The Holy Spirit As God, the Holy Spirit has existed through all eternity. In the Old Testament, he is also referred to as the Spirit, the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of the Lord. In the New Testament, he is sometimes called the Spirit of Christ.
The Holy Spirit first appears in the second verse of the Bible, in the account of creation:
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
(Genesis 1:2, NIV).
The Holy Spirit caused the virgin Mary to conceive (Matthew 1:20), and at the baptism of Jesus, he descended on Jesus like a dove. On the Day of Pentecost, he rested like tongues of fire on the apostles. In many religious paintings and church logos, he is often symbolized as a dove.
Since the Hebrew word for the Spirit in the Old Testament means "breath" or "wind," Jesus breathed on his apostles after his resurrection and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." (John 20:22, NIV).
He also commanded his followers to baptize people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Accomplishments of the Holy Spirit:
The divine works of the Holy Spirit, both in the open and in secret, advance God the Father's plan of salvation. He participated in creation with the Father and Son, filled the prophets with the Word of God, assisted Jesus and the apostles in their missions, inspired the men who wrote the Bible, guides the church, and sanctifies believers in their walk with Christ today.
He gives spiritual gifts for strengthening the body of Christ. Today he acts as Christ's presence on earth, counseling and encouraging Christians as they battle the temptations of the world and the forces of Satan. Strengths of the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit's name describes his chief attribute: He is a perfectly holy and spotless God, free of any sin or darkness. He shares the strengths of God the Father and Jesus, such as omniscience, omnipotence, and eternality. Likewise, he is all-loving, forgiving, merciful and just.
Life Lessons:
Throughout the Bible, we see the Holy Spirit pouring his power into followers of God. When we think of such towering figures as Joseph, Moses, David, Peter, and Paul, we may feel we have nothing in common with them, but the truth is that the Holy Spirit helped each of them change. He stands ready to help us change from the person we are today to the person we want to be, ever closer to the character of Christ.
The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity and undoubtedly the least understood member of the Godhead. Christians can easily identify with God the Father (Jehovah or Yahweh) and his Son, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit, however, without a body and a personal name, seems distant to many, yet he dwells inside every true believer and is a constant companion in the walk of faith.When we talk against the Holy Spirit, we are talking against God!
The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity. He is fully God. He is eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, has a will, and can speak. He is alive. He is a person. He is not particularly visible in the Bible because His ministry is to bear witness of Jesus (John 15:26).
Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit
John 14:26
26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
John 15:26
26"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.
John 16:13-14
13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
The Holy Spirit John 14 15 16 John 14
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
4You know the way to the place where I am going."
5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
8Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
9Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
15"If you love me, you will obey what I command.
16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--
17the 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.
18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
22Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
23Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
24He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25"All this I have spoken while still with you.
26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28"You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
29I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.
30I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me,
31but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. "Come now; let us leave.
John 15
1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.
11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
14You are my friends if you do what I command.
15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
17This is my command: Love each other.
18"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
20Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.
22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.
23He who hates me hates my Father as well.
24If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.
25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'
26"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.
27And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
John 16
1"All this I have told you so that you will not go astray.
2They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.
3They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.
4I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you.
5"Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'
6Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief.
7But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me;
10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;
11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.
13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
15All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
16"In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me."
17Some of his disciples said to one another, "What does he mean by saying, 'In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?"
18They kept asking, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We don't understand what he is saying."
19Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, "Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, 'In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me'?
20I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
21A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.
22So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.
23In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
24Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
25"Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.
26In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.
27No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
28I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."
29Then Jesus' disciples said, "Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.
30Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God."
31"You believe at last!" Jesus answered.
32"But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
33"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
