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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Then, having sung an hymn, they went out towards the mount of Olives.
who had been kept infirm by a spirit eighteen years: and stooped in such a manner, she was not able to hold up her head strait.
behold my hands, and my feet. for I am bodily present, touch me and consider me; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have:
the cleansing of the body is only external, but the purification of the spirit is spiritual.
for the Sadducees maintain, there is neither resurrection, nor angel, or spirit, whereas the Pharisees acknowledge both: the clamour was great,
Sentence of death therefore shall not pass upon those christians who do not lead a vicious life. for the christian dispensation of a spiritual life has set me free from the legal state of sin and death. read more. God having sent his own son invested with a body like that of sinful men, as a sacrifice for sin, thereby destroyed its power; which the law could not effect, human nature being in such a corrupted state. so that the moral obligations of the law might be fulfilled by us, in living according to the spiritual, and not the carnal tenor thereof: for they that are sensually affected, abandon themselves to sensuality, but the spiritual pursue their spiritual entertainments. now sensual inclinations lead to death; but spiritual affections to a life of tranquillity. because a sensual disposition of mind is averse to God: for it is not subject to the divine law, nor indeed can it be. so that they who are in a carnal state, cannot be acceptable to the divine being. as for you, you are not in such a state, but in a spiritual one, provided the divine spirit dwell in you. now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. and if Christ be in you, tho' the body is mortal in consequence of sin; the spirit gives life by justification. for if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall likewise restore your mortal bodies to life, by his spirit that dwelleth in you. You are, therefore, brethren oblig'd to oppose your sensual passions; for if you lead a sensual life, you will be miserable: but if through the spirit you mortify the affections of corrupted nature, you will be happy. as many as are actuated by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. for the spirit you have received is not servile to keep you still in fear; but it is the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, that is, father. the same spirit testifies to our spirit, that we are the children of God.
to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits; to another diversity of languages; to another the interpretation of languages.
I say then, conduct yourselves by the spirit, and you will not then gratify the animal passions. for the vicious desires are contrary to those of the spirit, and the inclinations of the spirit are contrary to those of the animal part; these are opposite to each other, so that you do not the things that you would. read more. but if you are governed by the spirit, you are not subject to the law. now the effects of vicious passions are manifestly these, fornication, uncleanness, brutality, idolatry, poisoning, enmities, quarrels, emulations, animosities, strife, seditions, factions, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like, concerning which I forewarn you now, as heretofore I have done, that they who practise such vices, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, sweetness of disposition, beneficence, faithfulness, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. now they who belong to Christ, have crucified the animal nature with the affections and passions thereof. if we live by the spirit, let us regulate our actions by the spirit:
and being come, he preached the glad tidings of peace to YOU who were afar off, and to US that were nigh.
don't abuse the gifts of the spirit.
For which reason I remind you to exert the divine gifts you received, when I gave you the imposition of hands.
by which he went with guardian spirits to preach to
since he did not spare the old world, having preserved only eight persons, including Noah, that preacher of virtue, when he brought the deluge upon the impious world:
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 they were all amazed, and said to one another, what's the meaning of this? with authority and power he commands the impure spirits, and they come out!
however, let not this be the matter of your rejoicing, that the spirits are subject to you: but rejoice, that you have a title to the joys of heaven.
who had been kept infirm by a spirit eighteen years: and stooped in such a manner, she was not able to hold up her head strait.
but they were in a consternation and fright, imagining, that they saw a spirit.
behold my hands, and my feet. for I am bodily present, touch me and consider me; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have:
Thus they stoned Stephen, while he was calling upon God, and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
but as to his holy spirit miraculously declared to be the son of God, by his resurrection from the dead:
let your discourse and your actions be all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father by him.
and then the lawless will be discover'd, whom the Lord will extirpate by the spirit of his mouth, and at his glorious advent, will intirely abolish him,
are not all those spirits dispatch'd as ministers to take care of those who shall belong to the christian church.
the church of the first-born who are enroll'd in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
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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the cleansing of the body is only external, but the purification of the spirit is spiritual.
for if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall likewise restore your mortal bodies to life, by his spirit that dwelleth in you.
the first man was formed from the dust of the earth: the second man was from heaven.
and cancell'd the obligation of the ceremonial law, which was disadvantageous to us, removing that which divided us, and nailing it to the cross.
Now may the God of peace make you intirely holy: may every part of you, your spirit, soul, and body be preserved irreprovable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
such wisdom is not derived from heaven; but is terrestrial, sensual, demoniacal.
