Can you make this in simple explanation: HOLY SPIRIT The Holy Spirit (or Spirit of God) transforms and empowers God’s people.

Introduction
God’s Spirit transforms His people to share His moral character and empowers them to fulfill His purposes. Scripture speaks of the human spirit, demonic spirits, and the Spirit of God. This article addresses the Spirit of God, which is active in creation (Gen 1:2; Pss 33:6; 104:30) and among God’s people. The more extensive New Testament passages regarding the Spirit develop earlier biblical themes.

God’s Spirit in the Old Testament
In the Old Testament, God’s Spirit represents an active dimension of His character. Israel was learning to embrace monotheism over polytheism; thus, emphasizing the character and activity of the one true God was more important than distinguishing identities within God. In depicting God’s activity, it was natural to speak in terms of “Spirit” because of the term’s various connotations. The Hebrew term רוּחַ (ruach) can mean “wind,” and “breath”; it can also refer to the life principle of persons or animals. Some passages play on multiple senses of the term (Isa 25:4; 32:15; Ezek 37:1–14).

  •      Poetic descriptions of deliverance (2 Sam 22:16; Psa 18:15) or judgment (e.g., Psa 48:7; Isa 11:4; 17:13; Jer 4:11–12; 49:32; Ezek 13:11; 17:10) show God working through wind (Exod 10:13, 19; 14:21; Num 11:31; 1 Kgs 18:45; Pss 104:4; 148:8; Jonah 1:4; 4:8).
  •      Scripture also sometimes portrays the Spirit as God’s breath (Exod 15:8, 10; Job 4:9; Isa 40:7; Hos 13:15).
  •      Israel’s prophets warned that idols lacked breath, in contrast to Yahweh, who controlled winds (Jer 10:13–14; 51:16–17; Amos 4:13; Hab 2:19).
  •      Hebrew poetry portrays Yahweh riding on the wind (2 Sam 22:11; Pss 18:10; 104:3), descriptions which drew from Canaanite imagery for Baal.
  •      Wind was sometimes associated with God’s presence (Gen 3:8; Ezek 1:4; compare 1 Kgs 19:11).

Living creatures possessed רוּחַ (ruach) as the breath of life (Gen 6:17; 7:15, 22; Num 16:22); in fact, God’s Spirit energized human life (Job 27:3; 32:8; 33:4; compare Gen 2:7). Unlike God’s Spirit, the human spirit was created and mortal (e.g., Pss 78:39; 146:4; Eccl 3:19, 21; 12:7; Zech 12:1). In reference to people, the term רוּחַ (ruach) could connote a variety of meanings, including a person’s:

  •      emotions (e.g., Gen 41:8; Exod 6:9; 1 Sam 1:15; Dan 2:1, 3)
  •      desire or will (Exod 35:21; Psa 77:6; Isa 26:9).
  •      strength (Pss 142:3; 143:4)
  •      moral condition (Pss 32:2; 51:10; 78:8; Prov 16:18–19; 29:23; Dan 5:20)
  •      disposition (Num 5:14, 30; 14:24; Judg 8:3; 1 Kgs 21:5)

Furthermore, a person’s spirit could be revived by encouragement or nourishment (Gen 45:27; Judg 15:19; 1 Sam 30:12; Isa 38:16), and weakened by weakness or bad news (e.g., Josh 2:11; 5:1; 1 Kgs 10:5). Similarly, God’s Spirit can appear as an aspect of His person or character. Some Old Testament passages even seem to contain personal depictions of the Spirit (e.g., Isa 63:14); however, the Old Testament writers had no reason to develop the notion of the Spirit as a distinct person. These portrayals appear in later parts of the New Testament.
The Old Testament picture of God’s Spirit emphasizes the Spirit’s reported activity. The Spirit empowered some of God’s servants to act and speak for Him. This empowerment included skills such as leadership or prophecy. Prophecies about the period of restoration demonstrate the Spirit’s ability to provide moral transformation by empowering God’s people to keep His law.
The New Testament develops the themes of the Old Testament further. In fact, the New Testament understanding of the Spirit is primarily informed by the Old Testament understanding, not typical Greek conceptions. For example, the Stoics thought of “Spirit” (πνεῦμα, pneuma) as a substance. The few possible pre-Christian Greek parallels to the idea of the divine Spirit inspiring prophets—contrast starkly with the wide presence of this idea in early Judaism.

