not mean man's spirit is a completely different "person" than the man himself. What this means is that his "spirit", his very essence, his mind and purpose, which gives rise to his actions, is therefore spoken of as a separate person, but, of course, this is not literally so. God's spirit, too, can be spoken of in the same way.

It must also be understood that the Bible often uses the language of personification when talking about abstract things, e.g. wisdom is referred to as a woman in Proverbs 9:1. This is to demonstrate to us what a person who has wisdom would be like in practice; 'wisdom' cannot exist except in someone's mind, and so this device of personification is used.

The "holy spirit" is a reference to the Father in the same sense as we speak of man having a "spirit." When we talk about the "spirit of man" we do not think of a separate "person," but we think of the invisible attributes and living expression of the man. The scripture shows this:

1 Corinthians 2:11, "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God."

Notice in this passage that the "spirit of man" is put into an analogous parallel with the "spirit of God." When we talk about a "man" having a "spirit," we understand that the man is still only one "person." Yet, when a Trinitarian reads this passage, he assumes that the "spirit of God" and "God" are two separate co-equal "persons." If this is so, then it follows that we should regard a "man" and "his spirit" to be two separate co-equal "persons." Of course, this destroys Paul's comparison. There is no need to regard the "spirit of God" as anything more than a reference to the invisible attributes of our Father in heaven.