What is the Holy Spirit?…Who is He? Among all the Confusion: Part 1
I want to start this blog by stating- I am not claiming I have all the answers, I am not claiming that God has given me a revelation or a prophesy, but I have been consistently searching for truth; in prayer, research and fellowship. In the last 8 years I have dived in this topic, but more specifically, in the last 2 months God has been presenting me with this topic everywhere I go.
In the last month I have somehow found myself in the middle of these conversation about the Holy Spirit. I have heard several different perspectives. I began to listen to God and pray about this topic, and interestingly enough, yesterday I met a young pastor at the local coffee shop, and somehow we jumped into this topic. As we sat there discussing our walk with God, he mentions that he had prepared a sermon on the topic of spiritual gifts last Sunday. So some of the notes that I will be addressing here are from his comments or research. I also attended church last week and we also discussed the gifts of the Spirit.
So God has been surrounding me in this topic, and I don’t believe in coincidences.
So much to cover…where to begin? In the next 4 blogs I will discuss this topic in a 4 part series; what is the Holy Spirit (Who is He, what does He do, what is His purpose, etc.) What He isn’t (Satan’s perversion of the truth). The power of the Holy Spirit, and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Also, I will discuss the evidence of the Spirit- If I speak in tongues or prophesy does it mean the Spirit dwells in me..?
Lets first define- What/Who is the Holy Spirit?
For the large majority of Christians, The Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost, from Old English gast, “spirit”) is the third divine person of the trinity: The “Triune God” manifested as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; each aspect itself being God. Two symbols from the New Testament canon are associated with the Holy Spirit in Christian iconography: a winged dove, and tongues of fire. Each depiction of the invisible Heavenly Spirit of God arose from different historical accounts in the Gospel narratives; the first being at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River where the Holy Spirit was said to descend in the form of a dove as the voice of God the Father spoke as described in Matthew, Mark, and Luke; the second being from the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Pascha where the descent of the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ, as tongues of fire as described in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1–31.
We see evidence in the Bible of the Holy Spirit as a gift given to us.
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).
But you must not confuse what Peter is saying here, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit are not the same thing. Meaning, when you receive the Holy Spirit that doesn’t mean you will automatically receive a certain gift. What you will receive is the power of the Holy Spirit which will give you the power to conquer sin- the gifts that will follow are based on what “He” wills- meaning the Holy Spirit (We will dive into this later).
What is the Spirit?
Keep in mind the Bible uses spirit and Spirit- these are different in their nature. The spirit is what goes into the afterlife, and we as humans have a spirit, but the Holy Spirit with the big “S” in Spirit is referring to God. Anytime God, the son, or Holy Spirit is referred- the first letter is capitalized.
We see in Ephesians where Paul says; 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better (Ephesians 1:16).
The Bible refers to the Spirit in many ways, But they are all the same. Many people claim that the Spirit of God is something different. This is not true- We see that the Spirit of the Lord in the Old Testament is the same Spirit. The only difference was the Spirit of God did not dwell on earth and God had to send it down from heaven. (It descended and ascended under Gods control.
Regardless of how you look at it; the Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, Holy Ghost, Spirit of the Lord, Spirit of Christ, Spirit of the father, Spirit of Truth is all the same thing.
The question is- what is the purpose of the Spirit? Well, God uses the Spirit to connect with man, to communicate directly to man. Similar to man having a spirit, God has a Spirit. Some claim that the soul and the spirit of man is different. If we read a few verses in the Bible we will see evidence of this.
Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
1 Thessalonians 5:23, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Bible actually separates the soul and spirit. So what is the soul…? Well, I believe that the soul is our mind, will and emotions (Basically the natural side of man).
When we are born again, we are born again of the spirit (our spirit is born through Gods Spirit- during the transformation).
Our souls are never born again…this is why we must always cleanse our minds (soul).
The Bible is clear that even though our spirits are born of incorruptible seed, our minds (souls) still need to be purified, that is, cleansed:
1 Peter 1:
22-23, “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.”
Our spirit is instantly reborn and made new the moment we accept Christ, but the soul is not born again. Our souls are transformed by the renewing of our minds:
Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
This is a small illustration of how we are connected and disconnected to and from God.
Who is the Holy Spirit?
Well He in the scriptures is referred to in many ways; teacher, helper, counselor, power, etc.
He is a person, just like we are and who God is. A person is simply someone that has a personality. And we see that the Holy Spirit has that- we see that he speaks, has emotions, is aware, knows, etc
We also see that He grieves-
- Isaiah 63:10, “But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore, He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them.”
- Eph. 4:30, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
We see many other characteristics of his personality; Loves, has a mind, speaks, can be lied to, can be tested, makes overseers, can be a witness, and so forth.
So what does the Holy Spirit do?
Teaches
- John 14:26, “These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
- Luke 12:12, “for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Intercedes
- Rom. 8:26, “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.“
Leads
- Matt. 4:1, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
Gives life
- John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”
Filled by
- Acts 2:4, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.”
So now that we know what the Holy Spirit, in the next post we will discuss how He operates in our lives.
-Amen-