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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Jesus having called his twelve disciples, he gave them power to cast out unclean spirits, and to heal diseases and disorders of every kind.
then he goes and takes seven other spirits besides himself, but more mischievous than himself, and they all enter in and lodge there: so that the last state of that man is worse than the first. just so shall it likewise fare with this wicked generation.
now there was in the synagogue a man possess'd with the spirit of an impure demon, who roar'd out, in these words, let us alone;
at that very time, he cured several of their diseases and distempers, dispossessing evil spirits, and restoring sight to many that were blind.
God is a spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.
but it is the Jew, who is so inwardly, and it is the circumcision of the heart, according to the spiritual, not the literal sense, which have the approbation, I do not say of men, but of God.
but now we are delivered by the death of the law, which held us in bondage: that we might serve according to the living spirit, and not in the dead letter of the law.
Sentence of death therefore shall not pass upon those christians who do not lead a vicious life. for the christian dispensation of a spiritual life has set me free from the legal state of sin and death. read more. God having sent his own son invested with a body like that of sinful men, as a sacrifice for sin, thereby destroyed its power; which the law could not effect, human nature being in such a corrupted state. so that the moral obligations of the law might be fulfilled by us, in living according to the spiritual, and not the carnal tenor thereof: for they that are sensually affected, abandon themselves to sensuality, but the spiritual pursue their spiritual entertainments. now sensual inclinations lead to death; but spiritual affections to a life of tranquillity. because a sensual disposition of mind is averse to God: for it is not subject to the divine law, nor indeed can it be. so that they who are in a carnal state, cannot be acceptable to the divine being. as for you, you are not in such a state, but in a spiritual one, provided the divine spirit dwell in you. now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. and if Christ be in you, tho' the body is mortal in consequence of sin; the spirit gives life by justification. for if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall likewise restore your mortal bodies to life, by his spirit that dwelleth in you. You are, therefore, brethren oblig'd to oppose your sensual passions; for if you lead a sensual life, you will be miserable: but if through the spirit you mortify the affections of corrupted nature, you will be happy. as many as are actuated by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. for the spirit you have received is not servile to keep you still in fear; but it is the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, that is, father.
for the spirit you have received is not servile to keep you still in fear; but it is the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, that is, father. the same spirit testifies to our spirit, that we are the children of God.
the same spirit testifies to our spirit, that we are the children of God. and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; although we now suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.
for who knows the thoughts of a man, but the spirit of man which is in him? even so the thoughts of God no one can know, but the spirit of God.
but the animal man does not receive the effusions of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him; neither can he understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
they all eat the same spiritual meat, and all drank the same spiritual drink: (for they drank of what flowed from the spiritual rock: and that rock was Christ.)
for if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit indeed prays, but my meaning is of no benefit to others.
otherwise if you should give thanks by the spirit in an unknown tongue, the hearer cannot but appear unlearned upon this occasion; how then can he say Amen to thy thanksgiving? since he does not conceive what you say.
it is sown an animal body, it will rise a spiritual body. there is an animal body, and there is a spiritual body.
but the spiritual body was not first, but the animal; and afterwards the spiritual.
in which you formerly liv'd, influenc'd by the customs of this world, and by the prince of the aerial powers, the spirits that now actuate the incredulous:
for our conflict is not barely with men, but with principalities, with potentates, with the princes of darkness, with wicked aereal spirits.
For this cause, ever since we heard of it, we incessantly pray for you, requesting that you may be endued with respect to the knowledge of his will, with all wisdom and spiritual discernment:
by whom also ye have obtain'd the true spiritual circumcision, not effected by men, when you were by a christian circumcision divested of all your carnal affections, which were buried (as Christ was) in your baptism, by virtue of which you rise (as he did) to a new life, through a belief of that divine power, which raised him from the dead.
these are vices which draw down the divine vengeance upon unbelieving nations;
Let the christian doctrine be the familiar subject of your entertainment: in all wisdom instructing and exhorting one another, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, melodiously tuning your grateful praises to God.
are not all those spirits dispatch'd as ministers to take care of those who shall belong to the christian church.
the church of the first-born who are enroll'd in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
you your selves are as so many living stones, you are the edifice, the spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, agreeable to God by Jesus Christ.
by which he went with guardian spirits to preach to
we are of God: he that knoweth God, heareth us; he that is not of God, heareth not us. by this we distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of imposture.
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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who had been kept infirm by a spirit eighteen years: and stooped in such a manner, she was not able to hold up her head strait.
behold my hands, and my feet. for I am bodily present, touch me and consider me; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have:
Thus they stoned Stephen, while he was calling upon God, and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
for the Sadducees maintain, there is neither resurrection, nor angel, or spirit, whereas the Pharisees acknowledge both: the clamour was great,
to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits; to another diversity of languages; to another the interpretation of languages.
are not all those spirits dispatch'd as ministers to take care of those who shall belong to the christian church.