Section 1 - Introduction
                 God Himself
 

Introduction

As believers in God and in Jesus Christ, His Son, we are possessors of holy spirit which seals us and entitles us to spiritual blessings. We also believe that each of us has a spirit that keeps us alive. We also hear of angels that bring good tidings and protect good people as well as of evil spirits that harass and harm people. As such, this little word can become a source of confusion unless we are aware of the facts. We should, surely, want to know and understand what the term ‘spirit’ means from its scriptural usage.

‘Spirit’ is the English equivalent for the Hebrew "ruach" or "ruch" and the Greek "pneuma" when used figuratively (literally = BLOW-effect: blast, or wind, and by implication, spirit).

Perhaps the best analogy is given by our Lord Himself in speaking to Nicodemus on the subject of being born of spirit. 

Jn.3:8a  ‘The blast is blowing where it wills, and the sound of it you are hearing, 
but you are not aware whence it is coming and where it is going.’ 

The word "spirit" is used in a number of ways in  Scripture. Care must be exercised, therefore, when studying this very important subject. The actual intended reference of each occurrence must be ascertained from the context. 

In Scripture, the word ‘spirit’ is used with reference to:
  i)  God Himself
  ii)  the imperceptible power of life, intelligence, action, in living entities -  humans and animals
  iii)  the divine power as manifested in His invisible, intangible operations
  iv)  metaphysical beings
 

i) God Himself

In its highest and most important sense, to us, 'spirit' refers to God Himself. 

Jn.4:24  ‘God is spirit, and those who are worshipping Him must be worshipping 
in spirit and truth.’ 

Light is not God. The brightness that the sun emits is not God. But, God is like light. Just as the light we see dispels darkness, God dispels spiritual darkness. He removes the inherent ignorance and illumines our minds to His presence, His will, and His intentions.

Love is not God, either. He is not some abstract quality, a feeling, or an emotion. But, God is like love. He continues to care and to provide the very best for the welfare of His creation - in spite of its apparent rejection of Him.

In the Greek texts cited above, the verb to be, estin, is, is present in the first two. In Greek, the presence of this is, the verb to be, tells us that we are to take the statements figuratively. The third statement, however, does not have the verb to be, is. Its omission signals that we are to take this assertion as literal, as fact and not figure.

The fact is that God is, literally, spirit. This is, perhaps, the only definition of what Deity is to be found in the Scriptures. 

God is not a spirit. He is not limited. He does not occupy a particular volume of space. He does not conform to any shape or form. Should God be ascribed an intrinsic shape, it would mean that He has to conform to some law or principle that determines and controls that form. Certain scientific laws would, therefore, limit and control His existence to finite specifications and be above His authority and beyond His power to act against. He is, literally, spirit and thus permeates all space. Everything that exists is IN Him. It cannot be said that any specific point marks a place that is outside of Him. 

Act.17:27,28 …to be sure, not far from each one of us is He inherent, 
for in Him we are living and moving and are,…’ 

Here we begin to see the pivotal position Christ has been given by God. He is the only channel through which God communicates with His creation. He is the Image and Representation (Col.1:15; 2Cor.4:4), the Representative and the Mediator of God His Father, as well as of mankind (1Tim.2:5; 2Cor.5:19; 2Cor.5:14; Heb.2:9).

Now, since God is spirit, what do we understand when we refer to His holy spirit? To answer this we need to turn to the Scriptures where they refer to the conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb, when ‘the Word became flesh’.

Mt.1:18-21  Now Jesus Christ's birth was thus: At the espousal of His mother, Mary, to Joseph, ere their coming together, she was found pregnant by holy spirit……Now at his brooding over these things, lo! a messenger of the Lord appeared to him in a trance, saying, "Joseph, son of David, you may not be afraid to accept Miriam, your wife, for that which is being generated in her is of holy spirit. Now she shall be bringing forth a Son, and you shall be calling His name Jesus, for He shall be saving His people from their sins." 

Lk.1:35  And answering, the messenger said to her, "Holy spirit shall be coming on you, 
and the power of the Most High shall be overshadowing you; 
wherefore also the holy One Who is being generated shall be called the Son of God. 

Jn.1:14  And the Word became flesh and tabernacles among us, and we gaze at His glory, 
a glory as of an only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 

Heb.1:5  For to whom of the messengers said He at any time, 
"My Son art Thou!  I, today, have begotten Thee"? 
And again,  "I shall be to Him for a Father  And He shall be to Me for a Son"? 

"In both Hebrew and Greek, things are often called he or she. Only occasionally, in English, do we give gender to things without sex. But, in the languages of inspiration, this is the rule, rather than the exception. As a result, the use of the neuter gender is arresting, especially when it is used where we would naturally expect the masculine or feminine. This is the case in the Greek at least, with the word ‘spirit’. In the New Testament ‘spirit’ is always it, never he or she. Grammatically, it is always a thing, even if used of a person. The terms for God and Christ are always masculine. The word ‘spirit’ may easily be varied to the masculine form if that were desirable or correct. The Scriptures deliberately reject the affixes which would be used if it were a distinct personality.

An apparent exception is sometimes produced to attempt to prove the opposite. The holy spirit (in Jn.14:16,26 for example) is called a consoler or entreater, a paraklhtos, paraklêtos, in the Greek. This word is masculine. The pronouns referring to it are, of course, masculine also. This is supposed to prove that the holy Spirit is masculine. But the immediate context, in explanation, speaks of the holy Spirit, and refers to it as it. This is a purely grammatical concord. Perhaps it can be understood by English readers in another example. The spirit is an earnest (Eph.1:14) or arrabwn, arrabön. This is a masculine noun. An earnest is not of the male sex. It has no individuality. The word paraklêtos no more proves these things than arrabön. We can see here how little the gender has to do with sex or personality. It is a delusion to reason about Greek grammar as though it were English. No one would think of using the fact that ‘earnest’ is masculine to prove the ‘personality’ of the holy Spirit. Its ‘personality’ depends on the fact that it is God’s Spirit, not on arguments that lose all their force when examined in the light of the languages of inspiration." 
(adapted from ‘SPIRIT, SPIRITS and SPIRITUALITY’, by A.E.Knoch, pp.10,11, CPC)

The Father, the only true God, being spirit, holy spirit, permeates the whole universe. He is, therefore, present everywhere. It is asked in Scripture, 

Ps.139:7-12  Whither could I go from Your spirit, 
And whither could I run away from Your presence?
If I should climb to the heavens, You are there, 
And should I make my berth in the unseen, behold, You are there. 
Should I wear the wings of dawn, 
Should I tabernacle in the hindmost sea, 
Even there Your hand would guide me, 
And Your right hand, it would hold me. 
If I said, Surely darkness, it snuffed me up, 
And night is belted about me, 
Even darkness, it is not darkening to You, 
And the night, as the day, is giving light; Darkness is as light. 

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Proceed to:
....Section 2 - The Power of Life
....Section 3 - The Power in God's Operations I
....Section 4 - The Power in God's Operations II
....Section 5 - Metaphysical Beings I
....Section 6 - Metaphysical Beings II
....Section 7 - Conclusion