Nature and characteristics of the Holy Spirit

The Scriptures refer to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as one and yet also as separate. Possibly because of an attempt to understand more than has been revealed, these statements of Scriptures have occasioned much controversy. In this study we are dealing specifically with what the Scriptures teach about the Holy Spirit and we cannot go into great detail about questions regarding the relationship among the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit except to the extent that they relate directly to the Holy Spirit.

"God is Spirit" (John 4:24). "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). In the first part of this verse we find the same equivalence of the Lord and the Spirit as is found in John 1:1 relating to the Word and God: "the Word was with God, and the Word was God". The second statement, however, "the Spirit of the Lord," shows that, as in the case of the Word and God, there is also a distinction.

The Holy Spirit is personal. Christ refers to the coming Spirit as a Counsellor or Helper. "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 things that I said to you" (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit has characteristics of a person. He has a mind. We read of "the mind of the Spirit" in Romans 8:27. He has a will (1 Corinthians 12:11). He can speak (1 Timothy 4:1). He refers to himself as 'Me' and 'I' in Acts 13:2. (See also John 15:26; Romans 8:26; 1 Corinthians 2:10-13.)

There is one Spirit. There is one body and one Spirit" (Ephesians 4:4). "For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18). "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free - and have all been made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:13). The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are the same Spirit. "But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Romans 8:9).

The Holy Spirit is omnipresent. "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?" (Psalm 139:7).

The Holy Spirit is all-knowing. "Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counsellor has taught Him?" (Isaiah 40:13). "For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). These passages indicate that the Spirit knows all that God knows.

The Spirit is eternal. "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:14).

The Spirit is the truth. "And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth" (1 John 5:6). He is called "the Spirit of truth" in John 14:17.

The Spirit proceeds from the Father and is sent by God and Christ. "And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit have sent Me" (Isaiah 48:16). "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 things that I said to you" (John 14:26). "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me" (John 15:26).

From these passages we have learned that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. The Holy Spirit is personal. There is one Spirit. HE is omnipresent. He is all-knowing. He is eternal. The Spirit is the truth. The Spirit proceeds from the Father and is sent by God and Christ.