Happy Halloween, friends, and welcome to the first Gospel According To post I’ve done in a very long while! Suffice it to say, I have had a lot going on in the last few months, but it sure is good to be back. I’ve been thinking about the idea of “spooky season” and how the Holy Spirit is different from the traditional ideas we have of ghosts or paranormal activities. There’s so much to talk about! Hope you enjoy : )
Fandom: Literally this one image of a cutesy holographic ghost with cats and books lol
Truth: While most of our ideas of ghosts involve the taking or loss of life, the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost) is the giver of life. He was there at creation, and He empowers us to hear and understand the voice of God. He is our source of life in Christ, and He teaches and comforts us as we walk in the Light of the Lord.
Read more: Holy Ghost party! or the Gospel according to spooky season, part 1What do we usually think of when we think about ghosts?
Around the middle of September, all the craft stores and Walmarts start putting out the Halloween decorations. It seems like it gets sooner every year XD. Until very recently, I had little to no interest in anything remotely “spooky” or “creepy” about this time of year; I thought there was nothing God-honoring in most of the decor that centers around death and the weird things that people like to display for Halloween (although dressing up in costumes is always fun! I made a whole Katniss dress last year : ).
And THEN I was sitting in church service at the beginning of this month and this one cute ghost graphic I saw once popped into my head. And I had this epiphany that Halloween could TOTALLY be an opportunity to talk about the Holy Ghost! And I finally had a chance to use those super cute graphics too lol.
Traditional definitions and ideas of “ghost”
Before we talk about the very real Holy Ghost/Spirit, I wanted to compare with the usual ideas of what a ghost or spirit is. So here are a couple of definitions:
An apparition of a dead person which is believed to appear or become manifest to the living, typically as a nebulous image (Oxford Dictionary).
Descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes to realistic, lifelike forms” (Wikipedia). They can be contacted by necromancy/seance, and are “described as solitary, human-like essences” that “are believed to haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life.” (also Wikipedia)
What struck me as I read this was the general association of loneliness and sadness, fear and sometimes violence. Ghosts, even when they are not violent or particularly scary, are associated with an inability to move on from this life, coupled with the inability to fully live in this world. It’s really sad to think about someone being trapped like that (btw, I don’t think this is a real thing). There’s either the sense that something might be hiding in the dark, waiting to jump out and attack you– a feeling I dealt with a lot as a kid– or that a departed loved one (or enemy) is just out of reach. The thought that a ghost or spirit of a departed soul might still be hanging around often causes longing or anxiety in the living; I’m thinking about Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” which we read in seventh grade and which gave me nightmares XD, or of You’ve Reached Sam, a YA novel that made me cry within the first few minutes of its audiobook.
In general, ghosts are not usually a good thing to think about. Personally, I wouldn’t want anyone, even my worst enemy, to be trapped between life and death like that, and honestly, it’s one of those things that we can never confirm for sure. There’s nothing inherently wrong with reading stories about ghosts and other spooky things; I do love a good psychological thriller, and I used to be an avid Criminal Minds fan. But thinking too much about the possibility of ghosts in real life won’t bring us closer to God, and it might drive us into fear, anxiety or hopelessness.
Here’s something to think about instead: the Holy Ghost
Talking about the traditional spooky-season type of ghost actually makes me even more grateful and excited to talk about the Holy Spirit. Because Holy Spirit is the literal opposite of the solitary, regretful, and sometimes dangerous beings that show up in all the horror movies and scary stories:
Spooky Ghost Holy Ghost Solitary and lonely Exists in eternal community with the Trinity Genesis 1:2, 1 Corinthians 2:10-11, John 15:26 Associated with the loss/taking of life Giver of life, physical and spiritual Psalm 104:30, John 3:8, 1 Corinthians 12:13 Stuck between life and death, looking backwards in longing and regret Helps believers look forward to the life that is to come Galatians 5:16-18, 22-25, 1 Corinthians 2:12 Contacted or summoned by necromancy or a seance Constant presence of hope, peace, and instruction/conviction John 14:16-17, 26, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Tends to cause fear, anxiety, and sadness in the living Here to bring comfort and assurance of salvation John 15:26, Ephesians 1:13-14
Who is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is what Christians refer to as the third Person of the Trinity– God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is an immense topic that is rather hard to comprehend, bet the way I understand it, God is one Being in three Persons. They are all in complete harmony with each other, and have all existed since eternity past– before time, the universe, everything that we can know about as humans existed. From my ESV study Bible:
The Holy Spirit is God, eternal, notn-created, there at the beginning (Genesis 1:2). “Not a mere force or some surging impulse, but a person,” as the use of personal pronouns by the New Testament writers shows. Like the Father and the Son, Holy Spirit is eternal (Hebrews 9:14), all-knowing (1 Corinthians 2:10-11), all-powerful (Zechariah 4:6), truth (1 John 5:6), teacher and advocate (John 15:26). Holy Spirit has always been a visual sign of God’s presence and power in the world.
