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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Who shall know the spirit of the sons of man? it ascending to above, and the spirit of cattle, it going downwards to the earth.
My people will ask in their counsel, and with their rod they will announce to them: for the spirit of fornications caused to err, and they will commit fornication from under their God.
And I poured out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications: and they looked to me whom they pierced, and they mourned for him as mourning for the only begotten, and being embittered for him as being embittered for the first-born.
And having sung, they came out to the mount of Olives.
And, behold, there was a woman having a spirit of weakness eighteen years, and was bent together, and not able wholly to lift up the head.
See my hands and my feet, for I am he; feel, and see: for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as ye see me having.
That born of flesh is flesh; and that born of the Spirit is spirit.
For truly the Sadducees say there is no rising up, neither messenger, nor spirit: and the Pharisees acknowledge both.
Therefore now no condemnation to them in Christ Jesus, walking not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus freed me from the law of sin and death. read more. For the impossibility of the law, in that it was weak by the flesh, God having sent his own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the justification of the law be filled up in us, not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For they being according to the flesh mind things of the flesh; and they according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the thought of the flesh, death; and the thought of the Spirit, life and peace. Wherefore the thought of the flesh enmity to God: for it is not subject to the law of God, for it cannot be. And they being in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwell in you. And if any have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ in you, truly the body dead by sin; and the Spirit life by justice. And if the Spirit of him having raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he having raised up Christ from the dead will make alive also your mortal bodies by his Spirit dwelling in you. Therefore, brethren, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if ye live according to the flesh, ye shall die: and if by the Spirit ye kill the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For ye have not received the Spirit of servitude again for fear; but have received the Spirit of adoption as a son, in which we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself testifies with our spirit, that we are children of God:
And to another performances of powers; and to another discriminations of spirits; and to another kinds of tongues; and to another interpretation of tongues:
And I say, Walk in Spirit, and complete not the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are adverse to one another: that not the things ye would, these should ye do. read more. And if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. And the works of the flesh are manifest, which are; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, Idolatry, charm, enmities, strifes, jealousies, wraths, intriguings, seditions, sects Envyings, slaughters, drunkenness, revelries, and the like: to these which I foretell you, as I have also said before, that they doing such shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such is no law. And they of Christ have crucified the flesh with the passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
And having come, he announced good news, peace to you afar off, and to those near.
Quench not the Spirit.
By which I remind thee of the cause to light up the favor of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
In which also having gone, he proclaimed to the spirits in prison;
And spared not the old world, but Noah the eighth, a herald of justice, he watched, having brought an inundation upon the world of the irreligious;
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 the spirit will glide before my face; the hair of my flesh will stand erect:
No man having power in spirit to restrain the spirit: and no power in the day of death: and no sending forth in war; and injustice shall not deliver its possessors.
And I poured out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications: and they looked to me whom they pierced, and they mourned for him as mourning for the only begotten, and being embittered for him as being embittered for the first-born.
And amazement was upon all, and they spake to one another, saying, What this word with authority and power he commands unclean spirits, and they come out.
But in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject to you; but rather rejoice, that your names were written in the heavens.
And, behold, there was a woman having a spirit of weakness eighteen years, and was bent together, and not able wholly to lift up the head.
And they, struck with awe and being afraid, thought to see a spirit.
See my hands and my feet, for I am he; feel, and see: for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as ye see me having.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Determined the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the rising up of the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord:
And all whatever you do in word and in work, all things in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
And then shall the Lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord will destroy with the spirit of his mouth, and leave unemployed in the splendor of his arrival:
Are they not all spirits qualified for service, sent forth for service for them about to inherit salvation?
To the assembly of people, and church of the firstborn, transcribed in the heavens, and to God the Judge of all, and. to the spirits of the just 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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For the soul of the flesh it is in the blood; and I gave it to you upon the altar to expiate for your souls: for the blood shall expiate for the soul.
And Jehovah will be with Judah; and be will inherit the mountain because there was no driving out the inhabitants of the valley, for to them the chariot of iron.
That born of flesh is flesh; and that born of the Spirit is spirit.
And if the Spirit of him having raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he having raised up Christ from the dead will make alive also your mortal bodies by his Spirit dwelling in you.
The first man of earth, made of earth: the second man the Lord from heaven.
Having wiped out the handwriting against us in enactments, which was opposed to us, and he has taken it from the midst, having nailed it to his cross
And the same God of peace consecrate you perfectly compete; and your whole spirit and soul and body be kept faultless to the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is wisdom coming not down from above, but earthly, natural, resembling an evil spirit.
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 Jehovah God will form man of the dust from the earth, and will blow into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man shall be for a living soul.
And Jehovah God will form man of the dust from the earth, and will blow into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man shall be for a living soul.
Thus said God Jehovah, creating the heavens and stretching them out; and spreading out the earth and its productions; giving breath to the people upon it, and spirit to those going upon it:
And having called his twelve disciples, he gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every weakness.
