The Holy Spirit is a spirit, but is the Father also a spirit?
Well we know that the Father is God and God is spirit. The Father is the Father of all spirits and life. The Father is also the father of our Lord Jesus Christ? But the gospels tell us that the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and because of this, the child was to be called the Son of God. So who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father or the Holy Spirit?
Luke 1:35
The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.
The answer is that both are the father if the Trinity Doctrine is to be believed. However, I will demonstrate that the Spirit of God is the Father’s own spirit and is not another person as many believe.
1 Peter 1:14-16
Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant. Instead, be holy in all that you do, just as God who called you is holy. The scripture says, “Be holy because I am holy.”
John 4:24
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
So God is holy and God is a spirit, thus he can be described as a holy spirit. However, we are also taught that there is one spirit, so God is more correctly called ‘the Holy Spirit’, not as one holy spirit among two or many. If the Trinity Doctrine were true, then there would be two Spirits, the Father and the Holy Spirit. But scripture tells us there is but one Spirit.
Ephesians 4:4-6
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Further, scripture clearly says that “The LORD is the Spirit”, thus the Father who is God is the Spirit. Most agree that the Father is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit took part in his conception with Mary. If the Holy Spirit was another person, then Jesus would have two fathers, the Father and the Holy Spirit. That is if the Trinity Doctrine was a true doctrine.
2 Corinthians 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Also, if God is Spirit and he imparts his spirit into redeemed vessels, and if he will eventually be in all and through all, then that would suggest that God the Father will inhabit all by his own spirit. And we know he is the God of the living not the dead, so his spirit is life and the source of all life for his creation and also for his son. So creation is not inhabited by two spirits but one, that is God’s own spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:28
When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
Luke 20:38
He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
John 6:63
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.
Finally, we are taught in scripture that he is the Father of spirits.
Hebrews 12:9
Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live!
For me I think of this in this way.
Q: Who is God?
A: The Father?
Q: What is God?
A: He is spirit
God is the Father and God is the Holy Spirit. This is not two persons but two aspects of the same God. While God is in heaven, he can inhabit all creation by his own spirit. Just as the sun is located in the centre of the Solar System, its rays shine out to all the Solar System. Similarly, our Heavenly Father can inhabit all creation by his spirit. However as an aside, God’s own creation is not even big enough to contain him. He exists outside the cosmos too.
1 Corinthians 15:27-28
For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
1 Kings 8:27
“But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!
So God the Father can inhabit his creation by his own spirit.
This also makes sense when we read the following:
Matthew 12:32
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
It is worse to speak against the Spirit than it is against the Son. This demonstrates to us that God is above the son and even his Spirit is above his son because the Spirit of God is God and the son of God is the Son and we know that the head of Christ is God in the same way that the head of man is Christ.
