On this page, 7 sections
The one drawing
Across the canon
Old Testament
New Testament
The other 57 books of the canon carry none.
12 passages
Where Scripture speaks
The passages this subject stands on, in canon order.
Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed,Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
The Holy Spirit in Scripture, in full
The Holy Spirit is not a force or a feeling. He is God (the same God as the Father and the Son), present and active in the world today. From the very first page of the Bible, the Spirit is there. Genesis describes the Spirit of God moving over the waters at creation (Genesis 1:2), active from the very beginning of everything.
Throughout the Old Testament, the Spirit came upon specific people for specific purposes: to lead, to build, to prophesy, to fight. But the prophets looked forward to something greater. Joel promised a day when God would pour out his Spirit on all people, not just a few chosen leaders, so that sons and daughters would prophesy and dreams and visions would spread widely (Joel 2:28). Ezekiel promised a new heart and a new spirit placed within God's people, with God's own Spirit living inside them (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
Jesus began his public ministry by announcing that this promise was being fulfilled in him. He stood up in the synagogue and read that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, anointing him to preach good news, heal the brokenhearted, and set captives free (Luke 4:18). Everything Jesus did, he did in the power of the Spirit.
Before his death, Jesus made an extraordinary promise to his disciples. He told them he would send another Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who would live with them and be in them (John 14:16-17). He called the Spirit the Comforter, or Helper: the same kind of word used for someone who comes alongside another person to support and defend them. Jesus said it was actually better for his disciples that he go away, because only then could the Spirit come to be with them all, everywhere, all the time (John 16:7).
That promise was kept on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit came upon the gathered believers with power, and from that day the church has never been without him (Acts 2:1-4). He filled ordinary people with boldness to speak, wisdom to lead, and love to serve. The book of Acts could almost be called the Acts of the Spirit, since so much of what happens is his work through the apostles.
The Spirit's work in a believer's life does not stop at conversion. Paul describes the Spirit helping believers in their weakness, even praying for them when they do not know what to pray (Romans 8:26). He produces fruit in a person's character over time (love, joy, peace, patience, and more) that could never be produced by effort alone (Galatians 5:22-23). He also gives gifts to believers, different abilities for the good of the whole church (1 Corinthians 12:4-7).
Because of the Spirit, God is not distant. He is present in every believer, described by Paul as making a person's very body into a temple, a place where God himself dwells (1 Corinthians 6:19). This is the ongoing promise of the whole Bible finally realized: God with his people, not just visiting from time to time, but living within them.
The Holy Spirit is the reason Christianity is not only a memory of what Jesus once did, but a living relationship with God happening right now, in the present, in the life of anyone who belongs to Christ.
5 voices
What teachers have said
The Spirit's illumination is an earnest of everlasting light; sanctification is an earnest of perfect holiness; and his comforts are earnests of everlasting joys.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710
What meaneth then, If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but, ye cannot receive the Spirit, so long as ye know Christ according to the flesh? Christ departing in the body, not the Holy Ghost only, but the Father, and the Son also came spiritually.
Augustine of Hippo · Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Written before 430.
Isaiah signifies that the Spirit was indeed one and indivisible, but his operations diverse.
Cyril of Jerusalem · Catechetical Lecture 16:30
Written before 386.
It is only at the last that He instructs them to "go and teach all nations, and baptize them," when they were so soon to receive "the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, who should guide them into all the truth.
Tertullian · The Prescription Against Heretics
Written before 220.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
John Chrysostom · Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Written before 407.
Where it leads
Everything the site holds on the holy spirit
The words underneath
Each card is one Hebrew or Greek word behind the holy spirit. It gives the sense, the count across the canon, and the number in Strong's 1890 concordance.
parakletos: counsellor
Greek · G3875Strong's entry: an intercessor, consoler
paráklētos — Helper, Advocate, the Comforter Jesus promised
5 times in the New Testament · parakletos, in full →
chrisma: anointing
Greek · G5545Strong's entry: an unguent or smearing, i.e. (figuratively) the special endowment ("chrism") of the Holy Spirit
chrîsma — anointing, the Spirit's mark poured out on believers
3 times in the New Testament · chrisma, in full →
pneuma: spirit/breath: breath
Greek · G4151Strong's entry: a current of air, i.e. breath (blast) or a breeze; by analogy or figuratively, a spirit, i.e. (human) the rational soul, (by implication) vital principle, mental disposition, etc., or (superhuman) an angel, demon, or (divine) God, Christ's spirit, the Holy Spirit
pneûma — Spirit, wind, breath — God's own presence and power
378 times in the New Testament · pneuma, in full →
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