There are many who think of the work of the Holy Spirit as limited to man. But God reveals to us in His Word that the Holy Spirit’s work has a far wider scope than this. We are taught in the Bible that the Holy Spirit has a threefold work in the material universe.
I. The creation of the material universe and of man is effected through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
We read in Ps. xxxiii. 6, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them _by the breath of His mouth_.” We have already seen in our study of the names of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit is the breath of JEHOVAH, so this passage teaches us that all the hosts of heaven, all the stellar worlds, were made by the Holy Spirit. We are taught explicitly in Job xxxiii. 4, that the creation of man is the Holy Spirit’s work. We read, “_The Spirit of God_ hath made me, and _the breath of the Almighty_ hath given me life.” Here both the creation of the material frame and the impartation of life are attributed to the agency of the Holy Spirit. In other passages of Scripture we are taught that creation was in and through the Son of God. For example we read in Col. i. 16, R. V., “For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him and unto Him.” In a similar way we read in Heb. i. 2, that God “hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, _through whom_ also He made the worlds (ages).” In the passage given above (Ps. xxxiii. 6), the Word as well as the Spirit are mentioned in connection with creation. In the account of the creation and the rehabilitation of this world to be the abode of man, Father, Word and Holy Spirit are all mentioned (Gen. i. 1-3). It is evident from a comparison of these passages that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all active in the creative work. The Father works _in_ His Son, _through_ His Spirit.
II. Not only is the original creation of the material universe attributed to the agency of the Holy Spirit in the Bible but _the maintenance of living creatures_ as well.
We read in Ps. civ. 29, 30, “Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou _sendest forth Thy Spirit_, they are created: and Thou _renewest_ the face of the earth.” The clear indication of this passage is that not only are things brought into being through the agency of the Holy Spirit, but that they are maintained in being by the Holy Spirit. Not only is spiritual life maintained by the Spirit of God but material being as well. Things exist and continue by the presence of the Spirit of God in them. This does not mean for a moment that the universe is God, but it does mean that the universe is maintained in its being by the immanence of God in it. This is the great and solemn truth that lies at the foundation of the awful and debasing perversions of Pantheism in its countless forms.
III. But not only is the universe created through the agency of the Holy Spirit and maintained in its existence through the agency of the Holy Spirit, but _the development of the earlier, chaotic, undeveloped states of the material universe into higher orders of being is effected through the agency of the Holy Spirit_.