What IS the Holy Spirit?

[silentdeb]

I’m sorry, this is a dumb question even for me.

I seem to really find it difficult to grasp what the Holy Spirit really is. I know WHO he is - the third person of the Trinity. :yup: But what is this… entity? Something of God that permeates everything? Something more concrete?

I know, it’s a daft question. I’m happy to believe in the Trinity, but every few weeks or so I realize that my grasp of the nature of this Third Person is quite nebulous indeed. Usually a frenzied bout of research will produce something that makes me say ‘AHA! I FINALLY GET IT!’ - and I do get it, for a while. And then it’s gone. I have no idea why.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens when you’re not raised Catholic.

So please forgive the stupid question, but if you have a moment, I would love to hear what your concept of the Holy Spirit is.

Thank you all. :grouphug:

 

[Miserissima]

I seem to really find it difficult to grasp what the Holy Spirit really is. I know WHO he is - the third person of the Trinity. :yup: But what is this… entity? Something of God that permeates everything? Something more concrete?

Wow. What an awe-inspiring question. (Incidentally, this forum is quickly becoming my favorite.) You’re not daft at all.

My understanding is that the Holy Spirit is the personification of God’s Spirit left in the world.

The Holy Spirit would be easier to understand if He had a name, not just a title, like “The Comforter.” We know that He existed with God before the world, with Jesus Christ. Jesus came to us incarnate, and the Holy Spirit came to be among His people and will not leave us.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses consider the Holy Spirit God’s active force, not a part of the Trinity, but a power that goes forth and emanates from God. Understanding their view helped me to better appreciate the Catholic idea. I agree that the Holy Spirit is, in a sense, Gods active force among us. But the Holy Spirit is both a “who” and a “what.”

The Holy Spirit compels us to act on virtues and the graces we are given. He compels us to charity: either by making our weekly offering or reminding us to simply hold a door open for a mother whose arms are full of groceries.

He is the voice of our conscience. He is the force behind the miracle of conception. He is the dispenser of God’s graces here on earth.

The Holy Spirit is the One who helps us to look at a situation from a fresh perspective. He gives us empathy, and all of the good virtues. He also gives us the power to stand by our convictions, and the strength to ask for forgiveness.

As Jesus was here, visible, as God among us, the Holy Spirit is now here, invisible, as God among us.

Does that help a little? It’s all I’ve got!

 

[Mike_Brick]

…The Holy Spirit compels us to act on virtues and the graces we are given. He compels us to charity: either by making our weekly offering or reminding us to simply hold a door open for a mother whose arms are full of groceries.

He is the voice of our conscience. He is the force behind the miracle of conception. He is the dispenser of God’s graces here on earth.

The Holy Spirit is the One who helps us to look at a situation from a fresh perspective. He gives us empathy, and all of the good virtues. He also gives us the power to stand by our convictions, and the strength to ask for forgiveness.

As Jesus was here, visible, as God among us, the Holy Spirit is now here, invisible, as God among us.

Does that help a little? It’s all I’ve got!

Miserissima, great and simple answer, to a very good question! Thanks for sharing that with us. Nonetheless be prepared for, but don’t take personally, folks here who will try to pick your answer to pieces.

Peace to All

 

[Ahimsa]

The Holy Spirit is not a “what”, no matter “who” tells you otherwise.

Start from that beginning, and you’ll be fine.

Start from a “what”, and “who” knows where you’ll end up.

Is God the Son a “what”? Is God the Father a “what”? If not, then God the Spirit is not a “what”, nor a “when”, nor a “where”, nor a “why”, nor a “how”. God the Spirit is a Person, a Who who deserves a Who-are-you.

 

[silentdeb]

Wow. What an awe-inspiring question. (Incidentally, this forum is quickly becoming my favorite.) You’re not daft at all.

Aren’t you a dear - thank you!

My understanding is that the Holy Spirit is the personification of God’s Spirit left in the world.

The Holy Spirit would be easier to understand if He had a name, not just a title, like “The Comforter.” We know that He existed with God before the world, with Jesus Christ. Jesus came to us incarnate, and the Holy Spirit came to be among His people and will not leave us.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses consider the Holy Spirit God’s active force, not a part of the Trinity, but a power that goes forth and emanates from God. Understanding their view helped me to better appreciate the Catholic idea. I agree that the Holy Spirit is, in a sense, Gods active force among us. But the Holy Spirit is both a “who” and a “what.”

The Holy Spirit compels us to act on virtues and the graces we are given. He compels us to charity: either by making our weekly offering or reminding us to simply hold a door open for a mother whose arms are full of groceries.

He is the voice of our conscience. He is the force behind the miracle of conception. He is the dispenser of God’s graces here on earth.

