The HOLY SPIRIT of Trinity

Who IS God?

It’s a question we all ask and a familiar question asked by many souls before us.

Moses said to God,

“If I go to the Israelites and tell them,

‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’

and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ – what should I say to them?”

Exodus 3:13 NET Bible

JESUS asked His Apostles a rhetorically similar question:

While he was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them,

“Who do the crowds say that I am? ”

Gospel of Luke 9:18 CSB

And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ

And Peter answered and said, “The [Messiah] Christ of God.”

Gospel of Luke 9:20 LSB – Transliterated Greek [above] – ‘ho christos theos’

The Apostle Matthew’s Gospel witnesses this same relational answer of his fellow Apostle Peter:

And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Matthew 16:16 LSB

God our Father and Lord

We get it humanly – the relationship of a son (or daughter) to a father (or to our mother).

Human AND ever-existing SON

Mortal men and women can relate to a Son of THE FATHER.

We understand, in part, that JESUS was flesh and blood, body and brain a perfect human son of man (Mary, actually: ‘man‘ as in human like all of us).

John, the Apostle who speaks so well relationally in the witness of his Gospel tells us:

But these [signs, proofs or miracles] are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Gospel of John 20:[30-]31 New English Translation

The Twelve, having loved their friend and Master whom they followed willingly, understood a relational link between JESUS and each of His disciples personally.

When the Lord in so many ways showed His Disciples His ever-existing relationship to Almighty God our Father — HIS Father from before the beginning — they could not have been more awe struck that GOD stood in their human presence.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

I and my Father are one.

Gospel of John 10:27-30 KJV [context: John 10:22-30 KJV ]

We get that - in a human sense of relationship.

Jesus and Spirit

Yet think from the witness of any of the Twelve of the impact of JESUS, the living Christ they follow, telling His disciples: “I and the Father are One.”

Just like all faithful Jews, these disciples had recited the Sh'ma since their childhood:

Sh’ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד׃

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

דְּבָרִים (Deuteronomy) 6 : 4

Even so, the Disciples had heard their Master instruct Nicodemus, a leader of the Sanhedrin:

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Gospel of John 3:5-6 ESV [in context of John 3:1-21]

John’s Gospel continues with Jesus’ further explanation of the Spirit:

What is JESUS telling us about spirit and the Holy Spirit?

• Although mankind is flesh and blood, created from dust and water,
• and Man is created in God’s image;
• Man, LIKE GOD, is also spirit.

What is Spirit?

John begins his Gospel with Jesus (the Word) and the Spirit.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.

Gospel of John 1:1-4 Berean Standard Bible

John’s clear reference is the beginning written in the word of Moses:

בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ׃

וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהֹום וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם׃

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 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 1:1-3 [Hebrew] Berean Standard Bible

JESUS, THE WORD, WAS WITH GOD AND WAS GOD — ‘hovering over ‘a waste and emptiness,’ in the darkness over a face of the deep…

READ MORE BELOW
NOTE: 
Although I generally limit your reading time to ~5 minutes, today I'll expand our TOPIC of SPIRIT with additional definitions and more Biblical verses than we could cover in a single post on the SPIRIT.

Please continue and COMMENT at the end of this entire post.- RH

Spirit [spirit] – rûaḥ – רוּח

• The KJV translates Strong’s H7307 in the following manner: Spirit or spirit (232x), wind (92x), breath (27x), (various additional)
• Two additional uses in Genesis show both the Spirit of God and His quickening spirit in His creatures, including mankind:
  • And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; – Gen. 6:3a NKJV
  • And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life.. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. – Gen. 7:15,22 NKJV

COMMENTARY

The Spirit of God; not the wind, which was not yet created, as is manifest, because the air, the matter or subject of it, was not yet produced; but the Third Person of the glorious Trinity, called the Holy Ghost, to whom the work of creation is attributed, Job 26:13, as it is ascribed to the Second Person, the Son, Joh 1:3 Col 1:16-17 Heb 1:3, and to the First Person, the Father, every where.

– Matthew Poole’s Commentary on Genesis 1

Job asks [12:10 LSB]:

In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all the flesh of man?