The Spirit as a Person
In later biblical passages, the Spirit appears as a distinct divine person. The Old Testament occasionally provides hints that the Spirit might be distinguished from God the Father (Isa 48:16). The New Testament writers then link the Spirit with the Father and the Son (1 Cor 12:4–6; 2 Cor 13:14; Eph 4:4–6; Matt 28:19; compare Fee, Presence, 839–42). In some passages, such as Acts, the Spirit also acts as a person (Shepherd, Narrative Function); several biblical texts use at least the image of the Spirit’s personality (Levison, Filled, 229–31).
The Spirit appears most clearly as a distinct person in Jesus’ farewell discourse to His disciples in John 14–16. The Spirit appears as a person here because of His activities. For example, the Spirit (see further Keener, John, 962–69):

  •      is “another advocate,” who carries on Jesus’ mission after His ascension (John 14:16–17, 26; 16:7–15).
  •      convicts or prosecutes the world concerning sin and judgment (John 16:8–9, 11), just as Jesus does (John 3:19–20; 8:46; 12:31)
  •      acts in Jesus’ place after Jesus’ exaltation (John 14:16; 16:10)

Jesus uses the “He,” a masculine pronoun, because He refers to the Spirit with the masculine noun παράκλητος (paraklētos, “counselor,” “advocate”). Elsewhere, the Bible typically uses feminine and neuter pronouns for the Spirit—the Hebrew word for “Spirit,” רוּחַ (ruach), is feminine, and the Greek equivalent, πνεῦμα (pneuma), is neuter. This is merely a grammatical marker—it is not meant to indicate the Spirit’s gender.

Roles of the Holy Spirit

The Spirit as Transforming Power
In Scripture, the Spirit transforms God’s people. For example, in Ezekiel, God had exiled His people because of sin; however, He promised that He would restore them and put His Spirit in them so that they would obey Him in the future (Ezek 36:26–27). Jews valued this hope, and some Jewish groups, such as those who composed the Dead Sea Scrolls, emphasized this future spiritual purification.
Early Christians often wrote about spiritual purification and transformation as well. In 2 Cor 3:3–6, Paul uses wording that links Ezekiel’s promise of the transforming Spirit to Jeremiah’s promised new covenant, in which God would write His laws in the hearts of His people (Jer 31:31–34). In Exodus 34:29–30, Moses’ face was transformed as he saw the Lord; Paul says that believers in Jesus are similarly transformed as they pay attention to God’s Spirit (2 Cor 3:13–18).
In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born from water and the Spirit (John 3:5), and that whatever is born from the Spirit is Spirit (John 3:6). His language probably alludes to Ezek 36:25–27, where God purifies His people with pure water and puts His own Spirit in them, resulting in new hearts and spirits for them. John may employ water as a symbol for the Spirit (compare John 7:39). Jesus offers a baptism in the Spirit superior to John’s baptism (John 1:31–33); He turns water to wine, despite the waterpots being set aside for ritual purification (John 2:6, 9); He offers better water than the water of Jacob’s well sacred to the Samaritans (John 4:10–14); He heals when water by itself cannot (John 5:7–8; 9:6–7).
On the last day of the Festival of Tabernacles (see John 7:2), Jesus announces that rivers of living water will go forth from the “belly” (John 7:37–39); 7:39 explains that the “rivers” mean the Spirit (John 7:39). The Scriptures read on the last day of that festival included Ezek 47 and Zech 14, both of which spoke of rivers of fresh water flowing from the temple or from Jerusalem. Many Jewish people saw Jerusalem as the navel—or belly—of the earth. Yet Jesus invites the thirsty to drink from Him (John 7:37) because He is the foundation of God’s new temple. In John 19:34, when Jesus dies, blood and water flow out, probably implying that by His death, Jesus had made new life available by the Spirit (compare Keener, Spirit, 135–89).
Paul also emphasizes that the Spirit transforms people and provides new life and a new identity (Rom 7:6; 8:5–16; 1 Cor 6:11). One way that he communicates this concept is by speaking of the “fruit of the Spirit,” contrasting it with the “works of the flesh” (Gal 5:19–23). These comments fit a larger contrast in Galatians between depending on one’s own merit (“works”; the “flesh”) or depending on God (through Christ and the Spirit). When God’s Spirit dwells in a person and gives them a new identity in Christ’s image, and they begin to trust God’s Spirit, they can live differently. The dominant fruit of the Spirit that Paul emphasizes is love (Gal 5:22; see also 5:13–14).

