Evidence that the Holy Spirit is God

Photography By Lonnie Paulson https://www.lonniepaulsonphoto.com/

Defining The Holy Spirit

The Holy spirit is not a force. He is the third person who is part of the Holy Trinity. Jesus clarifies this truth. “He [The Holy Spirit] will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14 NKJV). Since the Holy Spirit is part of the Holy Trinity, He is GOD. From the very beginning of creation, we see the Holy Spirit in the Bible. “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2 NKJV). Following is one of the main verses in Genesis that highlights the trinity. “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth’” (Genesis 1:26 NKJV). A famous theologian by the name of Matthew Henry a British Presbyterian theologian from Wales who lived from October 18, 1662, to June 22, 1714, brings the validity of the Holy Trinity back to Genesis 1:1. Here is my favorite verse in the Old Testament. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1 NKJV). Matthew Henry in his faithful commentary of the Bible beloved by many modern-day theologians had this to say about the plurality of the Hebrew name for God in the very first verse of the Bible. “The plurality of persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This plural name of God, in Hebrew, which speaks of him as many though he is one, confirming our faith in the doctrine of the Trinity, which, though but darkly intimated in the Old Testament, is clearly revealed in the New.”¹

For this article I have been reading and reviewing some great theologians on what they wrote about the various characteristics of the Holy Spirit. It seems they use different words to describe the same characteristics that are true of the Holy Spirit. I have books specifically on the Holy Spirit by Charles Spurgeon, R.C. Sproul, Billy Graham, and I have Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. I am picking a few of my favorite characteristics of the Holy Spirit from this great group of theologians. Here is what I came up with.

Characteristics of the Holy Spirit

Life Giver: Universally, the Holy Spirit gives physical life to all animals and plants including humans in the world. Theologians will refer to this universal life giving to all as “common grace.” Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” preaches about this common grace among all people. “…[F]or He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45b NKJV). The greatest gift of life that we get from the Holy Spirit is regeneration or what is also called being born again. “Jesus answered and said to him, [Nicodemus] ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’” (John 3:3 NKJV). We can also look at the book of Titus. “[N]ot by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5 NKJV). Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology defines regeneration as follows: “Regeneration is a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life in us.”³ The Holy Spirit was giver of a human life to baby Jesus in the womb of a virgin woman, Mary. This incarnation of God to condescend and to become flesh was prophetically fulfilled as we see in the book of John. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 NKJV). One day Christ will come again, not as a lamb, but as a roaring lion to show the wrath of God. All unbelievers will be thrown into the eternal “lake of Fire.” Believers in Christ will be rewarded by the Holy Spirit with a new resurrected living mortal body for eternity in heaven. “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11 NKJV).

Advocate: Many words have been used defining the Holy Spirit as Advocate, comforter and helper. In the King James Version of the Bible the word is “Comforter.” We see in the New King James Version, English Standard Version, and the New American Standard Bible all use the word “Helper.” A new translation that is very true to the original Greek is the Legacy Standard Bible published by the Lockman Foundation in 2021 which John MacArthur had a hand in the study notes. The Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) uses the word “Advocate.” The original Greek word is παράκλητος or the English pronunciation, parakletos.  R. C. Sproul has a chapter in his book on the Advocate which covers more than helper or comforter. R. C. Sproul defines the word advocate like being an attorney on a permanent retainer that was always present to help you in times of trouble. During the days of Charles Spurgeon, the only Bible that was available would be the KJV, but Spurgeon also refers to the Holy Spirit as an advocate. He points out not only advocate but comforter and teacher. Wayne Grudem writes that the Holy Spirit guides and directs God’s People. In conclusion let me share with you the Bible verse in the gospel of John where the idea of the Holy Spirit as an advocate or if you prefer helper or comforter. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26 LSB).    

Inspires Scripture: “[F]or prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21 NKJV). It is the Holy Spirit that is the author of the Christian Bible. He did not force men to write certain passages, but He used the various human characteristics of each writer to reveal what God the Father wanted revealed. Sometimes biblical writers themselves did not know or understand the visions they were writing about. For example, did the prophets 700 years from the birth of Christ know that they were writing prophetic words applied to Christ? We have prophetic words about both the first coming of Jesus at His birth and the second coming of Jesus all in the Old Testament. Did the Apostle John on the island of Patmos understand his visions? The Apostle John wrote what he saw in his own language what he understood of the contemporary world of the first century to the people of that century. Someday Jesus will come back again not as a lamb but as a lion and the people of that future generation will understand clearly what the Apostle John wrote about.

Anointing: In the first century a Jewish Pentecost celebration turned into an anointing of the Holy Spirit for the new Christian church. An unforgettable supernatural miracle from God was the anointing or baptism of the Holy Spirit which started the Christian church. Luke writes about the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. “And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4 NKJV). These Jews and proselytes came to the celebration from several areas: Rome, Crete, Cyrene, Libya, Egypt, Asia Minor, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Pontus, Cappadocia, Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and other regions. As the Holy Spirit gave these people words to speak about the wonderful works of God each one listening recognized the language from his own region. This spiritual gift often called the gift of tongues was used to edify the church. Here this gift was a tool for evangelism. This language was clearly understood by those who were listening. The gift of tongues is not useless babbling it was a true language to be used to communicate. The Holy Spirit will use this gift when He feels it is needed.

Sanctifier: The Holy Spirit is our guide in our walk with Christ.  Here is what the Apostle Paul writes to the Galatian church. “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16 NKJV). In three verses Paul gives a long list of works of the flesh that should be avoided. He ends with the note that those who practice such things will not enter the kingdom of God. Our goal should be to be Holy like Christ even though we will never achieve a sinless life however, our goal should be to reach it. In the life to come after our life here is done, we will receive full glorification and will not be able to sin. We should strive for the fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22–23 NKJV). Finally, the Apostle Paul finishes up here by saying: “If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25 NKJV). As we struggle to walk in the Spirit, we may lose our step and sin at times. Remember what the Apostle John said: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9 NKJV).

Teacher of Truth: One night a Christian counselor shared the gospel with me. On that night sometime in September 1982, I became a born-again Christian. I had a question for the counselor; how could I understand the Bible? He told me that the Holy Spirit would teach me. The first book I read from the Bible when I became saved was the gospel of John. The counselor was right. Although the counselor advised me to buy a Bible Handbook which helped me, I was surprised that when I first read the book of John as a born-again Christian, I saw things in the text that I could not figure out why I didn’t see those things before. It was very entertaining at this point for me to learn these new truths of Christ. Thanks to the Holy Spirit. At the beginning of this article, I defined the Holy Spirit as a person not a force and who is the third person of the trinity. I referenced this Bible verse and in conclusion I will end with it. Here is what Jesus told His disciples, and if you are one of Christ’s disciples this is what Christ is telling you. “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, [The Holy Spirit] has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13–14 NKJV).

Written by Lonnie Paulson

Evidence that the Holy Spirit is God: End Notes

1)      Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry’s Commentary; Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI 49530 (1961) p 1.

2) Kevin DeYoung. The Nicene Creed; Crossway, Wheaton, IL 60187 (2025) p 14.

3)      Wayne Grudem. Systematic Theology; Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI 49530 (1994) p 699.