The Hebrew word translated as Spirit is ruach, which means “wind, breath, mind, spirit; animation, vivacity, vigour; the living, breathing being in man and animals; energy of life; evident in what theologians refer to as the Shekinah glory of God (the one where people fall down and things catch on fire). I love the idea of this word that Holy Spirit is the giver of life, even in the Old Testament. The Bible Project describes Holy Spirit as “the energy that gives life to all things and inspires prophets” (you can watch their video for more).
In Greek, the language of the New Testament, Holy Spirit is pneumatos hagios, which is sometimes used to emphasize personality and character, sometimes, work and power, but never as an impersonal force. The word literally means “the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, and decides.” It’s a similar word to the Hebrew, but clearly influenced by the Greek way of thinking. I love the way that this word connects to John 1 where it talks about the Word becoming flesh (John 1:14). God the Son, who existed from eternity past as a being outside time, came to take on human form, and as He did, He breathed and lived in the same way that you and I do.
What does He do? Why is He here?
The Holy Spirit was sent to earth after Jesus returned to Heaven. He was sent with the purpose of being present with every believer in Jesus’ absence. Here are a few of the different ways that Holy Spirit is at work in humanity:
- In nonbelievers, Holy Spirit exists to convict and call us back to right relationship with God (John 16:8)
- At the moment of salvation, Holy Spirit seals us permanently as children of God (Ephesians 1:13-14)
- He inspired the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and He reminds us of the truth that we know (John 14:26)
- He helps us to behave as a new creation rather than returning to our old ways (Galatians 5:16-18, 22-25)
- Believers are referred to as the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16), filled with power, love, and sound judgement (2 Timothy 1:7)
- Through Christ, we receive adoption as sons, and the Spirit affirms this (Galatians 4:4-7, Romans 8:14-17)
- The Spirit intercedes for us as we pray, speaking to the Father when we don’t have the words to communicate what we need (Romans 8:26-27).
When does He come?
There is some debate about when the Holy Spirit comes to believers. Does it happen the moment you believe, or at a separate time? This article I found explains it better than I can:
Because He baptized with the Holy Spirit in His earthly ministry (Mark1:8), Jesus is the unnamed baptizer in First Corinthians 12:13. He baptizes people into His body, the church, “by means of” the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the means by which a person is baptized into the body of Christ – He is not the baptizer. – Don Stewart on Blue Letter Bible
This also makes sense with the verse above that talks about Holy Spirit sealing us with our inheritance in Christ. (Ephesians 1:13-14).
In summary…
So the long and short of it is, Holy Spirit is the life that is present in every believer, facilitating our relationship with God through Christ. He reminds us of the truth and assures us of our status as children of God. From eternity past, He lived in community with the other Persons of the Trinity, and He brings us into community as the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13).
Truly, this post is another excuse for me to talk about the Holy Spirit. Honestly, I think I needed the reminder of who He is and how He is moving in my own life. I pray that we will live our lives as His temple, seeking to glorify Christ in everything we do.
Here’s a list of all the resources I referenced in this post:
- Verse references
- Don Stewart – Baptism with the Holy Spirit
- Blue Letter Bible – ruach
- Blue Letter Bible – Pneumatos hagios
- Bible Dictionary – Shekinah glory of God
- Bible Project – How does Holy Spirit work in the Bible?
And here are a few of the other posts I’ve written about Holy Spirit over the years:
Good-bye for now!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post about the Holy Ghost! There are three more in my brain that I’m going to try and publish before/on Halloween. Wish me luck XD
Happy Spooky Season!
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