Learning4Comfort

The Inner Being

6. The spirit

The Hebrew rûaḥ and the Greek pneuma are one word for several things that English keeps apart: wind, breath, a person's spirit, God's Spirit, other spirits, and even a point of the compass. I found I could not understand the human spirit without keeping the wind in view. Scripture keeps it in view too.

One word, many things

  • Wind. "The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind" (Exodus 14:21). The wicked "are like chaff that the wind drives away" (Psalm 1:4).
  • Breath. "I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live" (Ezekiel 37:5).
  • Direction. The gatekeepers stood "on the four sides" (1 Chronicles 9:24), literally the four winds.
  • Temper. "Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly" (Proverbs 14:29). "A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back" (Proverbs 29:11).
  • A person's spirit, God's Spirit, and other spirits, which I take in turn below.

Jesus uses the overlap on purpose: "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).

Whose spirit is it?

In many verses it is clear whose spirit is meant: "my spirit", "the Spirit of the Lord", "an unclean spirit". In others it is not. I went through the uses one by one and asked what the verse itself shows. There are about 560 uses:

  • About 260 clearly speak of God's Spirit.
  • About 140 clearly speak of the human spirit.
  • About 70 speak of other spirit-beings.
  • About 20 speak of "a spirit of" something, such as jealousy, wisdom or deep sleep.
  • A handful mean temper.
  • About 30 are God's Spirit only because the translators gave the word a capital letter.
  • About 40 I cannot decide from the verse at all.

So when John says he was "in the Spirit on the Lord's day" (Revelation 1:10), or Paul sets "the Spirit" against the flesh, the verse alone does not always settle whether he means God's Spirit or the person's own. I would rather say that plainly than pretend to a certainty the text does not give.

The human spirit

What does a person's own spirit do, and what happens to it?

It is troubled and anxious. Pharaoh's "spirit was troubled" by his dreams (Genesis 41:8). Daniel: "my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me" (Daniel 7:15). Jesus was "troubled in his spirit" (John 13:21). Paul's "spirit was provoked within him" at the idols of Athens (Acts 17:16).

It is crushed, and it faints. "By sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed" (Proverbs 15:13). "A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?" (Proverbs 18:14). "My spirit faints within me" (Psalm 143:4). Israel "did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery" (Exodus 6:9). A broken spirit can keep a person from even hearing good news.

It revives, with food, drink and good news. After three days without food, the Egyptian servant was given food, "and when he had eaten, his spirit revived" (1 Samuel 30:12). Samson drank, and "his spirit returned, and he revived" (Judges 15:19). When Jacob heard that Joseph was alive and saw the wagons, "the spirit of their father Jacob revived" (Genesis 45:27). In each case, food or drink came first.

It knows. "It is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand" (Job 32:8). "Who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him?" (1 Corinthians 2:11). The spirit is where a person knows themselves. Jesus "perceiv[ed] in his spirit" what others were thinking (Mark 2:8).

It is lowly or proud, and it is judged. "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18). "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3). God dwells "with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit" (Isaiah 57:15). God looks to "he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word" (Isaiah 66:2). Israel was "a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God" (Psalm 78:8). The righteous man is the one "in whose spirit there is no deceit" (Psalm 32:2). David prays for "a right spirit" (Psalm 51:10). Paul calls for cleansing "from every defilement of body and spirit" (2 Corinthians 7:1). And "the Lord weighs the spirit" (Proverbs 16:2).

This matters because it is often said that the human spirit never sins. It is true that I found no verse where "the spirit" is the subject of the verb "to sin". But the spirit is certainly judged. It is proud or lowly, faithful or unfaithful, deceitful or clean, and it needs renewing.

It is ruled, or it runs loose. "Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city" (Proverbs 16:32). "A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls" (Proverbs 25:28). Self-control is the rule of one's own spirit. Without it, a person is a city with no walls. Anger and the spirit are often named together: "Be not quick in your spirit to become angry" (Ecclesiastes 7:9). And a prophet carrying God's word could say, "I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me" (Ezekiel 3:14). Chapter 10.1 follows how anger rises and is governed.

