The Holy Spirit is the medium through which God makes contact with His creation. From Genesis, where "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" to Revelation, in which "the Spirit and the Bride say 'Come'" the pages of the Bible tell how God's Holy Spirit is ceaselessly active in the world, steadily working to effect the full accomplishment of the Divine Plan.

There are many instances in the Old Testament where the Spirit of the Lord is said to have come upon men of God to inspire them to great things. The Spirit came upon Gideon, for example, and he delivered Israel. Moses prayed that the Lord would put His Spirit on all His people, that they might be prophets. We have the New Testament warranty for the fact that the prophets of old were "moved by the Holy Spirit" to speak and write the visions they saw, foreviews of events yet to come, revealed for the guidance of believers through the ages.

The office of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is of even deeper significance. Jesus promised His disciples that after His departure He would send them another means of guidance, and His promise was fulfilled at Pentecost in the coming of the Holy Spirit, a Divine power and influence resting upon each one and enabling them to do things that in their own unaided strength they could not have done. Every believer who now comes "into Christ" by consecration of life to Him is "begotten of the Spirit" to a new life, and thenceforth is under a transforming influence which opens his eyes to spiritual things and ultimately makes him ready for the spiritual salvation which is the hope of the Church.

The old expression "Holy Ghost" is out of date today. When the Bible was translated into English the word "Ghost" had sense of a spiritual power or influence, but today has the thought of personality added. The words "pneuma" in Greek and "ruach" in Hebrew, which are used for the Holy Spirit of God, are both the equivalent of the Latin "spiritus" meaning breath, breath of life, soul, mind, and in recognition of this fact the term "Holy Spirit" is used today more and more in preference to "Holy Ghost."

The Holy Spirit must not be thought of then as a third "God" or as distinct from the Father, having a personality of its own. It is the influence and power of God in active operation that is called the Holy Spirit and it is this power that creates and sustains all things and is effective in the individual life.

AOH