Who or what is the Holy Spirit? What part does the Holy Spirit occupy in the work of God? These are serious and deep questions. We must conduct our enquiry with reverence because we are searching into the things of God. All of our searching would be useless if God had not encouraged us to find out as much as we can by means of the Bible, which is His authoritative word. Let us discover what He has told us about His Spirit.
At the outset let us clarify whatever mystery or confusion may lie behind the word “Ghost” in the expression “Holy Ghost” in the King James (Authorised) version of the Bible. In Shakespeare’s day “ghost” was a current word for “spirit” and a spiritual advisor was called a “ghostly confessor”. Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit are translations of the same original words. The strange notions which now attach to our word “ghost” are not what the translators intended to convey. Later translations uniformly render the words, “Holy Spirit”.
Several expressions are to be found in the Bible which are descriptive of the Holy Spirit and these include: “The Spirit of God” (Genesis 1:2; Matthew 3:16); “The Spirit of the LORD” (Isaiah 11:2; Acts 8:39); “Thy good spirit” (Nehemiah 9:20); “The Spirit of the Lord GOD” (Isaiah 61:1); “His holy Spirit” (Isaiah 63:10,11); “The Spirit of your Father” (Matthew 10:20); “The Spirit (John 1:32); “The holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30); and “The power of the Lord” (Luke 5:17). The terms, God the Holy Ghost, or God the Holy Spirit, are not to be found in the Bible. Nevertheless, there is a strong link between …