Reference: Spirit
American
A word employed in various senses in Scripture.
1. For THE HOLY SPIRIT, the third person of the Holy Trinity, who inspired the prophets, animates good men, pours his unction into our hearts, imparts to us life and comfort; and in whose name we are baptized and blessed, as well as in that of the Father and the Son. When the adjective Holy is applied to the term Spirit, we should always understand it as here explained; but there are many places whether it must be taken in this sense, although the term Holy is omitted. See HOLY SPIRIT.
2. BREATH, respiration; or the principle of animal life, common to men and animal: this God has given, and this he recalls when he takes away life, Ec 3:21. See SOUL.
3. The RATIONAL SOUL which animates us, and preserves its being after the death of the body. That spiritual, reasoning, and choosing substance, which is capable of eternal happiness. See SOUL.
The "spirits in prison," 1Pe 3:19, it is generally thought, are the souls of antediluvian sinners now reserved unto the judgment-day, but unto whom the Spirit preached by the agency of Noah, etc., 2Pe 2:5, when they were in the flesh. Thus Christ "preached" to the Ephesians, whom he never visited in person, Eph 2:17.
4. An ANGEL, good or bad; a soul separate from the body, Mr 14:26. It is said, Ac 23:8, that the Sadducees denied the existence of angels and spirits. Christ, appearing to his disciples, said to them, Lu 24:39, "Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."
5. The DISPOSITION of the mind or intellect. Thus we read of a spirit of jealously, a spirit of fornication, a spirit of prayer, a spirit of infirmity, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of fear of the Lord, Ho 4:12; Zec 12:10; Lu 13:11; Isa 11:2.
6. The RENEWED NATURE of true believers, which is produced by the Holy Spirit, and conforms the soul to his likeness. Spirit is thus the opposite of flesh, Joh 3:6. This spirit is virally united with, an in some passages can hardly be distinguished from the "Spirit of Christ," which animates true Christians, the children of God, and distinguishes them from the children of darkness, who are animated by the spirit of the world, Ro 8:1-16. This indwelling Spirit is the gift of grace, of adoption-the Holy Spirit poured into our hearts-which emboldens us to call God "Abba, my Father." Those who are influenced by this Spirit "have crucified the flesh, with its affections and lusts," Ga 5:16-25.
Distinguishing or discerning of spirits consisted in discerning whether a man were really inspired by the Spirit of God, or was a false prophet, an impostor, who only followed the impulse of his own spirit or of Satan. Paul speaks, 1Co 12:10 of the discerning of spirits as being among the miraculous gifts granted by God to the faithful at the first settlement of Christianity.
To "quench the Spirit," 1Th 5:19, is a metaphorical expression easily understood. The Spirit may be quenched by forcing, as it were, that divine Agent to withdraw from us, by irregularity of life, frivolity, avarice, negligence, or other sins contrary to charity, truth, peace, and his other gifts and qualifications.
We "grieve" the Spirit of God by withstanding his holy inspirations, the impulses of his grace; or by living in a lukewarm and incautious manner; by despising his gifts, or neglecting them; by abusing his favors, either out of vanity, curiosity, or indifference. In a contrary sense, 2Ti 1:6, we "stir up" the Spirit of God which is in us, by the practice of virtue, by compliance with his inspirations, by fervor in his service, by renewing our gratitude, and by diligently serving Christ and doing the works of the Spirit.
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And, behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and unable to raise herself at all up.
look upon my hands and my feet, that it is my very self: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
For the Sadducees say indeed, that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.
THERE is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath liberated me from the law of sin and of death. read more. For that which was impossible by the law, inasmuch as it was impotent through the flesh, God having sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in that flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled by us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they who are after the flesh, mind the things of the flesh; but they who are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the propensity of the flesh is inimical against God: for it is not in subjection to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. They then who are in the flesh, cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. But if Christ be in you, the body indeed is dead on account of sin; but the Spirit is alive through righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who hath raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he who raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his indwelling Spirit in you. Truly then we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye are ready to die: but if by the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are guided by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye have received a Spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father. The same spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
to another miraculous powers; to another prophecy; to another discernments of spirits; to another different kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
But I say, Walk in the Spirit, and ye will not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh hath appetites contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit contrary to the flesh, and these act in opposition the one to the other: so that ye do not the things which ye would. read more. But if ye are under the conduct of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are these: adultery, whoredom, impurity, lasciviousness, idolatry, magical charms, enmities, strifes, jealousies, animosities, quarrels, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revels, and the like of these, concerning which I tell you now, as I have told you already, that they who live in such practices shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. But they who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and irregular appetites. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
and coming, hath preached peace to you who were afar off, and to those who were nigh:
Quench not the Spirit.
