Is the Holy Spirit God?

Is the Holy Spirit God? The short answer to this question is, yes, the

Holy Spirit as described in the Bible is fully God. Along with God the Father and God the

Son, Jesus Christ, God the Spirit is the third member of the Godhead, or Trinity. Those who challenge the idea that the

Holy Spirit is God, suggest that the Holy Spirit may simply be an impersonal force of some kind, a source of power controlled by God but not fully a person himself.

Others suggest that perhaps the Holy Spirit is just another name for Jesus in spirit form apart from his body.

Neither of these ideas lines up with what the Bible actually says about the Holy Spirit though. The Bible describes the

Holy Spirit as a person who has been present with the Father and the Son since before time began.

The Spirit is integral to all things that God is described as doing in the Bible. The Spirit of God was present at and involved in the creation.

The Holy Spirit moved the prophets of God with the words of God. The bodies of those in Christ are described as temples of God because the

Holy Spirit is in us. Jesus was clear that to be born again, to become a

Christian, one must be born of the Spirit. One of the most convincing statements in the

Bible about the Holy Spirit being God is found in Acts 5. When Ananias lied about the price of a piece of property,

Peter said that Satan had filled Ananias' heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and concluded by saying that Ananias had lied to God.

Peter's words equate the Holy Spirit with God. He spoke as if the Spirit and God were one and the same.

Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit, the Helper, was different from Himself. The Father would send the

Helper, the Spirit of Truth, after Christ departed. The Spirit would speak through them about Jesus.

All three persons Jesus mentions are God, while being distinct from each other within the Trinity.

The three members of the Trinity show up, together yet distinct, at Jesus' baptism.

As Jesus comes up from the water, the Spirit descends on Him like a dove, while the voice of the Father is heard from heaven, saying that He is pleased with His beloved

Son. Finally, the Bible describes the Holy Spirit as a person, not a mere force.

He can be grieved, He has a will, He uses His mind to search the deep things of God, and He has fellowship with believers.

Clearly, the Spirit is a person, just as the Father and the Son are persons. Indeed, the

Bible is unequivocal that the Holy Spirit is, in fact, God, just as Jesus Christ and the

Father are God. Got questions? The Bible has answers, and we'll help you find them.