It is true, throughout the Bible metaphors are used to describe Holy Spirit so that we may be able to understand his profound function and spiritual meaning more clearly. These metaphors make use of familiar things to describe something more abstract.
One very important metaphor used to describe Holy Spirit is its likeness to doves and their unique and noble characteristics. Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. (Mt 10:16). This passage tells us that another characteristic of doves is gentleness. They are innocent and docile; attributes that Holy Spirit shares. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will also become gentler.
The Lord Jesus Himself was a kind and gentle man. His heart was always meek and humble, and it is these virtues that He wanted and encouraged us to learn from Him. During His ministry, Jesus was filled with compassion for the sick and the demon-possessed. The Bible tells us that He does not destroy a bruised reed nor will He extinguish a withering flame. Instead, He will cause the reed to grow again, and He will rekindle the lamp. This, too, is how the Lord Jesus treats us—with meekness, compassion, and mercy.
When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we naturally take on the characteristics and virtues of Christ. Through the fullness of the Spirit, we are shaped and refined to be more like Him. A Sign of Peace.
There are many social events where people release doves as a sign of peace. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is our counselor and our peace, and it will reconcile us with God and motivate us to live in harmony with others. In the epistle that Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he reminded the believers that it is by the gracious salvation of Jesus Christ that we can be at peace with God. It is through the Holy Spirit that the Jews and non-Jews are reconciled and made as one body in Christ.
Peace is one part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are able to live at peace with everyone. Without the Holy Spirit, it is hard for us to be united in one mind and recognize God’s will. If each of us is filled with the Holy Spirit, we will find it easier to have peace and humility in the body of Christ, and we will be able to bear one another and to serve Him harmoniously.
Holy Spirit is found in the Gospels:
- As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him (Matthew 3:16).
- As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove (Mark 1:10).
- And the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).
- Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit’ (John 1:32-33).
- “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:15-17).
- “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).
I wonder what God's intention was in matter of the identity of the Holy Spirit beginning with the Old Testament. It's not so much a question of what people thought regarding this member of the Godhead but what the intention was of God Himself who inspired the writers. So how can we distinguish "what God intended" from "what people thought?" Throughout the Bible, wind is used as a metaphor for the Spirit. The Spirit creates movement and change as the power of its presence provides the energy and life-giving presence of God. Where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there will always be change. The Spirit provides guidance, wisdom and direction. As we experience the Spirit of God, we can feel the direction God is pushing us and discern the changes that are coming to our lives. The wind is a cool breeze. It comforts and provides refreshment. Without the wind, nature, as we know it, would cease to exist. Might we say, Holy Spirit is God's breath, supernaturally releasing divine direction while transforming us through the power of Jesus and God Himself?
The Spirit pours faith into us. The methods will be different from one person to another but it may come to us like this: through a sermon, a worship service, youth event, a testimony, an act of kindness, a relationship of love, a struggle of conscience, a brush with disaster or INSANITY, a steady gradual series of changes, a blissful 'peak experience' moment, a shaken-up charismatic experience, or a whisper from inside. The Spirit gives gifts which make the Body work effectively and powerfully. The Spirit is at work moving people to compassion for others. The Spirit brakes down the old and brings in the new. But why is the Spirit the Spirit? For the Gospel and the purpose of leading people to follow Jesus.
The Spirit is like a good medical team for those who have especially deep wounds. In Jesus own ministry, inner healing was linked to physical healing as a work of the Spirit. God is concerned about the whole person, not just the inner self. Man is a fractured being which the Spirit works to make complete.
The Holy Spirit was present upon the earth even before the creation of man: 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 1:2). But we can see a distinct difference between the action of the Holy Spirit among the people of Israel in the Old Testament and the believers of the New Testament.
We see the action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of some of the people in the Old Testament. We see that the Spirit of the Lord "came upon" some of the central figures of the Old Testament at certain times. But this was an exceptional occurrence. The following scriptures are a few examples of this:
(Judges 3:10) The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, so that he became Israel's judge and went to war. The LORD gave Cushan Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him.
(Judges 6:34) Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.
(Judges 14:6) The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done.
(1 Samuel 10:6) The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.
(1 Samuel 16:13) So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.
I believe that God did not intend for us to worship a dove named Holy Spirit.
First, Jesus said he would send “another” in his place (John 14:16). The word for another is allos in Greek and refers to another just like Jesus. It is reasonable to conclude from this that the Spirit is a person since Jesus is clearly a person. Further, Jesus referred to him as a parakletos (enabler, encourager, comforter, etc.) which requires that he be a person since the functions of a parakletos are personal; Jesus functioned as a parakletos to the disciples. (Ref:Bible.org)
Second, the fact that the Spirit makes choices (1 Cor 12:11), teaches (John 14:26), guides (John 16:13), reveals Jesus (John 16:14), convicts (John 16:8), seals believers (2 Cor 1:21-22), can be grieved (Eph 4:30), blasphemed (Matt 12:31), possesses a rational mind (Rom 8:26-27; 1 Cor 2:11-13), can be lied to (Acts 5:3-4), quenched (1 Thess 5:19), resisted (Acts 7:51), and on numerous occasions is distinguished from, yet directly linked with the Father and the Son as co-worker and co-recipient of worship, argues definitively for his personhood (Matt 28:19-20; 2 Cor 13:14).
And with that, I believe ... Holy Spirit who lives within me and all believers is the Spirit of Life. Supernaturally, as God is supernatural, he stands at the ready to pour out his fruit in a way that I may love and be set free from sin and death (Romans 8:2).
I'm in love with Holy Spirit, (breath) and by the way ... he is NOT a dove.