For which cause I remind thee that thou fan into a flame the divine gift, which is in thee by the imposition of my hands.
by which also he went and preached to those spirits imprisoned;
and spared not the old world, but guarded safely Noah the eighth person, the preacher of righteousness, when he brought a deluge on the world of the ungodly:
Easton
(Heb ruah; Gr. pneuma), properly wind or breath. In 2Th 2:8 it means "breath," and in Ec 8:8 the vital principle in man. It also denotes the rational, immortal soul by which man is distinguished (Ac 7:59; 1Co 5:5; 6:20; 7:34), and the soul in its separate state (Heb 12:23), and hence also an apparition (Job 4:15; Lu 24:37,39), an angel (Heb 1:14), and a demon (Lu 4:36; 10:20). This word is used also metaphorically as denoting a tendency (Zec 12:10; Lu 13:11).
In Ro 1:4; 1Ti 3:16; 2Co 3:17; 1Pe 3:18, it designates the divine nature.
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And amazement seized on all present, and they spake one to another, saying, What a word is this? for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.
Nevertheless, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are made subject to you; but rejoice rather, that your names are inscribed in the heavens.
And, behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and unable to raise herself at all up.
look upon my hands and my feet, that it is my very self: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
And they stoned Stephen, in the act of prayer, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!
definitively marked out as the Son of God by miracle, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead:
And everything that ye do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
And then that lawless person will appear, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming;
Are they not all ministerial spirits, sent to perform service on account of those who are about to inherit salvation?
and to the general assembly and church of the first-born registered in the heavens, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men perfected,
Fausets
Hebrew ruach, Greek pneuma. Man in his normal integrity ("whole," holokleeron, complete in all its parts, 1Th 5:23) consists of "spirit, soul, and body." The spirit links man with higher intelligences, and is that highest part receptive of the quickening Holy Spirit (1Co 15:47). The soul (Hebrew nephesh, Greek psuchee) is intermediate between body and spirit; it is the sphere of the will and affections.
In the unspiritual, the spirit is so sunk under the animal soul (which it ought to keep under) that such are "animal" ("seasonal," having merely the body of organized matter and the soul, the immaterial animating essence), "having not the spirit" (Jg 1:19; Jas 3:15; 1Co 2:14; 15:44-48; Joh 3:6). The unbeliever shall rise with an animal (soul-animated) body, but not, like the believer, with a spiritual (spirit-endued) body like Christ's (Ro 8:11).
The soul is the seat of the appetites, the desires, the will; hunger, thirst, sorrow, joy; love, hope, fear, etc.; so that nephesh is the man himself, and is used for person, self, creature, any: a virtual contradiction of materialism, implying that the unseen soul rather than the seen body is the man. "Man was made" not a living body but "a living soul." "The blood, the life," links together body and soul (Le 17:11).
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That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
But if the Spirit of him who hath raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he who raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his indwelling Spirit in you.
The first man was of the earth, earthly; the second man was the Lord from heaven.
and hath blotted out the handwriting in ordinances that was against us, which was the obstacle to us, and took it from the midst, nailing it to the cross;
Now the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved faultless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is not the wisdom which cometh from above, but is earthly, sensual, diabolical.
Hastings
The term is applied to God as defining His nature generally (Joh 4:24), and also as describing one element in that nature, His self-consciousness (1Co 2:11). It expresses not only God's immateriality, but also His transcendence of limitations of time and space. In the phrases 'Spirit of God,' the 'Spirit of the Lord,' the 'Spirit of Jesus Christ,' the 'Holy Spirit,' the 'Spirit of Truth,' the third Person in the Godhead is described (see Holy Spirit). The term is applied to personal powers of evil other than man (Mt 10:1; 12:45; Lu 4:33; 7:21; 1Ti 4:1; cf. Eph 6:12), as well as personal powers of good (Heb 1:14), and to human beings after death, either damned (1Pe 3:19) or blessed (Heb 12:23). It is used also as personifying an influence (1Jo 4:6; Eph 2:2; Ro 8:15). Its most distinctive use is in the psychology of the Christian life. The contrast between 'soul' and 'spirit,' and between 'flesh' and 'spirit,' has already been noted in the articles on these terms. While soul and spirit are not to be regarded as separate faculties, yet 'spirit' expresses the direct dependence of the life in man on God, first in creation (Ge 2:7), but especially, according to the Pauline doctrine, in regeneration. The life in man, isolating itself from, and opposing itself to, God, is soul; that life, cleansed and renewed by the Spirit of God, is spirit; intimate as is the relation of God and man in the new life, the Spirit of God is distinguished from the spirit of man (Ro 8:16), although it is not always possible to make the distinction. In Acts the phrase 'holy spirit' sometimes means the subjective human state produced ('holy enthusiasm'), and sometimes the objective Divine cause producing (see 'Acts' in the Century Bible, p. 386). As the Spirit is the source of this new life, whatever belongs to it is 'spiritual' (pneumatikon), as house, sacrifices (1Pe 2:5), understanding (Col 1:9), songs (Col 3:16), food, drink, rock (1Co 10:3-4); and the 'spiritual' and 'soulish' (rendered 'carnal' or 'natural') are contrasted (1Co 2:14; 15:44,46). Spirit as an ecstatic state is also distinguished from mind (1Co 14:14,16), as inwardness from letter (Ro 2:29; 7:6; 2Co 3:6). The old creation
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AND having called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease, and every malady.
Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.
And there was in the synagogue a man, who had a spirit of an unclean devil, and he roared out with a great cry,
And in that very hour he cured many of diseases and acute complaints, and evil spirits; and to many blind persons he gave sight.
God is a Spirit: and they who worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.
But he is a Jew who is such inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.
But now we have been discharged from the law, that being dead by which we were held fast; that we should serve in renovation of spirit, and not in the antiquity of the letter.
THERE is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath liberated me from the law of sin and of death. read more. For that which was impossible by the law, inasmuch as it was impotent through the flesh, God having sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in that flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled by us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they who are after the flesh, mind the things of the flesh; but they who are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the propensity of the flesh is inimical against God: for it is not in subjection to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. They then who are in the flesh, cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. But if Christ be in you, the body indeed is dead on account of sin; but the Spirit is alive through righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who hath raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he who raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his indwelling Spirit in you. Truly then we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye are ready to die: but if by the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are guided by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye have received a Spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father.
For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye have received a Spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father. The same spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
The same spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. But if children, then heirs; heirs indeed of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be we suffer with him, that we may also together with him be glorified.
For who among men knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? so also the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are folly to him: and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual rock which followed them; but that rock was Christ.
For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my mind produces no fruit.
Else, though thou bless God in spirit, how shall he who filleth the place of an illiterate man, say Amen after thy thanksgiving, seeing he knoweth not what thou sayest?
it is sown an animal body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is an animal body, and there is a spiritual body.
But that which is spiritual was not first, but that which is animal; and afterward that which is spiritual.
wherein in times past ye walked after the fashion of this world, after the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now worketh with energy in the children of disobedience:
For our conflict is not merely against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and against powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against wicked spirits in the aerial regions.
For this cause we also from the day we heard it have not ceased praying for you, and beseeching God that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
in whom also ye have been circumcised with the circumcision not made with hands, by the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, through the circumcision of Christ: buried with him in baptism, in which also ye have been raised up together with him by faith, the energy of God, who raised him from the dead.
for which things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience;
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing with grace in your heart unto the Lord.
Are they not all ministerial spirits, sent to perform service on account of those who are about to inherit salvation?
and to the general assembly and church of the first-born registered in the heavens, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men perfected,
ye also, as living stones, are built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices, well pleasing to God through Jesus Christ.
by which also he went and preached to those spirits imprisoned;
We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of delusion.
Morish
See SOUL.
Watsons
SPIRIT, in Hebrew, ??? in Greek, ??????, and in Latin, spiritus, is in the Scriptures sometimes taken for the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Holy Trinity. The word signifies also the reasonable soul which animates us, and continues in existence even after the death of the body; that spiritual, thinking and reasoning substance, which is capable of eternal happiness, Nu 16:22; Ac 7:59. The term spirit is also often used for an angel, a demon, and a ghost, or soul separate from the body. It is said, in Ac 23:8, that the Sadducees denied the existence of angels and spirits. Jesus Christ appearing to his disciples, said to them, Lu 24:39, "Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." And St. Paul calls the good angels "ministering spirits," Heb 1:14. In 1Sa 16:14; 18:10; 19:9, it is said that an evil spirit from the Lord troubled Saul: and we have also the expression unclean spirits. Add to this, spirit is sometimes put for the disposition of the heart or mind: see Nu 5:14; Zec 12:10; Lu 13:11; Isa 11:2. Discerning of spirits, or the secret character and thoughts of men, was a gift of God, and placed among the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, 1Co 12:10; 1Jo 4:1.
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And, behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and unable to raise herself at all up.
look upon my hands and my feet, that it is my very self: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
And they stoned Stephen, in the act of prayer, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!
For the Sadducees say indeed, that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.
to another miraculous powers; to another prophecy; to another discernments of spirits; to another different kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
Are they not all ministerial spirits, sent to perform service on account of those who are about to inherit salvation?