The Holy Spirit is the One who helps us to look at a situation from a fresh perspective. He gives us empathy, and all of the good virtues. He also gives us the power to stand by our convictions, and the strength to ask for forgiveness.

As Jesus was here, visible, as God among us, the Holy Spirit is now here, invisible, as God among us.

Does that help a little? It’s all I’ve got!

chews on this for a bit The Holy Spirit is what moves us, yes?

 

[silentdeb]

The Holy Spirit is not a “what”, no matter “who” tells you otherwise.

Start from that beginning, and you’ll be fine.

Start from a “what”, and “who” knows where you’ll end up.

Is God the Son a “what”? Is God the Father a “what”? If not, then God the Spirit is not a “what”, nor a “when”, nor a “where”, nor a “why”, nor a “how”. God the Spirit is a Person, a Who who deserves a Who-are-you.

laughing Well said, and I’m sorry - I should definitely have worded it differently. The ‘what’ was asking for a definition - as in ‘Okay, you have a child you named Thing, but WHAT is it - a boy or a girl?’

Or ‘Your pet is Thing, but what is it - a dog, cat, turtle, hamster, platypus?’

You’re absolutely right - I just have trouble conceptualizing God the Holy Spirit in a way I don’t with God the Father or God the Son. I guess I’ve never NEEDED to, because I was raised believing in both - but the Trinity is a comparatively new concept for me, I’m afraid!

 

[Miserissima]

Nonetheless be prepared for, but don’t take personally, folks here who will try to pick your answer to pieces.

Noted!

chews on this for a bit The Holy Spirit is what moves us, yes?

Yes! That’s it, exactly! He is the vehicle of God’s grace! He moves un both spiritually in our consciences and is the way by which our souls are joined to our bodies. He is the “spark of life” in God’s creation. Think of the Sistene Chapel and the power that God is going to touch Adam’s finger - that zap that came from God is His Holy Spirit.

Again, that’s just my understanding, okay?

The Holy Spirit is not a “what”, no matter “who” tells you otherwise.

Start from that beginning, and you’ll be fine.

Start from a “what”, and “who” knows where you’ll end up.

Is God the Son a “what”? Is God the Father a “what”? If not, then God the Spirit is not a “what”, nor a “when”, nor a “where”, nor a “why”, nor a “how”. God the Spirit is a Person, a Who who deserves a Who-are-you.

I already explained that it is my personal understanding - limited as it is as I am just a human. Let me clarify the “who” v. “what” I said earlier:

1. The “who” is the personification as the Third Member of the Trinity: The Comforter, or Paraclete: “But when the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me.” (John 15:26)
2. The “what” as in He does not have a body, but is an entity: “And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) I liken that wo when Jesus was called “The Word,” in the beginning of John.

We humans are “whats” when you consider us as distinct entities. Add personality and then we become a “who.”

 

[Lazerlike42]

If you want to understand the Holy Spirit, you have to understand the Trinity. It’s somewhat difficult to seperate them - after all, they are “undivided unity,” as the hymn puts it.

So let’s start at the beginning, as was suggested. “In the beginning,” you have God. Just start with that concept, without worrying about anything else. Acts as though you’re one of the first Jews being taught about the Christian faith by St. John the Apostle. Your way of thinking is simply that you’ve got God, and God is One.

So you’ve got God, Who is One. And God is perfect, and all-powerful, and all-knowing. Focus on His omniscience - He knows all totally and perfectly.

For a moment, think about your own knowledge of something: your keyboard. You know your keyboard. The keyboard exists in your mind in some way, but it doesn’t exist there perfectly. You might not know at every moment where all the keys are. And you certainly probably don’t know all the dimensions of the keys. And without question you don’t know all the locations and speeds of all the electrons that make up those keys. So your knowledge has its limits.

God is without limit. His knowledge is total and complete. The keyboard that is in His mind does have every single thing the actual keyboard has, down to all the atoms, electrons, and quarks in all the right places going all the right speeds. The keyboard in God’s mind has everything that the actual keyboard has: including existence.

We are all just creatures of God. We exist because God has us always in His mind. I’ve been talking about God’s keyboard having all the same things as the actual keyboard, but the reality is that God’s keyboard is the actual keyboard. To put it in a simplified way, it exists only as something “in God’s mind.” And beyond that, it exists because God created it in His mind.

Now just as God knows the things He creates perfectly, he also knows perfectly the One Thing He that didn’t create: Himself. If He didn’t know Himself perfectly, He would have a limit, but God is without limit.

And so God’s Knowledge of Himself has everything He has - everything. It is without limit, It is perfect, etc. It has everything He has - including existence. God’s Knowledge of Himself is Himself, and It exists as well. This is the Son. The Son is God’s self-knowledge. Hence He is “the Word of God,” as St. John tells us.

