Who Is The Holy Spirit?

The exact identity of the Holy Spirit is clothed in misconceptions and misunderstandings.

Some people think that the Holy Spirit is some kind of mystical and magical force/energy.

Other people perceive the Holy Spirit as being a kind of impersonal power that God has given to those that follow Christ Jesus.

Let us look, for a moment, at what the Bible has to say about who or what the Holy Spirit is.

Careful study of the Bible will reveal that the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

And the Bible also reveals to us that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, who has a mind, emotions and a will, all to himself.

Many scriptures make it abundantly clear that the Holy Spirit is God including Acts 5: 3-4 when Peter takes Ananias to task for lying to the Holy Spirit and tells him:-

“You have not lied to man but to God”.

We can also clearly see and understand that the Holy Spirit must be God because he possesses the same traits and characteristics as God.

God’s omnipresence is also to be found in Psalm 139: 7-8:-

Where shall I go from your spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in the depths, you are there!

And again, in 1 Corinthians 2: 10-11, we see God’s omnipresence:-

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

And, as we have already discovered, the Holy Spirit must be a divine person because he possesses a mind, has emotions and a will.

The Holy Spirit thinks and knows:-

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God

(1 Corinthians 2:10).

The Holy Spirit can grieve:-

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

 (Ephesians 4:30)

The Holy Spirit intercedes for us:-

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

 (Romans 8: 26-27)

The Holy Spirit makes decisions according to His will:-

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit.

To another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the one Spirit.

To another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

All these are empowered by one and the same spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills.

(1 Corinthians 12: 7-11)

Therefore, the Holy Spirit must be God, the third person of the Trinity (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit).

As God, as well as being the Holy Spirit, He can easily function as the Comforter and Counsellor that Jesus promised that He would be:-

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever.

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 have said to you.

But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

(John 14: 16, John 14: 26, John 15:26)