Who is the Holy Spirit?
What the Bible says about the Holy Spirit:
Old Testament
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the SPIRIT OF GOD was hovering over the surface of the waters” -Genesis 1:1
“Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon me, and he told me to say, “This is what the LORD says to the people of Israel: I know what you are saying, for I know every thought that comes into your minds.” -Ezekiel 11:5
Jesus
“As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove.” -Mark 1:10
“But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.” -John 14:26
The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” -Luke 4:17-21
New Testament
“Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” -1 Corinthians 3:16
“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.Old Testament” -Galatians 5:16
FAQs about the Holy Spirit
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When we say the Holy Spirit is a person, we don’t mean he is a human being.
[ person ≠ human ]The term person does not mean he is human or even any type of “material”. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the three persons of the Trinity.
[Trinity = 1 essence (God) and 3 persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)]
Person simply means that the Holy Spirit is a being who speaks, moves, feels, loves, acts, and thinks.
This is why we refer to the Holy Spirit as “he” and not “it”.
[He is the Holy Spirit] ✅
[It is the Holy Spirit] ❌
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At the end of the Gospel of Matthew (the first book of the New Testament), Jesus is giving his disciples instructions for what they should do after he returns to heaven. This is called the great commission. Jesus tells them: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
This is evidence from THE SON, that the Holy Spirit is just as much God as he and the Father are God.
5 Day Devotional - Getting to Know the Holy Spirit
God lives in us! This is the miracle of the Holy Spirit, he dwells within us. These 5 devotionals will go over the common ways the Holy Spirit works through us. Just as the Father sent Jesus to do an awesome job, he also sent the Holy Spirit after Jesus to fill us and continue Jesus’ work! The Bible calls us “God’s temple”. In ancient times, a temple was a house where they believed a god lived. Being a Christian means we don’t have to go to some building to be where God is. Being a Christian means we are a home for God! Jesus tells us this the night before he was crucified, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.”
When God lives in us, things don’t stay the same. When he moves in, he begins to make changes to his living space! This is what we call “spiritual formation” or “sanctification”. Now let’s dive into some of the ways the Spirit begins to change us.
Each devotional provides a single verse from a chapter of the Bible. We suggest you read the entire chapter while working through each day. For example, the first verse is Luke 24:32, so read all of Luke 24.
Day 1 - The Holy Spirit… Ignites.
“They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?
Luke 24:32
Have you ever heard someone talking about Jesus or singing a worship song and had goosebumps? You can’t exactly explain it, but something felt… different? This is exactly what two men in the Bible felt while walking with a stranger outside of Jerusalem.
In Luke 24, Jesus was walking with two of his followers after his resurrection. The thing is.. The followers had no idea it was Jesus! As they were walking with this “stranger”, he started to tell them all the ways the Scriptures had predicted what Jesus did. They finally sat to eat and Jesus revealed himself and then disappeared. The verse above is what the two men said after Jesus had left, “didn’t our hearts burn within us.”
The Holy Spirit shares with us the presence of Jesus. These two men were in the presence of Jesus, and their hearts burned! This is another way of saying they felt “different”.
The Holy Spirit ignites in two ways:
He makes our hearts burn by bringing the presence of Jesus near us.
He ignites us with passion!
After these men had their interaction with Jesus they did not just remain where they were. These men got up and told all their friends about what happened! They were ignited or “set ablaze” by their experience with Jesus.
So what?
These men’s hearts burned because they knew how it felt to be with Jesus, they had felt this before. They had spent time with Jesus.
Your heart won’t burn all the time, but we can identify who it is when we are burning! Treasure those moments and share them with others.
Jesus says, “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.”
Now what?
Think of a time when you have felt something different.
Where were you? What was happening around you?
This day/week, try to recreate that environment. Whether it’s by listening to the playlist we have provided, listening to a sermon on Youtube, or reading the same Scripture. As you do, ask God to ignite your heart with what you are using to seek him with.
If you’ve never felt “ignited”... try one of these things and ask God to ignite your heart. The Bible says, “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)
Day 2 – The Holy Spirit… Convicts.
