Is The Spirit a Force or a Person?

Unfortunately there is some confusion about who and what the Holy Spirit is. People sometimes refer to Him as a “thing” that you can get…. I have heard people ask others, “Have you got it yet?” referring to receiving the Holy Spirit. Likewise others boldly claim, “I got it!” believing they have received a certain blessing from God connected with the Holy Spirit.

Without being harsh, I wish to say the Holy Spirit, The Holy Ghost, The Spirit of the Lord, The Comforter, and the Spirit of God is NOT a “thing,” “force,” “influence,” or “it.” He is a Person just like the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I intend to demonstrate this from the Scriptures throughout this article. So if you hold the Word of God in high regards, then you will appreciate the wonderful truth that the Holy Spirit is an awesome divine Person.

Why Believe the Holy Spirit Is a Person?

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 16 A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. (John 16:12-16)

The Scriptures reveal the Holy Spirit as a person, with all the characteristics of a living, personal being. Thus He is not a force or a mere moving, but a divine Person!

The Lord Jesus clearly portrays the Holy Spirit as a Person through the titles, ministries, activities, and pronouns He used. Christ taught the Spirit would continue His ministry in the life of the apostles after His ascension (John 14:16, 26).

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (Jn. 14:16)

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. (Jn. 14:26)

The Holy Spirit is Not an Influence or Force 

One of the keys to our understanding about the Holy Spirit lies in our recognition that the Holy Spirit is not an “it”; He is a person.  Have you ever been asked, “Do you have the Holy Spirit? Do you have it?” Perhaps the following explanation will shed some light on why some believers have made this mistake:

The acts and workings of the Holy Spirit are so secret and mystical, so much is said of His influence, graces, power and gifts, that we are prone to think of Him as an influence, a power, a manifestation or influence of the divine nature, an agent rather than a Person. –Evans: The Great Doctrines of the Bible                                       

Some People confuse the Holy Spirit with a force, a power, an event, an experience, or a manifestation.  I also made this mistake early on in my Christian experience.  When I was younger in the Lord and before preparing for the ministry, I can recall referring to the Holy Spirit as “It”.    Through careful Bible study I soon discovered that the Holy Spirit is not an “it” in the purest since, but a “He” —a person, a member of the Trinity. Like the Father and the Son are divine Persons, so is the Spirit.

Resultantly, my entire perspective changed. When I begin to see the Holy Spirit as a person —not as a power, mere influence, impersonal force, a “moving” or an experience —I developed a far different perspective on the Holy Spirit’s ministry in my own life.

Before Jesus’ passion, he promised that the Father and He would send his disciples “another Comforter” (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7). The Comforter or Paraclete… (meaning one who gives support), is a helper, adviser, strengthener, encourager, ally, and advocate. “Another” points to the fact that Jesus was the first Paraclete/Comforter and is promising a replacement who, after he is gone, will carry on the teaching and testimony that Jesus started (John 16:6-7).

Paraclete ministry, by its very nature, is personal, relational ministry, implying the full personhood of the one who fulfills it. –Packer, J. I.: Concise Theology [Modified]

The Holy Spirit is Far More Than His Manifestations  

Are there other reasons for this false understanding of the Holy Spirit as an “It”? In many cases, a misunderstanding of Acts 2 where we read about the filling of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the first Christians and the first church:

Acts 2:1-4, And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. [2] And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. [3] And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. [4] And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

People tend to confuse the sights and sounds present at the Holy Spirit’s filling of the early church. They read of a rushing wind-like sound from heaven. They read of a mass of fire that seems to divide into tongues that touch each person. They read of the people speaking in languages (tongues) they didn’t previously learn through study. And they assume that the sound, the fire, and the unknown tongues are the Holy Spirit.

These are merely manifestations of the Spirit’s coming to empower the church on the day of Pentecost shortly after Jesus’ ascension. They are not the Holy Spirit Himself. The sound is as of a rushing mighty wind. The glowing light seems like as divided tongues of fire. The Holy Spirit is infinitely more than any single manifestation of His presence.

Unfortunately many people see the Triune God, as a He, a He, and an It.

I suspect another reason is that the King James Bible actually uses “it” in reference to the Spirit (Rom. 8:16, 26). God is a masculine word in the original language of the Bible, Jesus is a masculine word, but Spirit is a neuter word, a concept rather foreign to English. The word “Spirit” is literally “breath” or “wind,” though it was also translated “spirit” or “ghost” in a. d. 1611 when the King James Bible was translated. Sometime these serve as symbols of the Spirit (John 3:8). As a result, occasionally the King James Version refers to the Holy Spirit as “it.”

This, plus general theological uncertainty about the Holy Spirit, has caused some to be confused as to whether He is a real person. He is, of course, and many places in the KJV Bible refer to Him with a masculine pronoun as “Him or “He” rather than “It,” helping to dispel the impression that the Spirit is merely a force.