Then he goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits, worse than he, and having come in, they dwell there: and the last things of that man are worse than the first. So also shall it be to this evil generation.
And in the assembly was a man having the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a great voice,
And in that same hour he cured many of diseases, and scourges, and evil spirits, and to many blind he conferred the favor to see.
God a Spirit: and they worshipping him must worship in spirit and truth.
But he in concealment, a Jew; and circumcision of the heart, in spirit, not in letter; whose approbation not of man, but of God.
And now we were left inactive from the law, having died in what we were held; so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Therefore now no condemnation to them in Christ Jesus, walking not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus freed me from the law of sin and death. read more. For the impossibility of the law, in that it was weak by the flesh, God having sent his own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the justification of the law be filled up in us, not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For they being according to the flesh mind things of the flesh; and they according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the thought of the flesh, death; and the thought of the Spirit, life and peace. Wherefore the thought of the flesh enmity to God: for it is not subject to the law of God, for it cannot be. And they being in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwell in you. And if any have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ in you, truly the body dead by sin; and the Spirit life by justice. And if the Spirit of him having raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he having raised up Christ from the dead will make alive also your mortal bodies by his Spirit dwelling in you. Therefore, brethren, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if ye live according to the flesh, ye shall die: and if by the Spirit ye kill the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For ye have not received the Spirit of servitude again for fear; but have received the Spirit of adoption as a son, in which we cry, Abba, Father.
For ye have not received the Spirit of servitude again for fear; but have received the Spirit of adoption as a son, in which we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself testifies with our spirit, that we are children of God:
The Spirit itself testifies with our spirit, that we are children of God: And if children, also heirs; truly heirs of God, and coheirs of Christ; if indeed we suffer together, that we may be also glorified together.
For who of men knows the things of men except the spirit of man in him? so also the things of God no one knows, except the Spirit of God.
And the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: and he cannot know, for they are spiritually examined.
And they all ate the same spiritual food And all drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank of the spiritual Rock following; and the Rock was Christ.
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, and my mind is unfruitful.
When if thou praise in the spirit, how shall he filling the place of the private individual say Amen at thy thanksgiving) since he knows not what thou sayest
It is sown an animated body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is an animated body, and there is a spiritual body.
But the first not spiritual, but animated; then the spiritual.
In which when ye walked according to the life of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, of the spirit now energetic in the sons of disobedience:
For the wrestling is not to us against blood and flesh, but against beginnings, against powers, against the chiefs of the world of darkness of this life, against spiritual things of wickedness in heavenly things.
For this also we, from the day which we heard, ceased not praying for you, and asking that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
In whom also were ye circumcised with the circumcision not made by hands, in the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; Buried together with him in immersion, in which also were ye risen together by the faith of the operation of God, having raised him from the dead.
For these comes the Wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience:
Let the word of Christ dwell in, you richly; teaching and reminding one another in all wisdom, playing with harps, and songs, and spiritual odes, with grace singing in your hearts to the Lord.
Are they not all spirits qualified for service, sent forth for service for them about to inherit salvation?
To the assembly of people, and church of the firstborn, transcribed in the heavens, and to God the Judge of all, and. to the spirits of the just perfected,
And ye yourselves are built, as living stones, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to bring up spiritual sacrifice; acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
In which also having gone, he proclaimed to the spirits in prison;
We are of God: he knowing God hears us; he is not of God who hears us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
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 the spirit of jealousy passed upon him, and he was jealous of his wife, and she was defiled: or the spirit of jealousy passed upon him, and he was jealous of his wife, and she was not defiled:
And they shall fall upon their faces, and they will say, God, the God of the spirits for all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be angry against all the assembly.
And it shall be as all the people finished passing over Jordan, and Jehovah will say to Joshua,
And the spirit of Jehovah departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Jehovah terrified him.
And it will be on the morrow, and the evil spirit of God will fall upon Saul, and he will prophesy in the midst of the house: and David playing with his hand as the day to day: and a spear in Saul's hand.
And the evil spirit of Jehovah will be upon Saul, and he will sit in his house, and his spear in his hand: and David playing with his hand.
And the spirit of Jehovah resting upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Jehovah:
And I poured out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications: and they looked to me whom they pierced, and they mourned for him as mourning for the only begotten, and being embittered for him as being embittered for the first-born.
And, behold, there was a woman having a spirit of weakness eighteen years, and was bent together, and not able wholly to lift up the head.
See my hands and my feet, for I am he; feel, and see: for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as ye see me having.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
For truly the Sadducees say there is no rising up, neither messenger, nor spirit: and the Pharisees acknowledge both.
And to another performances of powers; and to another discriminations of spirits; and to another kinds of tongues; and to another interpretation of tongues:
Are they not all spirits qualified for service, sent forth for service for them about to inherit salvation?