Now God is all-Loving. He Loves everything perfectly, just as He knows everything perfectly. To Love is to give oneself. Our faith is saturated with this understanding of Love, from Christ showing us what Love really is by giving Himself on the Cross to the theology we have of marriage and sex.

God gives Himself to us, in fact, when we have accepted that Love and pass into Heaven. This is what Heaven is, to receive God - to know Him, as John’s Gospel tells us (17:3). Of course we can only receive Him to a certain degree, because He is without limit, and we are very limited. Thus, we cannot receive all of God.

But the Son can. The Son is without limit. And God the Father Loves the Son - perfectly. God the Father pours His entire Self out, giving His entire Self to the Son. He holds nothing back, and so what He pours out has everything He has - it literally is Him. This is the Holy Spirit.

So after all that, we can see that the “what” that the Holy Spirit is, is the Father being poured into the Son totally.

Hope that helps!

 

[Godlovestrength]

You cannot say What is, rather who is, what,… are the actions of the Holy Spirit

You might think of peoploe as the moter car (the temple of God as God put it in the bible)
The car goes no where without a moter, the moter is Jesus.
The moter does not turn on without gass, the gass is the Holy Spirit.
God made mankind to His likeness. God’s likeness on this earth cannot be found in the truest form of God in the spirit. Reason why because our carnal lives could not accept it. OK!

Think of it this way also. Jesus was brought up ready through his teaching to go out to minister ( the final plan of the new model car). The plan was presented to the world not accepted but the model still went out into the world. When it reached it’s place for the planner to give it a trial run He put power into the moter, (gass) then He sent it out to see what would happen. Many liked it bought it many rejected it because the gass put into it was foreign
to people asking what this new power was.

The power therefore has to be a perfect part of the whole design, for without it the design had no worth.
So… the Holy spirit as the gass is an integral part of the whole.Because It gives life.

In Ezecheil 10 . 10 the prophet speaks about the tabernacle and how it had wheeles wings anda boxed carrier. We are calledto be the tabernacle Jesus is the word in us and the wingsare the Holy Spirit taking us where He wishes us to be so that the best message can be related for the rightpeople to hear.

Yes This try being is complete to the needs of God to allow mankind to see Him in the spiritual form and since we can’t see Him in His pure form it has to be in the form of so as to speak(the burning bush). One is no good could not work whithout the other. since they are one and the same.
Godebless-]/-]

 

[dolphinlove]

I love these type of questions, cause i like to see what peoples points of views are and it helps broaden my own knowledge.
God bless you all

 

[silentdeb]

Yes! That’s it, exactly! He is the vehicle of God’s grace! He moves un both spiritually in our consciences and is the way by which our souls are joined to our bodies. He is the “spark of life” in God’s creation. Think of the Sistene Chapel and the power that God is going to touch Adam’s finger - that zap that came from God is His Holy Spirit.

I love that final mental picture! delighted

Again, that’s just my understanding, okay?

Noted, and I appreciate it very much that you were willing to share it. http://bestsmileys.com/hugging/1.gif

We humans are “whats” when you consider us as distinct entities. Add personality and then we become a “who.”

Now why couldn’t I have said it so eloquently?

 

[silentdeb]

And so God’s Knowledge of Himself has everything He has - everything. It is without limit, It is perfect, etc. It has everything He has - including existence. God’s Knowledge of Himself is Himself, and It exists as well. This is the Son. The Son is God’s self-knowledge. Hence He is “the Word of God,” as St. John tells us.

http://bestsmileys.com/wow/4.gif What an amazing way of describing it!

But the Son can. The Son is without limit. And God the Father Loves the Son - perfectly. God the Father pours His entire Self out, giving His entire Self to the Son. He holds nothing back, and so what He pours out has everything He has - it literally is Him. This is the Holy Spirit.

That is overwhelming… and very helpful, yes!

So after all that, we can see that the “what” that the Holy Spirit is, is the Father being poured into the Son totally.

http://bestsmileys.com/hyper/3.gif Yes! Oh, thank you so much!

 

[silentdeb]

The power therefore has to be a perfect part of the whole design, for without it the design had no worth. So… the Holy spirit as the gass is an integral part of the whole.Because It gives life.

I like that way of looking at it - it makes great sense. Thank you! http://bestsmileys.com/hugging/1.gif

 

[silentdeb]

I love these type of questions, cause i like to see what peoples points of views are and it helps broaden my own knowledge.
God bless you all

Thank you, I feel less silly for posting it, then!
(I hope we get to hear all about Europe after your trip!)