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 into the mount of Olives.
And, behold, a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and wholly unable to raise herself up.
See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me, and see; because a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as ye behold Me having."
That which has been born of the flesh is flesh: and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge both.
Consequently, there is now no condemnation to those who are 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 was impossible under law, wherein it was weak through the flesh. God, sending His Own Son in likeness of sinful flesh, and, respecting sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can it be; and those 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 is dwelling in you. And, if any one has not the spirit of Christ, he is not His. And, if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And, if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will make alive your mortal bodies through His Spirit dwelling in you. Accordingly, 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 going to die; but, if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For ye did not receive a spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself testifieth with our spirit, that we are children of God;
and to another, workings of mighty deeds; and to another, prophecy; and to another, discerning of spirits; to another, various kinds of tongues; and to another, interpretation of tongues.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and ye will not fulfill the desire of the flesh. For the flesh covets against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary one to the other, that ye may not do the things which ye wish. read more. But, if ye are being led by the Spirit, ye are not under law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strifes, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revelings, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, as I also said before, that those practicing 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, continence; against such there is no law. And those who are of Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with the passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk.
and, coming, He proclaimed the Gospel of peace to you who were afar off, and peace to those who were near;
Quench not the Spirit.
For which cause, I put you in remembrance that you stir into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of hands.
in Whom, also, going, He preached to the spirits in prison,
and spared not the old world; but preserved Noah, an eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing a flood upon a world of ungodly people;
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 came upon all; and they were talking together, one with another, saying, "What is this word, that with authority and power He commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out!"
Notwithstanding, rejoice not in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice, because your names have been written in Heaven."
And, behold, a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and wholly unable to raise herself up.
But, being terrified and frightened, they were supposing that they were beholding a spirit.
See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me, and see; because a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as ye behold Me having."
And they were stoning Stephen, calling and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"
Who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead??ven Jesus Christ our Lord,
And whatsoever ye do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth, and will bring to nought by the manifestation of His presence;
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth for service, for the sake of those about to inherit salvation?
to the general festal throng, and assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous ones 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 has been born of the flesh is flesh: and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
And, if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will make alive your mortal bodies through His Spirit dwelling in you.
The first man is of the earth earthy; the second Man is from Heaven.
having blotted out the hand-writing in decrees against us, which was contrary to us, and He has taken it out of the midst, nailing it to the cross;
And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This wisdom is not the wisdom that comes down from above; but is earthly, soulish, 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, having called to Him His twelve disciples, He gave them authority over unclean spirits, so as to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every sickness.
Then it goes and takes along with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and, entering in, they dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. So shall it be also to 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 blind He bestowed sight.
God is a spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
but he is a Jew, who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in spirit, not in letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.
But now we have been fully discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
Consequently, there is now no condemnation to those who are 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 was impossible under law, wherein it was weak through the flesh. God, sending His Own Son in likeness of sinful flesh, and, respecting sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can it be; and those 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 is dwelling in you. And, if any one has not the spirit of Christ, he is not His. And, if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And, if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will make alive your mortal bodies through His Spirit dwelling in you. Accordingly, 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 going to die; but, if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For ye did not receive a spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father."
For ye did not receive a spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself testifieth with our spirit, that we are children of God;
The Spirit Himself testifieth with our spirit, that we are children of God; and, if children, heirs also; heirs, indeed, of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if, indeed, we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.
For who of men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man that is in him? even so the things of God no one has known, except the Spirit of God.
But a natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.
and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they were drinking of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was the Christ.
For, if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
Else, if you are blessing with the spirit, how will he who fills the place of the unlearned say the "Amen" at your giving of thanks, 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.
And the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.
in which ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the authority of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience;
because to us the struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, cease not praying for you, and asking that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
in Whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in your immersion, in which ye were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, Who raised Him from the dead;
on account of which things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience;
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching 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 for service, for the sake of those about to inherit salvation?
to the general festal throng, and assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous ones made perfect;
ye yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
in Whom, also, going, He preached to the spirits in prison,
We are of God; he that knows God hears us; he that is not of God hears us not: from 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, a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and wholly unable to raise herself up.
See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me, and see; because a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as ye behold Me having."
And they were stoning Stephen, calling and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge both.
and to another, workings of mighty deeds; and to another, prophecy; and to another, discerning of spirits; to another, various kinds of tongues; and to another, interpretation of tongues.
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth for service, for the sake of those about to inherit salvation?