The Holy Spirit is divine - that is, He is God. He is as much
God as the Father or the Son. The fifth chapter of Acts makes this
emphatically clear. Ananias and Sapphira plotted to cheat the Lord.
As they were about to enact their hypocritical deed, Peter cried out
in verse 3: Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the
Holy Ghost... ? Then in verse 4 Peter continued:... thou hast not lied
unto men, but unto God. The Holy Spirit of verse 3 is the God mentioned
in verse 4.
This God is also called the spirit of the Lord in Isaiah 11:2, and
His attributes are gloriously described in such terminology as: "...
the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." He is called
the Spirit of God in Genesis 1:2 and the Spirit of Christ in Romans 8:9.
We see then that the SPIRIT who is so closely identified with the
Father and the Son is GOD, the third member of the Trinity He is also
the Eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14). He always was, is, and shall be.
Genesis 1:1, 2 reads: In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters. The word God in the clause In the beginning God
created... is the Hebrew word Elohim, a plural noun, meaning more than
one or simply a trinity We find this same plural in Ecclesiastes 12:1
which states in the original Hebrew Old Testament: Remember now thy
Creators in the days of thy youth... This same Trinity creates man
in Genesis 1:26, for God said:... Let us make man in our image.
Most people agree that God the Father created the world and mankind,
but argue angrily when one suggests that Christ and the Holy Spirit were
part of the plurals just mentioned. However, let's allow the Word of
God to speak for itself. We know that Christ helped create the world and
mankind because John 1:10 states: [Christ] was in the world, and the
world was made by him.... And Colossians 1:16 adds: For by
[Christ] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in
earth.... The Holy Spirit also was a partner in this creation, for
Job 26:13 declares: By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens....
So we see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as coequal laborers in
the beginning. It is as plain as the nose on one's face. Because of
their limited grasp of spiritual truths, men mock the doctrine of the
Trinity. God says: But the natural [or unsaved] man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned
(I Corinthians 2:14). True believers are enlightened by the Holy
Spirit, who wrote in I Corinthians 2:12: Now we have received, not
the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God.
JVM
