Gordon Fee, a well-known author and professor of New Testament Studies in Regent College, Vancouver, tells a story of a student who said, “God the Father makes perfectly good sense to me; and God the Son I can quite understand; but the Holy Spirit is a gray, oblong blur.”
How many of us struggle with the same kind of vagueness about the Holy Spirit?
In scripture, the Holy Spirit is often portrayed via metaphors, such as a river, fire, wind, or a dove, which are all impersonal or abstract. They certainly don’t present as a person.
Modern culture and language don’t help much either. Older bible translations use the term “Holy Ghost” which is still popular amongst traditional Pentecostals and those who adhere to the King James old english. But the word “ghost” is tainted with association of horror stories, fear of paranormal, ideas of disembodied people still suffering without peace in the afterlife.
The Holy Spirit however is the Spirit of LIFE – He is LIFE ITSELF sent to us as the personal indwelling presence of God. How are we to know Him so personally? Jesus said, “The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
(John 14:17 NIV)
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