Who is the Holy Spirit?

What the Bible says

The Holy Spirit does not first appear in the New Testament. The Spirit is there in the second verse of the Bible.

Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Gen 1:2

Who the Spirit is was taught most clearly on the night before Jesus died. The disciples were troubled that he was going away. Jesus promised them this.

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever —

John 14:16

"Another" means one of the same kind. What Jesus had been doing beside his disciples, teaching, comforting and keeping them, the Spirit would now do. This Helper is "the Spirit of truth" who "will be in you" (John 14:17). The Spirit does not invent a new message but reminds the disciples of everything Jesus said (John 14:26). And the Spirit does not draw attention to himself. He points to Christ.

He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.

John 16:14

The promise was fulfilled at Pentecost, when the disciples were together after Jesus had ascended.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Acts 2:4

Frightened followers went into the street and spoke boldly of Jesus. This is how the Spirit gave birth to the church.

The Spirit also works within one person. Jesus told Nicodemus that no one enters the kingdom of God without being born of the Spirit.

The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

John 3:8

New birth is not something a person can produce. Its effects, though, show in a life.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Gal 5:22-23

Fruit is not forced. It grows.

Is the Spirit a force or a person? Scripture treats the Spirit as someone. The Spirit can be lied to and grieved, and the Spirit prays for us. Peter rebukes Ananias for lying to the Holy Spirit and then says, "You have not lied to men, but to God" (Acts 5:3-4). To lie to the Spirit is to lie to God. Paul points the same way.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Eph 4:30

A force cannot be grieved. Only someone who loves can. Paul also writes that "the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words" (Rom 8:26).

The church's witness

The church confessed what Scripture shows. The Apostles' Creed continues with "I believe in the Holy Spirit" The Apostles' Creed. The Nicene Creed confesses the Spirit as Lord and giver of life, worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son The Nicene Creed. The West later added that the Spirit proceeds from the Father "and the Son" (filioque). The West saw the phrase as guarding the unity of Father and Son; the East has rejected both the change to a shared creed and its theology. It remains unresolved. Both, however, confess with one voice that the Spirit is the same God as the Father and the Son.

Augustine, commenting on John 14, says it briefly: "This is the Holy Ghost in the Trinity, Whom the Catholic faith professes to be consubstantial and coeternal with the Father and the Son" Augustine. Didymus explains that the Spirit is another Comforter, "differing not in nature, but in operation": if Christ made supplication for our sins, the Spirit consoles our griefs Didymus.

Matthew Henry is clear that the Spirit is a person. "The expressions used here and elsewhere, plainly denote a person, and the office itself includes all the Divine perfections" Matthew Henry. He also sums up the Spirit's way of working: it is "first to convince, and then to comfort" Matthew Henry.

In the original languages

The Hebrew ruach (רוּחַ) and the Greek pneuma (πνεῦμα) both mean "spirit" and also "wind" and "breath." The verb for "hovering" in Genesis 1:2 is used of an eagle that "hovers over its young" (Deut 32:11). Jesus plays on the double meaning with Nicodemus. That does not make the Spirit an impersonal force, for Scripture gives the Spirit a will and a mind (1 Cor 12:11, Rom 8:27).

The other word is parakletos (παράκλητος), translated "Advocate," "Helper" or "Comforter." It means someone "called alongside": an advocate speaking for you in court, a helper standing by, a comforter. In 1 John 2:1 the word is used of Jesus, and in John of the Spirit as "another" such helper.

Common objections

"The Spirit is God's power or influence, not a person." This view is held seriously. Scripture compares the Spirit to wind, fire and water, and speaks of the Spirit being "poured out," the language of power. Father and Son also have personal names, while the Spirit has none. All true. Yet the same Scripture says the Spirit teaches, speaks, intercedes, grieves and distributes as he wills. In John 14–16 Jesus speaks of "another" Advocate who teaches, reminds and testifies. Figurative and personal language have to be read together, and the doctrine of the Trinity is the church's way of doing justice to both. See What is the Trinity? for more.

"Are the gifts of the Spirit still given today, or did they end with the apostles?" Christians disagree, and each view appeals to Scripture. Cessationists hold that tongues, prophecy and healing were signs confirming the gospel while the apostles laid the church's foundation (Eph 2:20, Heb 2:3-4), and that they ceased once that foundation was laid and Scripture complete. They do not deny that God heals in answer to prayer, and they stress testing experience by the word. Continuationists, including Pentecostal and charismatic churches, read Paul as saying the gifts cease when we see "face to face," at Christ's return (1 Cor 13:8-12). They believe churches experience the gifts still, and take seriously the call to "eagerly desire spiritual gifts" (1 Cor 14:1). Others are open to the gifts but slow to label any experience as one, and put order and discernment first. All three agree that the Spirit is still at work in the church, that gifts exist for love, and that Scripture is the final measure. Paul says there are different gifts "but the same Spirit," given "for the common good" (1 Cor 12:4-7).

"Isn't an experience of the Spirit just my own feeling? How can I tell?" An honest question: feelings change. Scripture's tests are less the strength of a feeling than its direction and fruit. The Spirit exalts Christ (John 16:14), never contradicts what Scripture says, and bears fruit such as love and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). Nor does a lack of feeling mean the Spirit is absent. Paul says that "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children" (Rom 8:16), and that testimony often comes as quiet assurance.

Going further

The Spirit is not a distant theory but a near presence. A Christian is not left to keep the faith alone. When Jesus said it was "for your benefit" that he was going away (John 16:7), it was because the Spirit would come and work within us. For someone who does not yet believe, the church has long said that the very wish to know God may be a place where the Spirit has already begun to work.

You might ask yourself some questions. Have I thought of the Spirit only as a feeling or a force? Is any fruit, even a little, growing in my life? Is my asking for the Spirit tied to a desire to know Jesus better?

To read further, see What is the Trinity?, How does God speak? and Why do we need the church?.