“And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.”
John 16:8
There are certain words the Bible uses all the time that have a bad wrap in our current culture. The word conviction/convicted/convict would definitely fall into that category. To convict simply means to convince with solid evidence. So what does this tell us about the Holy Spirit? Well.. a couple of things.
First, he knows the perfect plan of God. Basically, the Holy Spirit is the wisest person in the Universe. To know what God wants is to be wise, and the Holy Spirit knows it all.
Second, he wants us to know the will of God. The term “sin” is another word with a bad wrap and people tend to avoid saying it. Sin means to miss the mark and our mark is to do what God wants us to do.
Jesus’ quote in the verse above shows us that the Holy Spirit does not only tell us all the things we’re doing wrong. He also tells us about the goodness of God! When we are listening to the voice within our head, we should constantly be filtering what we tell ourselves. The Holy Spirit does not condemn us, he convicts us. He will never tell us we are worthless or helpless because we aren’t and that’s not what God thinks ever. He might convince us to change the sinful things we are doing, but he will never combine our sinful acts and our identity together. God does not define us by what we do, but by who lives within us and who died for us.
So what?
The Holy Spirit convicts, he does not condemn.
Conviction is not a negative thing. It is evidence that God is changing us! I’ve seen it compared to a battle field:
On a battlefield there are two types of people: those who look peaceful and those who look like they are in the fight of their lives. The difference is, those who look peaceful are those who have already fallen, and those who are fighting are still alive!
Conviction is the Holy Spirit’s way of showing us the true battle. It’s a sign that God is still fighting with us, calling us, and changing us.
Now what?
Identify some things you may be doing regularly that you know are wrong. This is what conviction is. When you identify the certain behavior remember 2 things:
This is the Spirit of God telling you this is wrong. The creator of the Universe is speaking to you!
This does not change how God loves you or views you, it only proves that he loves you. He is helping you change and live a life more full of joy and peace! He has your best interest in mind.
Next, thank God for bringing this to light for you. It shows he is partnering with us
Finally, ask for forgiveness for your sin and know that Jesus died for this very reason. Ask him to help you change and grow out of this sinful behavior.
Lord, I know you do not desire for me to continue in my sin. Thank you for sending your Son for the forgiveness of my sins. I know you live within me and are changing me day by day. Help me to continue to listen to the ways you want me to change. Thank you for partnering with me. I am sorry for the times I have gone my own way, but I know this is just the start of a beautiful journey with you. Forgive me Father in the name of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. Amen.
Day 3 – The Holy Spirit… Comforts.
“But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”
John 14:26-27
How many times a week would you say you get overwhelmed? Often this occurs because the pace of life or the situations we are facing have a tendency to crowd over us. We use words like stress and anxiety, but what we really mean is discomfort. Life can become uncomfortable very easily, and it can lack any kind of peace.
A famous pastor, Dallas Willard, once said the best description of Jesus would be relaxed. Jesus lived an incredibly uncomfortable life. He was very poor, born and placed in a hay-filled bowl for animals, ran away to Egypt because the government wanted to kill him, and this was all before he was 1 years old! As he got older, people realized he was the Messiah, so crowds of people flooded around him constantly. Oh, and the government still wanted to kill him. Yet through all of this, we can still say he seemed very relaxed.
So what?
St. Augustine once wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Jesus tells us in the verse above that he left us a gift -- peace of mind and heart. This gift can only be accessed through the gift he was really sending -- the Holy Spirit. The world cannot give us this gift he says, but God can.
Jesus was not swayed by the discomforts of his life because he knew the world could not give him true comfort anyway. True comfort comes from God, not from anything the world can give.
Now what?
We live in a world of comfort. We have all developed a sort of addiction to something.
Take some time to recognize some ways you go to the world for comfort. When you’re stressed, what do you turn to? What are things, if taken from you, would make you extremely uncomfortable? How often are you mindlessly scrolling?