It is stirred, and it is hardened. "The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia" (Ezra 1:1). The returning exiles were "everyone whose spirit God had stirred" (Ezra 1:5). And of Sihon: "the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate" (Deuteronomy 2:30).

It is willing. "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41). "Uphold me with a willing spirit" (Psalm 51:12). Caleb "has a different spirit and has followed me fully" (Numbers 14:24).

It is present where the body is not. "Though absent in body, I am present in spirit" (1 Corinthians 5:3; Colossians 2:5).

The verbs in these verses are many: the spirit is moved, stirred, fervent ("fervent in spirit", Romans 12:11), willing, crushed, revived and ruled.

"A spirit of …" — what comes upon a person

A striking group of verses speaks of a spirit of something that comes upon a person, is poured out, or is given.

  • "The spirit of jealousy comes over him" (Numbers 5:14).
  • "A spirit of whoredom has led them astray" (Hosea 4:12). "The spirit of whoredom is within them" (Hosea 5:4).
  • "The Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep" (Isaiah 29:10).
  • "I will pour out … a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy" (Zechariah 12:10).
  • "I have filled with a spirit of skill" (Exodus 28:3). "Joshua … was full of the spirit of wisdom" (Deuteronomy 34:9).
  • "God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:7).

Here "spirit" names an inner disposition or condition that arrives. Some of these are bad and some are good. Some are said to come from God, like the deep sleep, the grace, the skill and the wisdom. For most of them, the verse does not say whether a spirit-being is involved. It speaks of what comes over the person. I no longer read "the spirit of jealousy" or "the spirit of fear" as the names of particular demons. The verses do not say so, and the same way of speaking is used for the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of grace.

Other spirits

Spirit-beings are real in Scripture, and they act on people. In the Old Testament, some come from God: "a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him" (1 Samuel 16:14). God "sent an evil spirit" between Abimelech and the men of Shechem (Judges 9:23). The Lord "put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets" (1 Kings 22:23). In the Gospels, unclean spirits inhabit people, convulse them, make them mute, and are driven out (Mark 1:26; 9:17). Some spirits affect the body: a woman "had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over" (Luke 13:11). Paul meets "a slave girl who had a spirit of divination" (Acts 16:16). And spirits are to be tested: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God" (1 John 4:1).

God's Spirit and the human person

Finally, God's own Spirit acts on and in the person, in a great many ways.

  • Comes upon: "the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him" (Judges 14:6; 1 Samuel 16:13).
  • Changes a person: "you will … be turned into another man" (1 Samuel 10:6).
  • Fills with ability: "I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship" (Exodus 31:3).
  • Enters and sets on one's feet: "the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet" (Ezekiel 2:2).
  • Is put within: "I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes" (Ezekiel 36:27).
  • Is given into the heart: "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (Galatians 4:6). God "has … given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee" (2 Corinthians 1:22).
  • Pours love into the heart: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:5).
  • Dwells in the body: "your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you" (1 Corinthians 6:19).
  • Bears witness beside our spirit: "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16).
  • Strengthens the inner being: Ephesians 3:16.
  • Intercedes: "the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words" (Romans 8:26).

And he can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30), resisted (Acts 7:51), lied to (Acts 5:3) and quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19). He can also be taken away: "take not your Holy Spirit from me" (Psalm 51:11).

So God's Spirit works with the human spirit (Romans 8:16), but just as often in the heart, upon the whole person, and in the body. The human spirit is one of the places he is found, not the only one.

The breath God lends

Behind all of this is the plain fact that breath is life, and it is God's. "As long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils" (Job 27:3). "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life" (Job 33:4). God "formed the spirit of man within him" (Zechariah 12:1). "When you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created" (Psalm 104:29–30). In that one passage, the breath God takes and the Spirit God sends are the same word. Chapter 2 follows that thread to its end.

The breath also understands. "But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand" (Job 32:8). "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts" (Proverbs 20:27), where the word the ESV renders "spirit" is nəšāmâ ("breath"). And God's Spirit gives life. "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all" (John 6:63). "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:6). Of Christ, Peter says he was "put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit" (1 Peter 3:18).