At least twenty-five different names are used in the Old and New Testaments in speaking of the Holy Spirit. There is the deepest significance in these names. By the careful study of them, we find a wonderful revelation of the Person and work of the Holy Spirit.
I. _The Spirit._
The simplest name by which the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the Bible is that which stands at the head of this paragraph—“_The Spirit_.” This name is also used as the basis of other names, so we begin our study with this. The Greek and Hebrew words so translated mean literally, “Breath” or “Wind.” Both thoughts are in the name as applied to the Holy Spirit.
1. The thought of breath is brought out in John xx. 22 where we read, “And when He had said this, _He breathed on them_, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” It is also suggested in Gen. ii. 7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and _breathed_ into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” This becomes more evident when we compare with this Ps. civ. 30, “Thou sendest forth _Thy Spirit_, they are created: and Thou renewest the face of the earth.” And Job xxxiii. 4, “_The Spirit of God hath made me_, and _the breath_ of the Almighty hath given me life.” What is the significance of this name from the standpoint of these passages? It is that the Spirit is the outbreathing of God, His inmost life going forth in a personal form to quicken. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive the inmost life of God Himself to dwell in a personal way in us. When we really grasp this thought, it is overwhelming in its solemnity. Just stop and think what it means to have the inmost life of that infinite and eternal Being whom we call God, dwelling in a personal way in you. How solemn and how awful and yet unspeakably glorious life becomes when we realize this.
2. The thought of the Holy Spirit as “the Wind” is brought out in John iii. 6-8, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” In the Greek, it is the same word that is translated in one part of this passage “Spirit” and the other part of the passage “wind.” And it would seem as if the word ought to be translated the same way in both parts of the passage. It would then read, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the ‘Wind’ is wind. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the ‘Wind.’ ” The full significance of this name as applied to the Holy Spirit (or Holy Wind) it may be beyond us to fathom, but we can see at least this much of its meaning:
(1) The Spirit like the wind is _sovereign_. “The wind bloweth where it listeth” (John iii. 8). You cannot dictate to the wind. It does as it wills. Just so with the Holy Spirit—He is sovereign—we cannot dictate to Him. He “divides to each man” severally even “_as He will_” (1 Cor. xii. 11, R. V.). When the wind is blowing from the north you may long to have it blow from the south, but cry as clamorously as you may to the wind, “Blow from the south” it will keep right on blowing from the north. But while you cannot dictate to the wind, while it blows as it will, you may learn the laws that govern the wind’s motions and by bringing yourself into harmony with those laws, you can get the wind to do your work. You can erect your windmill so that whichever way the wind blows from the wheels will turn and the wind will grind your grain, or pump your water. Just so, while we cannot dictate to the Holy Spirit we can learn the laws of His operations and by bringing ourselves into harmony with those laws, above all by submitting our wills absolutely to His sovereign will, the sovereign Spirit of God will work through us and accomplish His own glorious work by our instrumentality.