Who is the Holy Spirit According to the Bible?
Paul says in Ephesians 4:4 that there is “one Spirit.” In Ephesians 2:18 is says, "For through him (Jesus) we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." But the Bible speaks about the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ which involves two divine beings. So how is it then that there is only one Spirit? The answer is something the majority miss because most have been indoctrinated with the Catholic idea of the Holy Spirit as another being rather than God's own Spirit.
First of all, everything originates from the Father. And then it goes thru Jesus.
1 Corinthians 8:6 - "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things ,and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." Notice here "of whom" and "by whom". Everything is 'of the Father' and then it becomes 'by the Son'.
The Holy Spirit is the mind, power, character and personal presence of the very life of God that the Father sends through His Son to us. Or to put it another way to make sure this is clear. The Holy Spirit is the presence and power of the Father manifested through Jesus Christ His begotten son. This is not a separate person of the Godhead who is being sent, it is the very life of God coming to us through His Son.
Everything Christ received He inherited from His Father including His very own life which is self-existent as it came from the Father. “For as the Father has life in himself; so has he given to the Son to have life in himself.” John 5:26
But not only His life but Christ also received of His Fathers Spirit. Thus the Father and Son are one in Spirit, and that one Spirit proceeds from the Father and comes to us through His Son.
Galatians 4:6 "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father." This Spirit is the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He received from His Father. So when you receive the Spirit of God, you receive the Spirit of His Son into your heart also. The Father did not send another individual. He sent the Spirit of His Son.
This is why Paul equates the “Spirit of God” with the “Spirit of Christ” as it is the same one Spirit of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. And so we find that the Holy Spirit is the same Spirit whether it is spoken of as pertaining to God or Christ.
“But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead (God the Father) dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead (God the Father) shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Romans 8:9-11
Referring to the Holy Spirit, Paul says that Christ is that Spirit. “Now the Lord [Jesus] is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 2 Corinthians 3:17
Thus through the Spirit both the Father and Son come and make their abode in you. “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” John 14:23
So it is by the Holy Spirit that Christ lives in us. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:” Galatians 2:20
The Spirit of Christ is our Comforter (parakletos) which also means “helper” and is translated as such in the NKJV, “For I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.” Philippians 1:19
Christ had also spoken through all the prophets. “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” 1 Peter 1:11
Christ has always partaken of the Spirit of God since He was begotten of the Father before anything they created. When Jesus was incarnated on earth 2000 years ago, He was full of that same Holy Spirit of God from His conception, and throughout His earthy sojourn as the Son of Man. After His resurrection and ascension to Heaven, He sent “another comforter” to earth to empower His people till the end of time, which was Himself in Spirit form.
Only the Father and the Son can be present outside of their bodies throughout the Universe. Their Holy Spirit is the way in which they are omnipresent while also being physically present in the Heavenly Sanctuary as we speak. This is where the nascent Catholics made their mistakes when coming up with the incomprehensible doctrine of the trinity versus the plain word of God. In creating the trinity they philosophized when they should have left it alone as it is totally un-Scriptural.
1 Corinthians 15:45-47
“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. v46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. v47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”
Here the Apostle Paul is talking about the two Adams. The first Adam was the first created man on earth who sinned by eating the forbidden fruit. The second (last) Adam is Christ who came to redeem us. Notice that Paul says that this One was made “a quickening spirit.” This is the other important thing about Christ. Not just His earthly human life, but also what happened after.
In verse 46 Paul clarifies that the natural comes first and then the spiritual. This is exactly what happened with Jesus. He came to earth first as a man, ministered, ascended to Heaven, and then at Pentecost, He came back in Spirit with mighty power! Both times it was to instruct and sanctify His people. And that is the same purpose today.
So the Holy Spirit of God the Father is now also the Spirit of Christ which Paul confirms in verse 47. So “the Lord from Heaven” in verse 47 is the “quickening Spirit” of verse 45. It cannot be any clearer. The Spirit of God and of Christ is what Ellen White calls the “third person of the Godhead” as a spiritual manifestation and hence another form. It is different than the way we think of the word “person” when applied to human beings which is a spirit in a body.
This is because these divine beings can do something we cannot. They can leave their bodies in one place (the Heavenly Sanctuary), and also be omnipresent in every place throughout the universe at the same time by their Holy Spirit. In this way they can also enter the hearts of a repentant believer.
1 Corinthians 2:11 "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." Man's spirit is limited to within his own body. That is not characterized here with the Spirit of God.
The teachings of the Catholic trinity (three persons in one god) are now rampant in most Churches which destroys this wonderful truth of who the Holy Spirit really is by the introduction of a totally different third being which does not actually exist! And as if that were not bad enough, Satan receives the unwitting worship of millions upon millions of people through this serious deception that he has inspired man to create. Please refer to the document under the Ellen White heading, "The Counterfeit wants the Throne".
So the Holy Spirit is the very life of God coming from the Father and shared by the Son. It is the personal presence of the Father and the Son given to us. Those who partake of this divine presence and power within, the life of God, and allow Him to transform their characters into the likeness of His Son, will someday personally meet this wondrous God of love.
For further study, consider the following:
1 Corinthians 3:16 "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
Ezekiel 36:27 "And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."
Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
Ephesians 3:17 "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love."
Ephesians 4:6 "One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Colossians 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."
Colossians 1:27 "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:"
1 John 4:12-13 "....If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit."
Acts 10:38
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
Acts 20:28 "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."