The Work of the Holy Spirit #228964

The name spirit of God is one that occurs very often in the Bible from its first page to its last, and in many different con nections, so that it is not always easy to determine what is meant by it. The words in the original languages rendered spirit in English mean primarily wind or breath and like similar words in most languages, are used in a figurative sense to denote the soul or mind of man. The breath that is in his nostrils, that never ceases to respire as long as there is life in the body, and that forms in articulate sounds the expression of his thoughts and feelings, is taken to represent the life itself or the thinking self-conscious I, that he feels himself to be. In like manner, the phrase spirit of God is sometimes used for the life that is in God, or God himself as a spiritual being. In ps. Cxxxix. 7, Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Is parallel to Whither shall I flee from thy presence? And the next verse, If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there, shows that God's spirit here means the same as God Himself. In Isa. X1. I 3, the spirit of the lord is also parallel to him, and is rendered by Paul (i Cor.