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 having sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
And lo! there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years; and she was bent together, and wholly unable to lift herself up.
See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. 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 that there is no resurrection, and no angel or spirit; but the Pharisees affirm both.
There is then now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life set me free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. read more. For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God hath done, who on account of sin sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and passed sentence of condemnation on sin in the flesh; so that what is required by the Law might be accomplished in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For they who are according to the flesh have their mind on the things of the flesh; but they who are according to the Spirit, on the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit life and peace. Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it doth not submit itself to the Law of God, neither indeed can it. And they 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 one hath to not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he who raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you. So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if ye live according to the flesh, ye are sure to die; but if by the Spirit ye make an end of the deeds of the body, ye will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God. For ye did not receive the spirit of bondage so as to be again in fear; but ye received the spirit of adopted children, whereby we cry, Abba, Father! The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God;
to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. For the flesh hath desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these oppose one another, that ye may not do the things that ye would. read more. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the Law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest; such as fornication, uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, rivalry, outbursts of wrath, cabals, divisions, factions, envyings, drunkenness, revelings, and things like these; of which I tell you beforehand, as I also told you in time past, that they who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance; against such things as these there is no law. And they who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with the passions and lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
And he came and brought the glad tidings of peace to you who were afar off, and of peace to those that were near;
Quench not the Spirit;
For which cause I remind thee to stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the laying on of my hands;
in which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison,
and spared not the old world, but saved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought in the flood upon 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 all were amazed; and they spoke with one another, saying, What kind of word is this, that with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out?
Yet rejoice not in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names have been written in heaven.
And lo! there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years; and she was bent together, and wholly unable to lift herself up.
But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they beheld a spirit.
See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
and they stoned Stephen, making supplication, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
and shown with power to be the Son of God as to his spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord;
and whatever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father, through him.
and then will the lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will consume with the breath of his mouth, and destroy with the manifestation of his coming;
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
and to the church of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven; and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous 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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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 raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he who raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.
blotting out the handwriting in ordinances that was against us, which was opposed to us, he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;
And may the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved whole, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This wisdom is not that which descendeth from above, but earthly, sensual, devilish.
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 he called to him his twelve disciples, and gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every sickness and every disease.
Then it goeth and taketh with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they enter in, and dwell there; and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. So will it be also with this wicked generation.
And in the synagogue there was a man having a spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice,
In that hour he cured many of diseases, and plagues, and evil spirits, and to many who were blind he gave sight.
God is a spirit; and they who worship must worship in spirit and in truth.
but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, spiritual, not literal, whose praise is not of men, but of God.
But now we are delivered from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, that we might serve in the new life of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the letter.
There is then now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life set me free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. read more. For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God hath done, who on account of sin sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and passed sentence of condemnation on sin in the flesh; so that what is required by the Law might be accomplished in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For they who are according to the flesh have their mind on the things of the flesh; but they who are according to the Spirit, on the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit life and peace. Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it doth not submit itself to the Law of God, neither indeed can it. And they 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 one hath to not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he who raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you. So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if ye live according to the flesh, ye are sure to die; but if by the Spirit ye make an end of the deeds of the body, ye will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God. For ye did not receive the spirit of bondage so as to be again in fear; but ye received the spirit of adopted children, whereby we cry, Abba, Father!
For ye did not receive the spirit of bondage so as to be again in fear; but ye received the spirit of adopted children, whereby we cry, Abba, Father! The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God;
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and fellowheirs with Christ; if indeed we are suffering with him, that we may also be glorified with him.
For who among men knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of the man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no one but the Spirit of God.
But the unspiritual man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them; because they are spiritually discerned.
and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of the spiritual rock that accompanied them; and the rock was Christ;
For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
Else, if thou bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the place of the unlearned say the Amen at thy giving of thanks, since he understandeth not what thou art saying?
it is sown an animal body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is an animal body, there is also a spiritual body.
But the spiritual is not first, but the animal; and afterward the spiritual.
in which ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience;
for our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the worldrulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of evil in the heavenly regions.
On this account we also, from the day we heard of it, cease not to pray for you, and to ask 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 a circumcision not performed by hand, in putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in your baptism; in which also ye were raised to life with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead;
on account of which things cometh the wrath of God.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, in grace singing in your hearts to God;
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
and to the church of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven; and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect;
be ye yourselves also, as living stones, built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
in which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison,
We are of God; he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth us not. Hereby know we 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 lo! there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years; and she was bent together, and wholly unable to lift herself up.
See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
and they stoned Stephen, making supplication, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and no angel or spirit; but the Pharisees affirm both.
to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?