What’s the Holy Spirit? Is he a ghost?

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. 

John 14.16-17

 

It might seem hard to understand what the Holy Spirit is like, but here’s the big fact to remember, the Holy Spirit is God, along with God the Father and God the Son. Even though some Bibles call the Holy Spirit the ‘Holy Ghost,’ he isn’t a ghost like you see in a cartoon or spooky movie. He’s real and he’s alive. He just doesn’t have a body, so we can’t see him. We say the Spirit of God is holy because he is perfect and pure, just like the Father and the Son. 

 

 

God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit has always been around. At creation, “the Spirit of God was hovering over” the formless Earth.(Gen 1.2) The Holy Spirit is present throughout the Old Testament. He is at the baptism of Jesus.(Lk 3.22) Jesus said the Spirit would come to be with his disciples after he returned to the Father,(Jn 14.15-17) a promise that was fulfilled at Pentecost.(Ac2.1-4)