Who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy SpiritIn theological review

The short answer

The Holy Spirit is God himself, the third person of the Trinity, not a force, a feeling, or God's power in the abstract. He is there at creation, hovering over the waters. He speaks, teaches, and can be lied to, and when Peter confronts Ananias he says the lie told to the Holy Spirit was a lie told to God.

The fuller answer

He is present from the second verse of the Bible. Before anything is formed, the Spirit of God is hovering over the surface of the waters, not as raw material but as God at work. The Old Testament then shows him filling craftsmen, rushing on judges, and speaking by the prophets, centuries before Pentecost.

Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Genesis 1:2 (BSB)

The New Testament speaks of him in personal terms throughout. Jesus calls him another Advocate, one like himself, whom the Father sends in Jesus's name to teach and to remind. Forces do not teach, remind, or intercede. Persons do. And in Acts, when Ananias lies about money while claiming to give it all, Peter's verdict settles the identity question in one sentence: You have not lied to men, but to God.

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.

John 14:26 (BSB)

Did it not belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How could you conceive such a deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God!

Acts 5:4 (BSB)

That is why the church's creed does not list the Spirit among created things. The Nicene Creed calls him the Lord and Giver of life, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. Worship belongs to God alone, and the creed gives the Spirit that worship because he is God.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
The Nicene Creed (AD 325, enlarged 381)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

No answer here is a dead end. Follow the question on, test it in practice, or work the method yourself on the Dig deeper page.

What is the Trinity?The Trinity is the Christian confession that there is one God, and that this one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, each fully God, equal in power and glory. The word itself is not in the Bible. The reality is taught everywhere in it, and the church forged the word to protect what the Bible says from being flattened in either direction.What does the Holy Spirit do?He convicts the world of sin, guides believers into the truth, teaches and reminds them of Jesus's words, and produces a different kind of life in them: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. His work always points to Jesus rather than to himself, and its fruit shows up in character, not in show.When do Christians receive the Holy Spirit?At conversion, when a person hears the gospel and believes. Paul tells the Ephesians that in Christ, having heard and believed the word of truth, they were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. The Spirit is not a second stage reserved for a spiritual elite. He is the seal of everyone who belongs to Jesus.Lesson: I believe in God, the Father almightyThe Creed opens by naming who God is before it says anything about us. Take the first line apart, word by word, with the Scripture under each word.