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 behold, there was a woman who had been subject to a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent down, and was not able to lift herself up at all.
See my hands and my feet, that I am he; feel of me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is a spirit.
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees confess both.
THERE is no condemnation therefore to those in Christ Jesus; for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death. read more. For what the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh, God having sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned the sin in the flesh, that the righteous ordinance of the law may be performed by us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For they who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but they who are according to the spirit the things of the spirit; for the minding of the flesh is death, but the minding of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the minding of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God; for it can not be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if any man has not the spirit of Christ he is not his. But if Christ is in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the spirit is life on account of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised Christ from the dead shall make alive your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you. Therefore, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die; but if by the spirit you kill the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are sons of God. For you received not the spirit of servitude again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, by which we cry; Abba, Father. The Spirit itself is a co-witness with our spirits that we are children of God.
and to another the performance of mighty works, and to another prophecy, and to another discrimination of spirits, and to another different tongues, and to another an interpretation of tongues;
And I say, walk in the Spirit and perform not the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are opposed one to another, so that you do not what you wish. read more. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. For the works of the flesh are manifest, which are, fornication, impurity, lewdness, idolatry, magic, enmities, strife, envy, anger, contentions, dissensions, heresies, murders, drunkenness, revellings and the like, of which I tell you before, as I have also previously told you, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. And the [subjects] of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its affections and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
And he came and preached the good news of peace to you who were far off, and peace to those nigh,
Quench not the Spirit,
For which cause I admonish you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the imposition of my hands.
in which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison,
and spared not the old world, but preserved Noah a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, bringing the flood 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 they were all amazed, and talked with each other, saying, What word is this, that with authority and power he commands the impure spirits, and they come out?
but in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
and behold, there was a woman who had been subject to a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent down, and was not able to lift herself up at all.
and they being terrified and afraid, thought they saw a spirit.
See my hands and my feet, that I am he; feel of me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have.
and they stoned Stephen, calling and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
declared to be the Son of God in power as to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead,??esus Christ our Lord,??5 through whom we have received grace and an apostleship for the obedience of the faith in all nations in behalf of his name,
and whatever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the God [and] Father through him.
and then shall the wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming,
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to serve on account of those who are about to inherit salvation?
and to the church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge the God of all, and to spirits of the righteous 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 a spirit.
And if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised Christ from the dead shall make alive your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you.
The first man was from the earth, earthly, the second man is from heaven.
having blotted out what was written by the hand in ordinances which was against us, and has taken it away from between [us], having nailed it to the cross;
And may the God of peace himself purify you wholly, and your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This wisdom comes not from above, but is earthly, natural, 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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AND calling his twelve disciples, he gave them power over impure spirits to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every infirmity.
Then it goes and takes with itself seven other spirits worse than itself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it be also with this evil generation.
And there was a man in the synagogue having a spirit of an impure demon; and he cried with a loud voice,
And in that hour he cured many of diseases, and plagues, and of evil spirits, and gave sight to many blind.
God is a Spirit, and those that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
But that which is in secret is the Jew, and circumcision of the heart is in the spirit not in the writing, the commendation of which is not of men but of God.
but now we are released from the law by which we were held having died, that we should serve [God] in newness of spirit, not in the old age of a writing.
THERE is no condemnation therefore to those in Christ Jesus; for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death. read more. For what the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh, God having sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned the sin in the flesh, that the righteous ordinance of the law may be performed by us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For they who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but they who are according to the spirit the things of the spirit; for the minding of the flesh is death, but the minding of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the minding of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God; for it can not be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if any man has not the spirit of Christ he is not his. But if Christ is in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the spirit is life on account of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised Christ from the dead shall make alive your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you. Therefore, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die; but if by the spirit you kill the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are sons of God. For you received not the spirit of servitude again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, by which we cry; Abba, Father.
For you received not the spirit of servitude again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, by which we cry; Abba, Father. The Spirit itself is a co-witness with our spirits that we are children of God.
The Spirit itself is a co-witness with our spirits that we are children of God. And if children, [we are] also heirs, heirs indeed of God and co-heirs with Christ, if we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him.
For who knows the [things] of man, except the spirit of man which is in him? So also no one knows the [things] of God except the Spirit of God.
But the natural man receives not the [things] of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them, for they are spiritually discerned.
and all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of the spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ;
For if I pray with a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
since if you bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupies the place of the unlearned say, Amen, to your thanksgiving, since he knows not what you say?
it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
But the spiritual was not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.
for our conflict is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the potentates of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual [hosts] of evil in the heavenly [worlds].
Therefore we also, from the day that we heard, cease not to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
in whom you are also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, with the putting off of the body of the flesh, with the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you have also been raised together through the effectual faith of God who raised him from the dead;
for which comes the wrath of God.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching with all wisdom, and admonishing one another, with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God,
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to serve on account of those who are about to inherit salvation?
and to the church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge the God of all, and to spirits of the righteous made perfect,
do you also yourselves be built up living stones, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices well pleasing to God through Jesus Christ,
in which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison,
We are of God; he that knows God hears us, he that is not of God does not hear us. 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 behold, there was a woman who had been subject to a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent down, and was not able to lift herself up at all.
See my hands and my feet, that I am he; feel of me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have.
and they stoned Stephen, calling and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees confess both.
and to another the performance of mighty works, and to another prophecy, and to another discrimination of spirits, and to another different tongues, and to another an interpretation of tongues;
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to serve on account of those who are about to inherit salvation?