The Spirit as Power for Ministry to Others
Throughout Scripture, the Spirit empowers God’s people for various tasks—especially speaking for God. In the Old Testament, God empowered some of His people with artistic skills (Exod 28:3; 31:3), special strength (Judg 14:6, 19; 15:14), and leadership (Num 27:18; Deut 34:9; Judg 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 1 Sam 11:6–7; 16:13–14). He also empowered people to prophesy—to know what He was saying and communicate it (Num 11:17, 25–29; 1 Sam 10:6, 10; 2 Chr 15:1; 20:14; 24:20; Neh 9:30; Isa 61:1; Ezek 11:5; Joel 2:28). Often, God’s Spirit could spill over from one servant to others (Num 11:17, 25; Deut 34:9; 1 Sam 19:20, 23; 2 Kgs 2:9, 15). Some other ancient Near Eastern peoples also valued inspiration for speaking for deities, sometimes in ecstatic forms (e.g., Mari or in the Egyptian Tale of Wen-Amon).
Such empowerment is no guarantee of moral virtue by itself (1 Sam 19:20, 23; Matt 7:22–23). Nevertheless, disobedience could alienate a person from the true Spirit of God (compare Judg 16:20; Jude 19). In the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, the Spirit often comes after times of prayer (Luke 3:21–22; 11:13; Acts 1:14 with 2:1–4; 4:31; 8:15–17).

The Spirit of Prophecy. Prophetic speech was a prominent form of empowerment. Developing an emphasis already found in the Old Testament, many Jews in New Testament times emphasized the Spirit’s association with prophecy or the kinds of activities associated with prophets (e.g., miracles). Many also associated the Spirit with other kinds of inspiration, such as wisdom or knowledge.
Early Christians regularly associated the Spirit with empowerment, which often involved speaking for God. For example, throughout the New Testament the Spirit empowers witness for Christ (Matt 10:20; John 15:26–27; Acts 1:8; 1 Thess 1:5). The Spirit also enables believers to hear from God (John 14:26; 16:13–15; Rom 8:14–16), often in the course of their witness for Christ (Acts 8:29; 10:19).
The degree to which prophetic dimensions dominated the understanding in early Judaism and in the New Testament—especially Luke–Acts—is disputed. Menzies, Stronstad, Haya-Prats, and Philip associate the Spirit in Luke–Acts with prophecy or empowerment for mission, an emphasis that Turner challenges (see Menzies, Empowered; Stronstad, Prophethood, 121–22; Haya-Prats, Believers, 31, 34, 97–108, 192; Philip, Pneumatology, 204–24; compare Turner, Power, 348, 399). Ultimately, Luke includes other associations as well as the prophetic dimension, but the prophetic aspect is dominant (e.g., Cho, Spirit and Kingdom, 136; Keener, Spirit, 190). Although some early Jewish circles associated the Spirit with purification (1QS 3.7; 4.21; 1QH 8.30; Jubilees 1:21, 23), many associated the Spirit with prophecy (e.g., Sirach 48:24; 1QS 8.16; Jubilees 31:12; Philo, On Flight and Finding 186; Josephus, Antiquities 6.166; Sipre Deut. 22.1.2; t. Pisha 2:15).

Empowerment for Witness. The book of Acts emphasizes the Spirit’s role in the Church’s cross-cultural witness for Christ (Acts 1:8). Although the initial witnesses are the 11 apostles (Acts 1:2), the promise of the Spirit is ultimately for all believers (Acts 2:38–39) who share in the mission of bringing the gospel to all people. Throughout Acts, the Spirit pushes God’s people across cultural barriers (Acts 8:29; 10:19; 11:12; 15:28):

  •      The Spirit empowers them to hear from and speak for God the way prophets did (Acts 2:17–18). Some people in Acts prophesied more than others (Acts 11:27–28; 21:9–11), but all were called to speak God’s message.
  •      On three occasions in Acts, believers empowered by the Spirit began praising God in tongues. If God empowered some of His servants to worship Him in other people’s languages, He could also empower His servants to cross cultural barriers with the good news about Christ.
  •      The Spirit also falls on new groups of believers, showing that they, too, are empowered by God to share in the mission (Acts 8:14–17; 10:44–47; 19:6).

Empowerment Subsequent to Conversion. It is debated whether some depictions of empowerment in Acts occur only at conversion, or also after conversion. John the Baptist contrasted Jesus’ judgment with His promised baptism in the Spirit; this suggests that Christ baptizes in the Spirit all the people He saves from judgment. However, John spoke of the entire sphere of the Spirit’s work, whereas some New Testament writers focused on particular aspects of the Spirit’s work. It is thus debated whether some New Testament writers apply the phrase to experiences that sometimes follow the moment of conversion.
Writers like Paul and John emphasize the coming of the Spirit at conversion, and illustrate a continuing life empowered by the Spirit. The book of Acts most fully illustrates the experiences of the early Christians. Many argue that passages such as Acts 9:17 and especially Acts 8:14–17 portray believers experiencing the Spirit in special ways after conversion. Opinions and interpretations of these passages vary (some of the following views overlap):

  •      Dunn argues against a second experience here, as elsewhere (Dunn, Baptism, 55–72).
  •      Turner and Marshal argue that Acts 8 is exceptional (Turner, Power, 348, 360–75; Turner, Gifts, 44–45; Marshall, Acts, 157–58)
  •      Cho and others suggest that Acts 8 and similar narratives should qualify what we regard as the norm suggested in Acts 2:38–39 (e.g., Cho, Spirit and Kingdom, 146).
  •      Calvin, among others, suggested that the Samaritans only received signs of the Spirit rather than the actual Spirit.
  •      Witherington and others suggest that Luke includes a variety of examples instead of a single pattern of initiation-conversion that covers all instances (Witherington, Acts, 289; Gaventa, Acts, 139; Talbert, Acts, 31; Keener, Acts, 2:1523–27).