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: (Jn. 16:7, 8)
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (Jn. 16:13-15)

Notice in John 16:7, 8, 13–15, that twelve times in these verses

…the Greek masculine pronoun ekeinos (that one, He) is used of the Spirit. This is especially remarkable because the Greek word for spirit (pneuma) is neuter, and so should have a neuter pronoun; yet, contrary to ordinary usage, a masculine pronoun is here used. This is not a pictorial personification, but a plain, definite, clear-cut statement asserting the personality of the Holy Spirit.—Evans: The Great Doctrines of the Bible

The Holy Spirit Has the Characteristics of Personality 

One key reason why we believe in the “personality” of the Holy Spirit is that He has the characteristics of a person. He has intellect, emotion, and will.

Human Personality exists where there is intelligence, mind, will, reason, individuality, self-consciousness, and self-determination. It is more than mere consciousness—because animals have that—but self-consciousness. Personality is more than determination—because animals have this, also, even though this determination is the result of external influences—but self-determination, the power by which man by his own free will determines his actions from within.

Divine Personality is reflected in human personhood—it is part of what it means to be created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-28).  We are persons because God is three distinct Personalities.

Pantheism wrongly holds that this universe is God; thus all, everything is God, and God is everything; God is all, all is God. Accordingly God is identified with nature and not held to be independent of and separate from it. God is, therefore, a necessary but an unconscious force working in the world. 

But this concept of God is not taught anywhere in the Bible.  No, God is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe; it exists as an act of His intelligence, and will. The creation of the universe and man proves the personality of the Creator—God (Gen. 1:1, 26; John 1:1-3  Col. 1:15-17; Psa. 104:27-30; 75:6, 7).

The three foremost qualities of personhood are these:

a. Knowledge—an ability to know, understand, recognize, and have meaning.

b. Will—an ability to make choices and decisions on the basis of what one chooses to do, not as an instinctual response to external stimuli.

c. Emotion—an ability to feel, both to have and express feelings and to be aware of them.

The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person like the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let’s take a look at Scriptures that reveal these qualities associated with the Holy Spirit. An example of His “intellect” is found in 1 Corinthians 2:10–11, where the Spirit is said to know the things of God. 1 Cor. 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.

The Holy Spirit is presented as searching the deepest and profoundest truths of God, and possessing knowledge of His counsels sufficiently to understand His purposes. Could a mere influence do this?

The statement “the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” means that only the Spirit can reveal to believers God’s profound nature and wonderful plan, especially that formerly hidden mystery that is now revealed—salvation through Jesus’ death and resurrection. That the Spirit “searcheth” these things means that he penetrates and is part of all the “deep things” of God (see 2:11).—The Life Application Commentary Series

Therefore, as diligently as the brightest among us may struggle to know the deep things of God, we still must admit that if the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God (the Father), He must have intellect (Ro. 8:26-27). The Spirit is capable of knowledge, cognition, reason, and thought. Gravity or centrifugal force do not think or meditate, but the Holy Spirit is a thinker!

An example of Him expressing “emotions” is found in Romans 15:30, where we read about “and for the love of the Spirit,” and in Ephesians 4:30, we read Paul’s words admonishing, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.”

We cannot grieve someone who does not love us. Because the Holy Spirit has an emotional capacity, we can grieve Him. Yes, the Holy Spirit has emotions. You cannot grieve an impersonal force. The wind or fire has no feelings, but the Spirit does!

To grieve someone is to cause them to suffer; to make them feel sorrow.

The utterance of evil or worthless words is repugnant to the holiness of the Spirit, and is to be refrained from as calculated to grieve Him. The injunction is made more solemn by the designation as ‘the Holy Spirit’ and ‘the Spirit of God.’ The Spirit is here seen as capable of feeling, and so as personal. In Isaiah 63:10 we have a similar idea, following the statement that Jehovah was afflicted in all His people’s afflictions. –Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament

The fact that He can be grieved shows that the Holy Spirit is a Person, not a mere influence. It also means He loves us, because only a person who loves can be grieved. The favorite ministry of God’s Spirit is to glorify Christ and to change the believer into His likeness (2 Cor. 3:18). When a Christian sins, He has to turn from this ministry to one of restoration. It grieves Him to see the believer’s spiritual progress interrupted by sin. He must then lead the Christian to the place of repentance and confession of sin. –MacDonald: Believer's Bible Commentary

Finally, an example of His “will” is found in 1 Corinthians 12:11, where we read that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts “as He wills.”

1 Cor. 12:11, But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. (Ac. 13:2; 15:28)

Spiritual gifts are distributed to believers according to the will of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12). Here is wisdom, prudence and discretion, all of which are distinguishing marks of personality. The Spirit not only bestows spiritual gifts, but bestows them discreetly according as He thinks best. See John 3:8 also. –Evans: The Great Doctrines of the Bible

Animals function by means of instincts, but human beings function by means of free will. We can decide or determine what course of action we will take. Arguing to the greater, the same is true of the Spirit of God.  He makes decisions and exercises the power of a definite will. When it comes to spiritual gifts, He distributes them according to His will and not the appeals of believers. He decides who will receive what gifts based on His plan and not our desires or requests. Beloved, the Spirit is exercising volition in such instances!

