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Pneuma and the Trinity

Jesus promised His disciples, “In a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5). The word translated “Spirit” is the Greek word pneuma. This word is a noun—a person, place, or a thing.Pneuma means wind, breath, or spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a place. He is not a thing; He’s not an event or an impersonal force. He’s not a where, a when, or a what, but a who. The Holy Spirit is a person, and He is both personal and personable.

The Bible teaches there is only one true God (Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 45:5). It also says, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). So, who exactly is the Holy Spirit?

There is one God, but our God is plural. We have to wrap our minds and hearts around this truth. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word most often translated “God” is Elohim, which is actually a plural noun. God is Triune. We believe there are three persons of the Godhead: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Scripture starts: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:1–2).This passage shows God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.And John tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:1–3).We know the Word to be Jesus, God the Son. So, all three persons of the Trinity were unified, present and, active from creation.

We know that God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). God referred to Himself with the plural. In faith, we accept that God is one, but plural. It is not easy to explain the triune God. The greatest theologians would tell you that you could study God for years and barely scratch the surface of all He is.

God, help me to embrace the truth about Your nature as revealed in Scripture. I want to know You better.