I thought the Holy Spirit was the Comforter sent by Jesus and arrived on the day of Pentecost. I just read again the story of John, the Baptist and saw (for the first time, I guess) that he was filled with the Holy Spirit at birth. Luke 1:15

Someone please help me out on this. I know that the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity and has always been, but, I thought He came after you received Christ as your Savior. What did I miss?

mrspiggy- 2/20/2008 4:10:19 PM

I'm no theologian, but here's my best guess: The Holy Spirit is and has always been active in our lives, but it's the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are made available to believers in Christ. But that does not really account for the idea of Jesus "sending" Him....good question!

marklang- 2/20/2008 7:44:00 PM

Basically, The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God the Father, just as Jeus is the incarnation of God the Father, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. All in All GOd is GOD, Trinity, whatever terminology we apply to GOD is pretty much never going to match up to him. He is beyond our human understanding of exsistence. What he has revealed to us come from two sources in the Bible Deuteronomy 6- 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!b 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. and Joh 7

7 If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.
8 Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.
9 Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, Show us the Father? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. The Spirit proceeds from BothThe Fater and The Son, they are ONE, as in no difference, no seperation.

Bar-Yehoshua- 2/22/2008 5:37:27 PM

Father, Son and Holy Spirit have always existed since before the creation. Nothing was created that was not created through Christ, I can't remember the NT passage. As I was searching more about the Holy Spirit (HS), I remembered that in the OT, the HS was made available on different occasions. In the NT it was given to the believers and can never be taken away from them. We can quench the spirit, we can ignore it, but if we belong to Christ it can not be taken away from us. The Jews had God with them, but we have now, God in us. Yes, John could have had the HS in the womb of his mother, again another appearing, but scriptures does not reveal if he had the spirit like in the time of the pentecost. The HS did accomplish something at time of pentecost and later in scripture we find that people continue to pray for infilling of HS. As I understand it, it would be an increase of what is already indwelling in us (believers only), in regards to power, perhaps in word and deed. Something that God does in us. The apostles didn't need the HS while with Jesus, becaue Jesus is God, and He was with them. It was at the time that Jesus ascends or disappears, however you want to state it, is when the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit to continue the work God has already begun and will see to the finish.

Iliana- 3/8/2008 4:26:38 PM