In cases where Luke appears to narrate subsequent experiences, it may be appropriate to speak of multiple experiences (e.g., Acts 4:8, 31; 13:9; compare Carson, Showing Spirit, 160; Keener, Gift, 166–68). All these experiences imply continued dependence on God’s Spirit. However, Luke usually associates the Spirit with empowerment; the subsequent experiences depicted in Acts involve empowerment for ministry (after the first or second experience, often for specific occasions of ministry). Whatever the particulars, the biblical writers seem to have emphasized increased dependence on God’s Spirit.

Gifts of the Spirit. The ideal in early Christianity was for all Christians to be empowered to serve one another with distinct empowerments. Although Paul is not the only writer to mention “gifts” (see 1 Pet 4:10–11), he mentions them the most frequently (see Rom 12:4–8; Eph 4:11; 1 Cor 12:4–11). The idea of gifts aligns with Paul’s emphasis on being saved from sin’s penalty and power through faith; and then fruit of the Spirit (in everything that believers do as they live their new life in Christ), depending on Christ and the Spirit. Ultimately, Paul argues that believers can expect God to empower them in both character and ministry.
The context of each of Paul’s major “gifts” passages emphasizes that the body of Christ has many members, and all must function together. This means that no one should look down on one’s own gifts or on those of others; instead, each must contribute in whatever ways God has gifted them for the common good. It may be that, directed by love, believers also can seek special gifts for building up Christ’s body (1 Cor 12:31; 14:1). Some gifts that Paul lists in 1 Cor 12, such as teaching or administration (12:28), might seem more natural and mundane than some other gifts that he lists, such as prophecy or healing. Such an impression, however, would miss Paul’s point. He wants believers to depend on God’s power for any ministry that God gives them. In 1 Cor 14, Paul extensively contrasts the gifts of prophecy and tongues. In so doing, he is not demeaning tongues, as if some of God’s “gifts” are bad; Paul himself prays in tongues and warns against prohibiting it (1 Cor 14:18, 39). But Paul emphasizes that believers should seek to help one another when they come together as the church, and thus should cultivate especially gifts that serve this purpose.
Another passage, Ephesians 4:11–13 speaks of God giving as gifts to Christ’s body apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers—individuals whose ministry is to equip the rest of Christ’s body for their service for Christ (Eph 4:11–12). God empowers all believers for ministry, not just those with special titles.

The Spirit as a Foretaste of the Future
The New Testament portrays the present experience of the promised Spirit as a foretaste of the future. The prophets spoke of the Spirit being poured out on God’s people at the time of their restoration (e.g., Isa 44:3; 59:21; 61:1; Ezek 36:27; 37:14; 39:29; Joel 2:28–29). By Jesus’ time, some Jews believed that the Spirit was no longer active as it had been before. When God began pouring out His Spirit, however, Jesus’ followers recognized that the prophetic promise was being fulfilled; they were in the “last days” (Acts 2:17). This coming of the Spirit identified Jesus’ followers as the righteous remnant of God’s people—Jesus, their Lord, was the authentic, promised king. Gentiles also began to receive the Spirit, confirming that all who followed Israel’s true king would share the promised end-time blessings of God’s people (Gal 3:14; compare Acts 11:18).
Because the fullness of God’s promises still lay in the future, the promised coming of the Spirit served as a foretaste of the future world (see 1 Cor 2:9–10). Thus Paul spoke of the Spirit as the “down payment” of Christians’ promised inheritance in the world to come (2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:13–14). Likewise, believers awaiting their future bodily resurrection had the “firstfruits” of the Spirit (Rom 8:23). Believers who lived in the Spirit’s power should therefore show the world around them a foretaste of the coming world (compare Rom 12:2; Heb 6:4–5).

Conclusion
Throughout the Bible, God’s Spirit empowers God’s people to live righteously and minister to others. Scripture often portrays this empowerment in dramatic ways, such as prophecy or miracles. Other times, the Spirit simply empowers God’s people to live their daily lives in a new way, with a new identity that honors God.