The importance of the personality of the Spirit and of our being assured of this fact is forcibly set forth by Dr. R. A. Torrey: “If the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person and we know it not, we are robbing a Divine Being of the love and adoration which are His due. It is of the highest practical importance whether the Holy Spirit is a power that we, in our ignorance and weakness, are somehow to get hold of and use, or whether the Holy Spirit is a personal Being … who is to get hold of us and use us. It is of the highest experimental importance.… Many can testify to the blessing that came into their lives when they came to know the Holy Spirit, not merely as a gracious influence … but as an ever-present, loving friend and helper.” –Evans: The Great Doctrines of the Bible

The Holy Spirit Conducts Himself Like a Person

This is in addition to His possessing the characteristics of personhood—intellect, emotion, and will. The Holy Spirit can do things that only a person would do (Jn. 14:17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-15).

John 14:16, And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (In this statement we see the Holy Spirit assisting, helping, residing, and staying with Believers forever).

John 14:26, 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. (According to the words of our Lord Jesus, the Spirit is representing Him, teaching much like Jesus taught, and reminding disciples of Christ’s teachings or directives).

John 15:26, But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

John 16:8, And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: (In these two passages, it can clearly be seen that the Spirit is testifying of Jesus, reproving the world, and deeply convicting sinners of sinfulness).

Take another look at the Spirit’s behavior; He is helping, comforting, teaching, calling to remembrance, testifying, convicting—these are all actions of a person. In this case they describe some of the conduct of the holy Person of the Spirit of God.

Yes, the Holy Spirit teaches us, He prays for us, He performs miracles, He comforts us and guides us. These are things a person, not an impersonal force, would do.

Again, though the word spirit is neuter in the original language of the Bible, sometimes when a pronoun is employed to refer to the Holy Spirit, the pronoun He is used (John 16:13–14) instead of the expected It. This was no mistake on the part of the writers of the Bible. It was a deliberate reference to the Holy Spirit as a person.

The Holy Spirit conducts Himself like a Person, therefore we must conclude that He is indeed a person and not a mere force or power.  He as a person exercises power! He exerts an influence, but He is a Divine Person. Remember, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims like a duck, and flies like a duck…it is safe to conclude, based on the evidence, that it is indeed a duck!

The Holy Spirit Has the Names and Titles of Personality

The Comforter: John 14:16; 16:7.  “Comforter” means one who is called to your side—as a client calls a lawyer. That this name cannot be used of any abstract, impersonal influence is clear from the fact that in 1 John 2:1 the same word is used of Christ (see Rom. 8:26).

Again in John 14:16 the Holy Spirit, as the Paraclete, is to take the place of a person—Christ Himself, and to personally guide the disciples just as Jesus had been doing. No one but a person can take the place of a person; certainly no mere influence could take the place of Jesus Christ, the greatest personality that ever lived.

Again, Christ, in speaking of the Spirit as the Comforter, uses the masculine definite article, and thus, by His choice of gender, teaches the personality of the Holy Spirit. There can be no parity [correspondence] between a person and an influence. –Evans: The Great Doctrines of the Bible

The Personality of God has immeasurable significance to the Christian Faith.  Consider this explanation from William Evans,

True religion may be defined as the communion between two persons: God and man. Religion is a personal relationship between God in heaven, and man on the earth. If God were not a person there could be no communion; if both God and man were one there could be no communion, and, consequently, no religion. An independent personal relationship on both sides is absolutely necessary to communion. Man can have no communion with an influence, a force, an impersonal something; nor can an influence have any moving or affection towards man. It is absolutely necessary to the true definition of religion that both God and man be persons. God is person, not force or influence.—The Great Doctrines of the Bible

Today, those who do not believe the Holy Spirit is a person usually believe that He is merely a force emanating from God the Father. This position can be held only by mentally ripping some verses out of the Bible, pretending they are not there. A high view of all of Scriptures will lead a person unfailingly to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit is a Person. If we believe the Word of God above the teachings of mere men, then we must regard the Holy Spirit as a Person--A divine Person! He is God, the Spirit and not God the force! A force may be good enough for Star Wars, but it will not suffices as an appropriate address to the Most High God. God requires that we worship Him in spirit and in truth. He will not receive worship that completely ignores who and what He actually is. In addition, no human being would appreciate being addressed as "hey dog," "hey you, chicken," or "look here mule"! We would be insulted by such misrepresentations of our humanity! Likewise, it is an afront to the Lord God to refer to one Member of the Godhead as an it, a thing, a force, or an influence. He is infinitely more than what He does or the impact He has. God deserves to be honored, worshiped, and adored for who and what He actually is. Perhaps some regard Him as an influence because they are looking for something to use.... Too many want to use the Holy Spirit to make themselves appear more spiritual or more spiritually accomplished than others. This is nothing but ugly pride and it is condemned by the Lord of glory. One can use a force or influence to their advantage, but one cannot use the Person of God the Spirit in any fashion! No, God requires adherence to His will and He will not merely do our will! He is God and we are mere sinners saved by His infinite grace. It is time for all genuine Believers in Christ Jesus to recognize the true and living God for what and who He truly is. As we do so, regard the Holy Spirit as a Person.