Who Is the Holy Spirit?

Most of us can relate to God the Father if we imagine the most caring, nurturing parent we have ever known. And we can picture Jesus the Son, because He lived among us as a person. But the Holy Spirit is harder to picture and relate to. We have no easy human comparisons. The Bible, however, does give us specific information about Him:

A Personality. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as a person, a member of the Godhead, along with God the Father and God the Son:

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the FATHER and of the SON and of the HOLY SPIRIT.”
—Matthew 28:19.

The Bible tells us that the Spirit has personal characteristics: a mind (Romans 8:27); wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:10); feelings of love toward us (Romans 15:30); feelings of grief when we sin (Ephesians 4:30); the ability to teach us (Nehemiah 9:20); and power to guide us (Acts 16:6, 7).

Involvement in Creation. The Holy Spirit participated in the forming of our world with the Father and the Son.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. . . . And the SPIRIT OF GOD moved upon the face of the waters.”
—Genesis 1:1, 2, KJV.