Holy Spirit

What is the Holy Spirit?

At first this sounds like an exceedingly simple question, but I think the Holy Spirit is possibly one of the most misunderstood parts of Christianity. The ‘fact’ part of this question is that the Holy Spirit is one part of the Trinity, that is, the Father (God), Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit. This in itself is a hugely confusing concept, the three-in-one, and hundreds of analogies have been used to explain it, but the one I’ll go with for now is the three different states water can exist in; liquid, solid and gas. Each form has its distinctive characteristics, but are part of the same general substance - water. This analogy has its limitations, but the idea is that just as water can exist in different forms, so can God. And the Holy Spirit is one of the ‘states’ God exists in.

But beyond the basic facts of the Holy Spirit it seems to get a lot more mysterious. What exactly is the Holy Spirit other than a part of God? One of the things that stands out is the way we say the Holy Spirit and it rather than he or she. We wouldn’t talk about the Jesus, and so I think we often forget Holy Spirit is living, and He is on equal footing with God and Jesus, being a part of one and the same Being.

Jesus gave a very clear picture of who the Spirit is in John 14:15-16, “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him for He lives with you and will be in you”. Jesus identified that it would be hard to know the nature of the Spirit, but made it quite clear that it would be God’s presence in the world, and in us, after His ascension. But in addition to this, the Spirit existed before Jesus time as well, with the Old Testament giving many examples of the Spirit at work, and being active amongst Old Testament figures (see for example 2 Samuel 23:2).

What the Holy Spirit actually does is harder to put my finger on, but the way I see it is that it’s God’s living and active presence here on earth. So we may encounter the Spirit in worship or prayer, or we may have Him speak through us in certain situations. Any miracles or such things that come from God are performed through the power of the Holy Spirit, not our own strength. Also, spiritual gifts come from the Holy Spirit, and are called gifts of the Spirit by Paul (1 Corinthians 12). Jesus’ disciples provide a good example of what the Holy Spirit does. During Jesus’ life, they were nothing more than followers who understood little and were unable to do anything much, Jesus constantly chided them as people of “little faith”. After His ascension, they were given the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2), and were transformed into people of wisdom and understanding, who could perform miracles and healings in the name of Jesus, all through the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s easy to be sceptical of this change, but the Bible quite clearly gives evidence that this was the case, and it wouldn’t be something they’d really want to write in unless it was true, as the image they’re given beforehand is pretty unflattering!

It’s hard to sort out just who does what when it comes to the Trinity, because in so many ways the three are inseparable, unsurprising seeing as they are all God. But in essence, I would say that the Holy Spirit is God’s supernatural presence here on earth now. Of course God is a part of this world, listening and watching over everything, not some distant entity, but the Spirit is the presence of God here and now. I’d probably liken it to God’s arm, reaching down into the world. His arm is the way in which He acts through the world, distinct from God as a whole, but still integrally part of Him.

Some Bible verses to check out on this topic: Luke 4:18-19; 1 Corinthians 2:10-14; Acts 10:46-48; Psalm 104:30; Genesis 1:2.