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The power and presence of God
Luke places the Holy Spirit and the power of the Highest alongside one another in describing Jesus’s conception. Acts speaks of Jesus anointed with Holy Spirit and power. Scripture also describes the Spirit as given, shared and poured out.
Personal action is real
The Spirit speaks, directs and can be grieved. We understand these as the actions and responses of the personal God working through his Spirit. This does not reduce the Spirit to an unrelated force or empty metaphor: God is actually present and active.
Read in relation to Father and Son
The pattern of God acting through his Spirit is considered alongside the explicit identification of the Father as the one God. We do not understand these passages as requiring a third coequal divine person.
God’s action in creation and redemption
The Spirit is present in the biblical account of creation, prophetic revelation and the birth and ministry of Jesus. Luke 1:35 sets the Spirit alongside the power of the Highest; Acts 10:38 describes God anointing Jesus with Holy Spirit and power. These are not descriptions of a power independent of God. They portray God accomplishing his will, making his presence effective and equipping those whom he appoints.
Why the Spirit speaks and wills
Acts 13:2 attributes a command to the Holy Spirit, and 1 Corinthians 12:11 describes the distribution of gifts according to the Spirit’s will. We understand the personal agency here as the agency of God acting through his Spirit. Merely calling the language personification would be insufficient if it implied that no one truly spoke or acted. The important question is whose action the passage reveals and whether it requires a divine person distinct from the Father.
The promised Comforter
John 14:16–23 joins the promise of another Comforter with Jesus’s promise to come to his disciples and the Father and Son dwelling with them. We read the Spirit as the means of that continuing divine presence. Matthew 28:19 places Father, Son and Holy Spirit together in baptism, giving all three a place in the account of salvation. The statement does not itself define a shared substance or specify three coequal persons; that conclusion requires a further argument.
A life shaped by the Spirit’s teaching
Ephesians 4:30 places grieving the Spirit among commands about speech, anger, generosity and forgiveness. The practical point is personal and searching: conduct can oppose the God whose work has brought us into a new life. Read the surrounding chapter before treating the verse as an isolated proof about divine identity. A sound understanding of God’s Spirit should lead to a life receptive to the teaching he has given.
Questions & responses
Does lying to the Spirit mean lying to God?
Acts 5:3–4 identifies the offence in that way. That is consistent with the Spirit being God’s own presence and authority. The passage does not itself set out a distinction between divine persons.
Adapted from An Apostolic Faith, reference edition revised 20 September 2026, pp. 34.
Further reading: Robert Roberts, Christendom Astray, lecture 6. This article is a modern summary, not a quotation from Roberts.
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