It seems that people today are sometimes a little squeamish when it comes to talking about the Holy Spirit. Even Christians begin fidgeting at the mention of His being a person or a personality rather than an ‘it’. We understand that Jesus walked on the earth as a man—He was physically present in our world and seen by many in His day, eating and drinking and requiring rest just as we do.

We accept that God is our Father who is in heaven and that He watches over us just as an earthly father would do. We credit many of the attributes of an earthly father to Him and even visualize him as a man in our mind. We can understand these personal relationships with both Jesus and God, but when it comes to the Holy Spirit’s being a person as well, and actually occupying our bodies…well, we just get a little skittish at the thought of it.

God is One, God is three—this is one of the greatest mysteries in scripture and must be taken on faith rather than human reasoning. We worship one God, but there are three eternal distinctions within that one divine essence. If we think of two of the three as “he,” why do we feel compelled to think of the third as “it”?

The Greek word pneuma is used in the Bible for the word “spirit” in the term Holy Spirit. In the King James translation, pneuma is translated as “ghost,” and the third person of the trinity is then referred to as “the Holy Ghost.” The literal meaning of pneuma, however, is a current of air, and that is no more a ghost than it is a spirit. While some are comfortable with the term “ghost,” its use might inhibit others from viewing God’s Spirit as a person just as God the Father and God the Son are seen. By thinking of the Holy Spirit as an “it,” believers might be prone not to fellowship with Him as easily as they do with the Father and the Son.

The Father sent His Spirit to dwell in us in order to comfort us, teach us, convict us, to call us into service, intercede for us and even more. Such activity on the Spirit’s part implies personality. Scripture uses the personal pronoun “he” in reference to the Spirit, so why do we prefer the impersonal pronoun “it”? In order to have the full relationship with God that He has ordained for us, we need to have that personal relationship with all three—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.