The Holy Spirit

Who Is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Holy Trinity, truly and fully God, together with the Father and the Son. He is not an impersonal energy or a vague influence but a Person, who speaks, teaches, grieves, loves, and can be lied to. He is the very presence of God given to dwell within those who belong to Christ, and His delight is to make Jesus known.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:Matthew 28:19 (KJV)

A Person, not a force

The most common mistake made about the Holy Spirit is to think of Him as a thing rather than a Someone, a power to be tapped rather than a Person to be known. Scripture will not allow it. The Spirit does what only a person can do. He teaches and brings truth to remembrance. He guides. He speaks, calling Barnabas and Saul to their work with the words, Separate me Barnabas and Saul. He can be grieved, as a friend is grieved, and He can be lied to, as Peter told Ananias that in lying to the Holy Ghost he had not lied unto men, but unto God. A force is not grieved and cannot be lied to. Only a person can be.

So when the Bible calls Him the Comforter, it uses a word for one who is called alongside to help, a counselor and advocate and friend. He is not electricity in the walls of the church but a living presence who knows you, prays for you, and will not leave you. To meet the Spirit is not to gain a power but to be indwelt by God Himself.

Truly and fully God

The Holy Spirit is not a lesser or created being. He is God. When Peter confronted Ananias for holding back part of the price of his land, he said in one breath that the man had lied to the Holy Ghost and had lied unto God, naming the Spirit and God as one. The Spirit possesses what belongs to God alone. He is eternal, He searches even the deep things of God, and He was present and active at creation, moving upon the face of the waters. To have the Spirit is to have God, not a messenger of God.

This is why the church has always confessed the Holy Trinity: one God who is eternally Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is a mystery too great for us to master, but its shape is plain in Scripture. There is one God, and yet the Father sends, the Son is sent, and the Spirit is poured out, three Persons and one undivided God, equal in glory and majesty.

The third Person of the Trinity

Jesus gave the church its clearest word on this at His parting, commanding His disciples to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. He did not say in the names, as of three gods, nor collapse them into one bare name, but in the one name of the three, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost together. Paul closes his letter to Corinth the same way, praying the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost upon them all.

To be baptized into that name, and to be blessed in it, is to be brought into the life of the triune God. The Spirit is not an afterthought or a junior partner. He is God with us in the most intimate way of all, God not merely near us but within us.

What the Holy Spirit does

The work of the Spirit runs through the whole of a Christian life. He convicts the world of sin, and awakens the dead heart. He gives the new birth, so that no one enters the kingdom but by being born of the Spirit. He comes to live within the believer, sealing us as God's own until the day of redemption. He pours the love of God into our hearts, produces His fruit in our character, distributes gifts for the good of the church, and helps us pray when we do not know what to ask. In all of it He is not seeking attention for Himself.

For the Spirit is wonderfully humble. Jesus said of Him, He shall not speak of himself, and He shall glorify me. The Spirit's whole ministry is to turn the eyes of the heart toward Christ, to make the words of Jesus alive, and to shed the love of God abroad within us. A life truly full of the Spirit is not a life full of talk about the Spirit but a life full of Jesus.

Where we meet the Spirit at work

We should not imagine the Spirit as distant or hard to find. He is the nearest presence a believer has. He is at work whenever the Scriptures come alive and pierce the heart, for He is their author and their interpreter. He is at work whenever a sinner is convicted, a doubter is steadied, a cold heart begins to warm toward God. He is the one who pours the love of God abroad in our hearts, who produces the fruit of love, joy, and peace, and who prompts the prayer we did not know we had in us.

This means the Christian life is not a matter of trying, alone, to be good. It is a matter of walking with a Person who lives within us. Every genuine desire for God, every hatred of sin, every stirring toward prayer and worship, is a sign that the Spirit is present and active. He does not shout, and He rarely draws attention to Himself, but His fingerprints are everywhere a heart is being turned toward Christ.

Why it matters that He is a Person

If the Spirit were only a force, we would ask how to get more of Him and use Him. But because He is a Person, the real question is different: are we yielded to Him, do we grieve Him, do we walk in step with Him? A force is used; a Person is known and loved and obeyed. To have the Holy Spirit is to have a divine Companion who can be trusted, listened to, and followed.

And because He is God, we owe Him worship, love, and obedience, just as we do the Father and the Son. The ancient creeds of the church confess the Holy Spirit as the Lord and giver of life, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified. To know Him rightly is not to master a doctrine but to open the whole of life to the God who has come to dwell within.

How the Spirit points to Christ

Here is the surest test of anything that claims to be of the Holy Spirit: does it exalt Jesus? The Spirit was sent by the risen Christ, proceeds from the Father, and comes to testify of the Son. He takes what belongs to Jesus and shows it to us. He does not draw a crowd to Himself; He draws the heart to the Savior. When you love Christ more, trust Him more, and obey Him more, the Spirit has been at work, whether you felt anything or not.

So to ask who the Holy Spirit is, is finally to be led straight to Jesus. The Spirit is God come to dwell in us, to make us new, and to keep our gaze fixed on the crucified and risen Lord until we see Him face to face.

Related: The work of the Holy Spirit · The titles of the Holy Spirit · Who is Jesus? · The Holy Spirit