Man cannot grasp the whirlwind or the unseen breath of God, yet JESUS, who IS One with the Father tells us:

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”

Gospel of John 4:24 CSB

πνεῦμα – pneuma in the New Testament

Spirit in the New Testament – basically has the same meaning AND is just as mysterious, illusive as the breath of angels. – RH

(Note the prepositions, 'the' or 'a' in the Strong's definitions) 

spirit in a living soul

• the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated
  • the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides
  • the soul

How do you think of your own spirit? 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Gospel of Matthew 5:3 LSB from the Beatitudes of Jesus Christ

Consider a mysterious ethereal truth: observable, yet beyond measure of man's contemporary thought. 

spirits apart from your own mortal soul

• a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting
  • a life giving spirit
  • a human soul that has left the body
  • a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel
    • used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men
    • the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ

“Now when the unclean spirit G4151 goes out of a man [anthrōpos – a human being, whether male or female], it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it.

Matthew 12:43 LSB

spirit and soul alike, yet distinct

Before proceeding to the more powerful and most mysterious Holy Spirit of God, 

consider beyond flesh and blood, mind and spirit --
that which is the same in Old and New Testaments, yet having subtle ungraspable distinction: spirit and soul.

“BEHOLD, MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN;

MY BELOVED IN WHOM MY SOUL [psychē] IS WELL-PLEASED;

I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT [pneuma] UPON HIM,

AND HE SHALL PROCLAIM JUSTICE TO THE GENTILES.

Gospel of Matthew 12:18 LSB quoting Isaiah 43:1 quote of the LORD

We hear it also in the heart of Isaiah, a Prophet of God:

With my soul [nep̄eš] I have desired You in the night,
Yes, by my spirit [rûaḥ] within me I will seek You early;
For when Your judgments are in the earth,
The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Isaiah 26:9 NKJV

• soul – psychē – NT Greek
• soul – nep̄eš – נֶפֶשׁ – OT Hebrew

the HOLY Spirit

Although related to spirit, we cannot examine the soul today as part of our brief topic of the Trinity and Holy Spirit.

Spirit – rûaḥ or pneuma

H7307 – rûaḥ – רוּחַ

Spirit of God, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son

1. as inspiring ecstatic state of prophecy
2. as impelling prophet to utter instruction or warning
3. imparting warlike energy and executive and administrative power
4. as endowing men with various gifts
5. as energy of life
6. as manifest in the Shekinah glory
7. never referred to as a depersonalised force

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Gospel of Matthew 1:18 NKJV

Simply the human beginning of the son of man (Mary, a virgin, that is; bearing a second adam in the line of God’s created ones).

Certainly mysterious, controversial to this day to the psyches and spirits of mortal men and women who resist the Spirit of God.

In His love and in His pity He redeemed them;
And He bore them and carried them
All the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit;

Isaiah 63:9b-10a NKJV

πνεῦμα – pneuma – spirit OR ghost

When you hear an ENGLISH translation of pneuma in the King James Version it will most often suggest an image of the Holy Ghost.

As mysterious as Ghost or the Spirit may be to mankind, its root word [Strong’s G4154 – pneō] directs our thoughts

• to breathe hard, i.e. breeze:—blow (of the wind)

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’

The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Gospel of John 3:5-8SB

The HOLINESS of God

NO mention of Trinity is absent the key concept of HOLY in reference to the HOLY GHOST or the HOLY SPIRIT.

We have examined the doctrines of Holiness previously:

DOCTRINE: GOD IS HOLY

I encourage you in the spirit to pray with ears to hear the Holy Spirit of the Lord God, who IS ONE with the Father and the Son our savior Jesus Christ.

Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

David, King of Israel – Psalm 51:11

God has raised this Jesus to life, to which we are all witnesses.

Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

Acts of the Apostles 2:32-33 BSB

– testimony of the Apostle Peter in Jerusalem’s Temple

“Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter replied,

“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins,

and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off—to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

With many other words he testified, and he urged them, “Be saved from this corrupt generation.”

Those who embraced his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to the believers that day.

Acts of the Apostles 2:37b-41 Berean Standard Bible