Who is the Holy Spirit?

Let me pose a simple question. What is the Holy Spirit?

In the first place, spirit is another mode of being than matter. You can pick a thing up and bounce it around; that is matter. You and I are composed of matter. That head you have is matter. That is only one mode of existence, but there is another, and that is spirit.

The difference between matter and spirit is that matter possesses weight, size, color and extension in space. It can be measured and weighed and has form. But the Holy Spirit is not material, therefore He does not have weight or dimension or shape or extension in space.

One power of spirit is to penetrate matter and things and all substances. Your spirit, for instance, dwells in your body somewhere, and it penetrates your body without hurting the body. It is in there penetrating because it is another form.

When Jesus had risen from the dead and was no more mere matter, He came into a locked room through the wall somehow, and managed to penetrate and get into that room without unlocking the door. He could not have done that prior to his death, but He did it afterward. Spirit, then, is another kind of substance. It is different from material things and can penetrate personality. Your spirit can penetrate your personality. One personality can penetrate another personality. The Holy Spirit can penetrate your personality and your spirit. The Bible refers to this in 1 Corinthians, "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," (1 Corinthians 2:11 KJV). Therefore, the Spirit of God can penetrate the spirit of man.

Let me mention what the Holy Spirit is not.

The Holy Spirit is not enthusiasm. Some people get enthusiasm and imagine it is the Holy Spirit. They become worked up over a song thinking it is Spirit-anointed worship. And they imagine that is the Spirit. Enthusiasm is not the Holy Spirit, because those same people go out and live just like the world. The Holy Spirit never enters a man and then lets him live like the world. You can be sure of that.

Incidentally, that is the reason most people do not want to be filled with the Holy Spirit; they want to live the way they want to live and have the Holy Spirit as a bit of something extra, as you might have a diamond stickpin or something very beautiful on your clothing. They want the Holy Ghost to be something added, but the Holy Spirit will not be an addition. The Holy Spirit must be Lord or He will not come at all.

The Holy Spirit is not courage, or energy, or the personification of all good qualities, like Jack Frost is the personification of cold weather and Santa Claus the personification of wanting to give someone a tie. The Holy Spirit is not a personification of anything, but the Holy Spirit is a person just the same as you are a person. He has all the qualities of a person. The Holy Spirit has substance but not material substance. He has individuality. He is one being and not another. He has will and He has intelligence and He has feeling and He has knowledge, sympathy, and the ability to love and see and think and hear, and speak and desire and grieve and rejoice. And Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, "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 15:26 KJV).

I have said the Holy Spirit is spirit and not matter. He is personality, He is individuality. He has intelligence, love, memory and can communicate with you. He can love you and therefore can be grieved when you grieve Him. He can be quenched, as any friend can be if you turn on Him, of course He will be hushed into hurt silence, because you have wounded Him. Therefore, we can wound the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is friendly. We try to make Him something else but friendly, but He is friendly. Because He is friendly, He can be grieved. We can grieve Him by ignoring Him, by resisting Him, by doubting Him or by sinning against Him. We grieve Him by refusing to obey Him, bu turning our backs on Him.

Keep in mind, there must be love present before there can be grief. Let me give you an example.

Suppose you had a seventeen-year-old son who began to go bad, who got to that age where he wanted to take things into his own hand. Suppose he joined up with some boy you did not know, some stranger from another part of town, and they got into trouble. You were called down to the police station and there sat your boy, and another boy you had never seen, in handcuffs. You know how you would feel about it. You would be sorry for the other boy, but you did not know him; but with your own boy, your grief would penetrate your heart like a sword. For only love can grieve. If those two boys were sent off to prison, you might pity the boy you did not know, but you would grieve over the boy you did know.

The mother can grieve because she loves. If you do not love, you cannot grieve. Therefore, when the scripture says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God," it is telling us that He loves us so much that when we insult Him, He is grieved. When we ignore Him, He is grieve; when we resist Him, He is grieved; when we doubt Him, He is grieved.

In like manner, we can please Him by obeying and believing. When we please Him, He responds to us just as a pleased father responds, just as a pleased mother responds. He will respond to us because He is pleased, because He loves us.

--A.W. Tozer, Mystery of the Holy Spirit,
Excerpts from Chapter 1