Allow the Holy Spirit to enlighten something to you that you need to stop relying on for comfort. Once you find something, be more mindful of it, and fill some of that time with the Holy Spirit.
Finally, read this verse:
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Phillipians 4:6-7
Day 4 – The Holy Spirit… Equips
The LORD has filled Bezalel with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts.
Exodus 35:31
What have you done that you can truly take all the credit for? The more you think about it, the more you realize how little control you have over who you are or what you’ve done. If you can make people laugh easily, is that because you decided as a baby that you would be funny? Or if it’s easy for you to do math, is that because you began your times tables before anyone else? There are so many “random” skills and gifts we possess that we can take very little credit for!
The beautiful thing about being a follower of Jesus is that we know who gets the credit! The Apostle Paul writes to the Christians in the city of Corinth, “It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.”
So what?
When we begin to compare ourselves to other people, we can think very negatively of ourselves. Social media makes this incredibly easy to do, but it’s what our culture is built on. Some people are smarter, prettier, faster, funnier. The list goes on and on. You can probably think of a person for each one of those categories.
The problem is, when we compare, we become disappointed in what God has made. God alone decides what our strengths and weaknesses are, it’s our job to use them for his glory. Each one of us possesses gifts given by the Spirit that are helpful for our family and community. It’s why God made us!
Ephesians 2:10 -- For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Now what?
Get a pen and paper. Think of what God would write if he was describing what he made to someone else. The thing he made has to be you! Write as if he is presenting a piece of art he created. What are some things he’d be really excited to share? Finally, at the end, write what he made you for.
Example:
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to place your attention on my creation, Tommy. I made him myself and have placed some pretty neat designs within him. I gave Tommy a natural love for the outdoors. When he goes outside into the woods it makes him very excited, and actually allows him to appreciate me more. I also made Tommy slightly shy, but this is so he would be more approachable! People can come up to Tommy and feel safe.”
Day 5 – The Holy Spirit… Directs
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
Romans 8:12-14
Every Christian reaches the same point of their journey where they wonder how people hear God. When we hear others say, “God told me” or “the Spirit led me”, it almost makes us angry! How in the world are these people claiming to hear God?
Now, I can’t tell you that one day you will actually hear the audible voice of God, but what I can tell you is you know how to be led by the Spirit already. With something as “mysterious” as being led by the Holy Spirit, it’s incredibly important that you take baby steps to avoid frustration. Most people go straight to the big decisions like what job they should have for the rest of their life. This is not where we should start.
So what?
The Bible tells us that those who can say Jesus is Lord have the Holy Spirit. If we have him, it means he is working within us.
In order to be led, we first must be paying attention. The Holy Spirit hijacks our conscience. So when we feel like we should or shouldn’t do anything, we can be confident that this is from the Holy Spirit! Now, this does take some practice because we still have our sinful nature urging us to do things we shouldn’t. A lot of people use the term “trusting your gut”, but this can just as easily be called being led by the Spirit. The beautiful thing about being led by the Holy Spirit is that most of the time we won’t even realize it! But we can still be confident that God is leading us in the right direction.
Turn the ears of your heart on. Try to sense what your conscience is pulling you to do. It can be as simple as wondering whether you should turn the TV on or not.
Being led by the Spirit is a process of translation, not communication. The Spirit is always communicating, we just have to realize that what we are thinking could be him speaking and leading.
Now what?
Consider some of the random decisions you have made today or yesterday.
Start to believe that some of these decisions were probably influenced by the Holy Spirit.
Today or tomorrow, be aware of your thoughts. Begin to translate them from your thoughts to the nudges of the Holy Spirit.
Finally, take.baby.steps! This is something we are practicing, not mastering. Enjoy the journey!
Galatians 5:16-17
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
Want to Know More?
5 Resources to help you understand the Holy Spirit on a deeper level
Book: Jesus In Me
Book: Jesus… Continued
Book: Forgotten God
Bible Project App — skill study on the Holy Spirit
Sermon: The Person of the Holy Spirit
We want to hear from you: Did you try this devotional? Let us know so we can hear how God moved! Contact us!