The Holy Spirit is called the third person of the Godhead though He's the first person to be revealed in the Scriptures as seen in Genesis 1:1 ("In the beginning God {Elohim - Plural for God} created the heaven and the earth"). The reason for Him being referred to as the third person of the Godhead is because He is the last that we get acquainted with as Jesus explained in John 14:15-17 {“If you l
ove Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you}
Christian tradition starts speaking of the Spirit by saying that the Holy Spirit is God, based on the Bible. The Spirit has the attributes of God :
eternal, having neither beginning nor end (Hebrews 9:14),
omni-potent, having all power (Luke 1:35);
omni-present, being everywhere at the same time (Psalm 139:7); and
omni-scient, understanding all matters (1 Corinthians 2:10,11). What is meant by that? (Forgive me for talking strange here, but this is about the Holy Spirit, the One that can least be described by words.) The Spirit is an 'I', able to take action and cause action. The Spirit is able to be a 'we' with other 'I's. The Spirit can be addressed as 'you' by other 'I's (such as you and me), and can respond as an 'I'. Thus, when we say, "Come, Holy Spirit", the Spirit can come, not as if on command, but as promised. In a Barna survey in 1997, 61% of US residents surveyed agreed with the statement that the Holy Spirit is "a symbol of God's presence or power, but is not a living entity". Even more: that answer was held by a majority or near-majority of those in most every Christian denominational family, including mainline Protestants and evangelical Christians, and was most common in non-whites and young people. It's not a new view. There were differences early on which the Church's thinkers probed and prodded and discussed at length. Back in the days of the early church, some held that the Holy Spirit was an 'emanation' of God the Father. Others thought of the Spirit in the same terms as the Talmudic discussions on the divine Shekinah (Presence), as an expression of what Christians call the 'Father'. Those are not far off, they're just describing part of a larger picture, like speaking of an elephant by describing its ears without reference to its trunk, tusks, or thick legs. The Holy Spirit In the Bible
The Bible shows that the Holy Spirit is a person and is God :
the Spirit's work in the Old Testament is closely identified with the Word of YHWH spoken by the prophets (this was affirmed by the early church in 2 Peter 1:21, and in the Creeds). the close ties between Jesus' mission and the work of the Spirit (see the work of the Spirit). the close ties between the mission of the apostles and the work of the Spirit; esp. see 1 Peter 1:12. The episode with Hananiah (Ananias) in Acts 5, where first, Peter says that Hananiah lied to the Holy Spirit, then later says that he lied not to men but to God. The trinitarian baptismal formula found in Scripture (Matt 28:19): "in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". It dates to the church's earliest days. Jesus made a habit of confronting traditions with "box-breaking" actions. He ate with tax collectors and other scorned people, He turned over the tables of the money changers in the temple, He talked to the woman at the well, He healed the occupier-centurion's daughter. The Holy Spirit does the same kind of thing in Acts, and ever since. The Holy Spirit As a Person
The Holy Spirit is not a mere symbol of anything. No mere symbol is able to:
communicate ('speak') (Acts 13:2),
intercede (step in on behalf of someone) (Romans 8:26),
testify (John 15:26)
guide (John 16:13),
command (Acts 16:6,7),
appoint (Acts 20:28),
lead (Romans 8:14),
reveal to someone how wrong, foolish, or sinful he/she was (John 16:8). seal God's promise in believers' hearts (Ephesians 1:13-14). live within a believing Christian (1 Corinthians 6:19). shape the life of each person and community to Christ's (Romans 8:1-17)
Thus, the proper question is not "What is the Holy Spirit?" but "Who is the Holy Spirit?". Yet the Spirit doesn't always seem so personal in a given situation, and that may be the Spirit's choice. More importantly, it matters little how you ask the question and a lot more that you ask, for a lot hinges on the asking. God already knows what you meant. As God, the Holy Spirit can act in whatever manner the Spirit wants to act. The Spirit generally acts through the church, but doesn't have to; the Wind blows where it will. The Spirit is free not to always be seriously focused on those purposes; the Spirit can have fun while at work. No Mere Force
This is all stuff that can't be true of a mere (or even 'The') Force. That is how we often experience the Spirit and know of the Spirit's presence, but that is not what the Spirit is. As God, the Holy Spirit is cause, and that cause has effect. Yet, there are those in the Christian churches who reduce the Holy Spirit to a force, or to a collective will or sum of all spirits, or a living memory of the gathered believers, or the force of emotion or conscience within a person. Those people, fine as they may be, are describing a different spirit than the Holy Spirit as viewed by the Christian faith. The Spirit works in ways that seem like each of these ways and more, yet against all of them at times. The Holy Spirit works in whatever ways are needed to do what needs to be done, except in choosing not to take forceable control of people's actions. The Spirit is at work leading all of us toward Christ, whether from inside or from outside. Thus, we must not be quick or harsh when correcting each other, lest we get in the Spirit's way. Doctrine on the Holy Spirit is difficult to speak about, because it defies normal theo-logical definition. All activity of God in earthly or churchly life is by the Spirit. Without the Spirit, the Bible would be a closed book to us, the sacraments would be mere ritual, our lives would not be inspired to change with redirection and growth in Christ. Our churches would fail to be a fellowship and would not be knit together as a body. In a sense, we talk around the Spirit rather than on the Spirit; we describe the effects but not the nature. Yet, since we can't comprehend any of God's work on earth without the Spirit, we cannot engage in theo-logy without talking theo-illogically about the Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not bear witness of itself but of Christ - which of course makes the Spirit even harder to understand. The Spirit does not physically do anything. All action happens through the physical world's beings and activities. So it's easy to mistake the Spirit's work for our own work, or that of other people or of nature or science or society -- and vice versa. Easy, but crucially wrong. Barth described the Spirit as "the subjective reality of revelation". The early Eastern Orthodox teachers put it this way: the 'face' of the Father is revealed by the Son; the 'face' of the Son is revealed by the Spirit. Notice: there is no Person who reveals to us the 'face' of the Spirit. The shape of the Spirit's 'face' is recognizable only by way of the unseen Spirit itself, working through the the Scriptures in revealing Jesus. Even the Scriptural witness to the Spirit as a vigorous and powerful entity is not direct, visible, or clear. The Spirit, after all, is who makes the Bible so useful in revealing faith matters. The Scriptural witness is to the presence, activity, and effect of the Spirit -- a second-hand report of the 'face' as seen in a fog bank. If we are to look in Scripture for the Spirit's 'face', it's best found in the same source that best reveals the Father -- Jesus. For it is Jesus who is God-with-us, God at His most tangible and most detailed. Even that, however, is indirect, for Jesus is not the same Person as the Spirit. This leaves the followers, the 'church', or 'Body', of Christ, formed by the Spirit -- but that comes in countless shapes, and is often far from living in a way that reflects the Triune God. Thus, the mist remains. We are left to probe, try, test, ponder, and ultimately just live in the mystery of the Spirit.
