Who Is the Holy Spirit?

The short answer: The Holy Spirit is God, the third Person of the Trinity. He isn’t a force or an energy but a “He” who knows, feels and chooses. He lives in every Christian, makes Jesus real to them and changes them from the inside.

Ask most Christians to describe God the Father, and they’ll manage something. Ask about Jesus, and they’ll talk for ages. Ask about the Holy Spirit, and things often go quiet. Some people picture Him as a kind of spiritual electricity, or “the Force” from Star Wars. Others think of a vague warm feeling in church.

The Bible’s picture is very different, and much better.

Not an “it” but a “He”

A force can push and pull, but it can’t know, feel or decide. The Bible says the Holy Spirit does all three. He teaches. He can be hurt: “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30). You can’t grieve electricity. He makes decisions: He gives spiritual gifts “to each one as He determines” (1 Corinthians 12:11). He even prays for us: “the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).

When Jesus was about to leave His disciples, He promised them “another Advocate to be with you forever” (John 14:16). The word “another” matters. It means another of the same kind, another one like Jesus. The Spirit isn’t a replacement power source. He’s a Person who would be with them the way Jesus had been.

Not less than God

The Holy Spirit isn’t a junior member of the Trinity. He was there at creation, when “the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). When Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, Peter said he had lied “to God” (Acts 5:4). The Spirit is fully God, just as the Father and the Son are.

What He does

Jesus said something that must have shocked His friends: “it is for your benefit that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you” (John 16:7). Better than having Jesus physically beside you? Yes, because the Spirit can be in every believer, everywhere, all at once.

Here’s some of what He does:

• He shows people their need. He “will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). That uncomfortable sense that you need God is often His work.
• He gives new life. God saved us “through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
• He assures us. “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:16).
• He shines the spotlight on Jesus. “He will glorify Me” (John 16:14). The Spirit is like a floodlight on a great building: you don’t look at the light, you look at what it lights up.
• He changes our character. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). Fruit grows slowly, but it grows.
• He gives courage to speak. “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses” (Acts 1:8).

And He lives in you. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Corinthians 6:19).

Where Christians differ

All Christians agree that every believer has the Spirit: “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9). They differ over some secondary questions, such as whether there’s a distinct experience of being “baptised with the Spirit” after conversion, and which gifts God still gives today (the next chapter looks at that). Those differences are real, but they sit inside a much larger agreement.

Getting to know Him

How do you relate to the Holy Spirit? Not by chasing feelings, but by letting Him lead. Paul says, “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18): keep handing more of yourself over to Him. Don’t grieve Him with what you know is wrong. And ask. Jesus promised, “how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13).

Think about it: If the Holy Spirit is a Person living in you, not just a power, how might that change the way you think about an ordinary school day?

Go deeper: The Key Teachings of R. A. Torrey — Torrey taught that the Holy Spirit is a Person who knows, wills and loves, and turned a common question round: not “How can I get more of the Holy Spirit?” but “How can the Holy Spirit have more of me?” Start with chapter 3, “A Person, Not an Influence”.