To introduce the Holy Spirit as the Divine Giver, I’ll start with a picturesque view typical of a Chinese approach, followed by an analytical approach favored by the West.

Chinese Character Analysis

The traditional Chinese character for spirit, 靈 (líng), is a wonderfully concise description of who the Holy Spirit is and what He does. I am indebted to William Stewart for this analysis, and a link to it is given in the description below. The Holy Spirit character is composed of several smaller radicals: one, cover and water, meaning that the Holy Spirit is the One who covers the waters. The first two verses of the Bible give us the significance of that, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen 1:1–2).

¹In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ²The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

So the Holy Spirit is the God who created the world in the beginning. If you want to talk about the ultimate giver of life and everything, that’s the Holy Spirit!

The next radical means mouth, so God is three mouths who speak. The Church formally recognized the Trinity at the Council of Nicaea in 381 AD. It never came up in Judaism because God did not reveal His trinitarian nature in the Old Testament, but the Chinese character for Holy Spirit predates the Bible by centuries, and somehow, they knew the Holy Spirit was part of the Trinity.

The last radical means a witch, shaman, or better yet, magician because the radical is genderless. What a magician does becomes clearer when you divide it into its component radicals. It literally means two men and the verb, to work, between heaven and earth. A magician is thus a worker who mediates heavenly power to earth; the last radical for the Holy Spirit literally means “miracle worker”.

In its totality, the single word for Holy Spirit reveals that He is a person who speaks. He is not a force, nor a thing. He is a member of the three Speakers, the Trinity. He creates out of nothing and is the worker of miracles, giving God’s power to man. What’s amazing here is that the Chinese and Jewish people had no contact before the Bible was written, and yet they describe the same Holy Spirit with the same role and powers as independently revealed by the Chinese language and the Bible. I’ll have to quote some Bible verses to back that up.

The Holy Spirit Is a Person

To say that the Holy Spirit is a person is to say He has a personality. He has a will, a mind, His own emotions, and can speak and act; He is a giver. (1 Cor 12:11)

¹¹All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

says, the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts “to each one individually as he wills.” That means the Holy Spirit has a mind which evaluates options and chooses one (Rom 8:27).

²⁷And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

says, “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” So God knows the mind of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit knows the will of God and intercedes accordingly.

The Holy Spirit Is God

That implies that the Holy Spirit is God, “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Cor 2:11)

¹¹For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

The apostle Paul’s argument for the divinity of the Holy Spirit is simple:

Only the spirit of a person knows his own thoughts.

The Holy Spirit knows God’s thoughts.

Therefore, the Holy Spirit is God.

The Holy Spirit Has Divine Power

We can strengthen that argument by noting that the Holy Spirit does things that only God can do. He created the world from nothing (Gen 1:2),

²The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

empowers all of God’s people (Acts 1:8),

⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

leads all the sons of God (Rom 8:14),

¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

teaches Christians everything (John 14:26, 16:13),

²⁶But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you... ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever

and convicts the entire world of sin (John 16:8).

⁸And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

The Holy Spirit Has Divine Authority

Also, the Holy Spirit has the authority that only God has. He gives the apostles commands (Acts 8:29),

²⁹And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”

and they obey Him (Acts 10:19–21).

¹⁹And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. ²⁰Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.” ²¹And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?”

When people sin against the Holy Spirit (Isa 63:10),

¹⁰But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.

it grieves Him (Eph 4:30)

³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

as they reject Him and His gifts. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is unforgivable (Matt 12:31–32).

³¹Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

When Ananias lied to the Spirit (Acts 5:3),

³But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

God killed him! (Acts 5:5)

⁵When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.

The Holy Spirit is eternal (Heb 9:14)

¹⁴how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

and omnipresent (Ps 139:7),

⁷Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?

and a co-equal member of the Trinity in the baptismal formula of the Great Commission (Matt 28:19).

¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit Has Gender

The Holy Spirit has gender in as much as a spirit can have a gender. Jesus said, “The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26),

²⁶“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

not it. The Greek word for “Spirit” is neuter, so Jesus is purposely being ungrammatical by using he instead of it to emphasize the personhood and gender of the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

So to summarize, both the ancient Chinese language and the Bible agree that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, a member of the Trinity. He has the attributes, honor, and authority of God, and does only what God can do, which is to give miraculous gifts to the whole world. The Holy Spirit is the Divine Giver. Ok, great, but…, so what? How does knowing the Holy Spirit as God have a practical effect on the Christian life? For that, we’ll have to turn to the next video.