Who is the Holy Spirit?

In Christianity, who is the Holy Spirit? He is the third Person of the Godhead along with God the Father and God the Son. He is sometimes known as the Holy Ghost by people who favor the King James translation of the Bible. He is omniscient (all wise), omnipresent (everywhere present), and omnipotent (all powerful). He is eternal just like the Father and Jesus.

In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality and influence of the one true God over the universe and His creatures.

In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as an agent of divine action or communication.

But enough of this theological stuff. Who is the Holy Spirit? Let’s get practical.

If someone were to ask you, “What's an apple tree?” You might say, “A tree that produces apples.” Right on! Even Jesus agreed when He said, “You will know them by their fruit.”

So, who is the Holy Spirit?

He defies a simple explanation (after all, He is God!) but we can know Him by His fruit. Let’s look at His fruit.

His fruit will show us Who the Spirit is and tell us what He’s like. In Christianity, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22).

Who is the Holy Spirit?--We Know Him by His Fruit

Love

To help us understand love and therefore to understand the Holy Spirit, the Greek language has four different words for love.

In verb form the four are agapao, phileo, stergo and erao. Agape (noun form) is the term used for the fruit of the Spirit. Not phileo which means love akin to friendship. Not stergo, which means love among relatives. And certainly not erao, which means romantic or sexual love. "Eros," and  "erotic" come from this Greek word. Erao is never used in the New Testament as far as I know.

Agape love is divine love. It is unconditional, not self-seeking, not romantic love. Agape is “God’s kind of love,” it is pure love, the kind the Father has toward Jesus, it is not seeking some kind of reward or return; rather, agape is given freely, without expecting anything back. Try to imagine that!

Agape is not based on feelings, but upon choice, volition and will. Only God can generate agape love. It is “committed love.”

For me, I recognize I do not have that kind of love. Sometimes other people tell me that they love me. That is good because Jesus commands us to “Love one another.” In fact, a fellow came to the house today and said, “I love you” as he was leaving. But I hesitate to say back to someone, “I love you too.” Because I rarely have that kind of commitment.

For my wife I readily tell her “I love you.” because I’m committed to her “’til death do us part.” But for others, if I ever say it, it is a faith declaration.

The Spirit of God is in love with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He has made an eternal commitment to each and every believer. That’s who He is. Period.

Joy

I feel more akin to joy than to love. But joy is also an “apple” (fruit) produced by the Holy Spirit. It is not a human joy, it is a divine generation of the Spirit. How else could Jesus have it … For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despised the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God (Heb 12:2).

I remember the time when someone criticized me and my ministry as a pastor. It was an extremely difficult ordeal. But the scripture came to my mind, Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.

Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven (Luke 6:22-23). 

I was on a walk several blocks from home. I started jumping and leaping and prancing and praising God. I actually did! Wow, I certainly felt better by obeying Jesus words!

Several Scriptures in the bible relate happiness to the Holy Spirit. He emanates joy. Maybe we should call Him the Happy Holy Spirit! Here’s one of my favorites. The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17).

Speaking of PRACTICAL. . . The Holy Spirit emanates joy to those around Him. Can you think of Anyone better to hang out with? After all, He is a Person. Hang out with Him, talk in tongues for a few minutes and see if you don’t get an emotional upswing!

 

Peace

Who is the Holy Spirit? You will know Him by His fruit—in this case, peace and rest. Let me illustrate. Maybe I’m a workaholic. I don’t know, but I enjoy working. I was raised to work hard. I have a habit of working too long and too hard, and paying the price the next day.

But something new is coming into my life. The Spirit is showing me when to stop working and when to hang it up and rest. This is new for me.

Yesterday I was mowing thistles on our farm. A gentle voice whispered in my head, “One more time around and then stop!” Seemed like a good idea, so I circled around one more time. Then I drove to the barn and. . .stopped! 

Isaiah 28:12 reads, He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,”
And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen.

I don’t know about you, but I’m learning to listen to the voice of the Spirit. The Spirit of Peace knows when I (or you!) need to stop. This is powerful. I've tried by my own self-will to conquer this for many years.

Patience, Kindness, Goodness

I am now (as I write) 82 years young. (Sometimes I joke, “I’m 82 going on 59!”) All joking aside, at my age, I can verify God is certainly patient with me. I’m emotionally moved at this moment as I reflect on my life. Thank you, Lord for being so patient with me. I deserve to be in the grave, but He still keeps me alive and continues His patience and lovingkindness and goodness to me in spite of my mistakes.

As a matter of fact, my wife (Kari my wonderful wife since 1973) just passed through the room and remarked, “God is so-o-o good to us!” I can only respond, “Amen!”

Faithfulness

I value faithful people. The kind who have stuck with me in the church for decades. People I can count on through thick and thin.

God has certainly been faithful to me. Our family and I built our own house in the years prior to 1993. We scrimped and saved and sacrificed—and ate a lot of hotcakes—for many years to be able to pay for the materials. Finally, we were nearly ready to move in. Then this happened. . . 

Gentleness

The older I get, the more I appreciate God’s gentleness. Gentleness is not my nature. You might say I’m impatient with gentleness, at least with people.

Gentleness is foreign to my nature. So when the Holy Spirit gently corrects me, I recognize it’s Him—not me!

Last Sunday morning I went to church ready to give a prophecy. I felt God gave me the words during the week so I wrote them down and shared the prophecy with our pastor.

During the pre-service prayer, things changed. The Spirit began speaking to me, letting me know that I should not give the prophecy; rather, the directions were an assignment for intercession, not prophecy. It was a definite course correction and came as a surprise. But God was so gentle with me. I didn’t feel corrected, not even chastened. I welcomed His change of plans.

Years ago, I corrected a man’s prophecy, but I did not do it wisely or gently. I felt his prophecy was not correct, and I told him so. To my knowledge, that man has never prophesied again. No even once. Actually, we are enjoined by the bible to evaluate prophecies, but how we do it is a primary concern.

Oh, how I wish I could be as gentle as the Holy Spirit!

Self-Control

The Greek word used in the Bible is egkrates a derivative from egkrateia, which means self-control (the virtue of one who masters his desires and passions.) The King James Version translates the term “temperance.”

In this context, applying the term to the Holy Spirit, self-control implies a balancing principle. Someone who is sane, thoughtful. Someone reliable, not weird or a “weirdo.” It suggests someone not given to unbridled emotion, but balanced in thought and demeaner. In other words, someone trustworthy, Someone we can all count on to be accurate and reliable.

Yes, that’s the Holy Spirit: a Person just like God the Father and Jesus (and Dr Seuss who says what He means and means what He says!).

Who is the Holy Spirit? What's He like?

We know Him by His fruit.  Apple trees produce apples and the Holy Spirit produces love, joy and peace everywhere He goes. He generates patience, kindness and goodness. He makes us more faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. 

Anyone want more of the Holy Spirit?

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