Holy Spirit Presence, Metaphor, Gender; how does gender apply to the Holy Spirit?
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So there are some complicated questions there. Let me try to answer them one at a time according what most Christians believe.
Is the Holy Spirit real?
Yes. The Holy Spirit is one of the three "persons" of God the Trinity - loosely speaking one part of God ( the others are God the Father and God the Son, who is Jesus). He is as real as God.
Is the Holy Spirit a Man?
No. Being 'part' of God, the Holy Spirit is not human.
Is the Holy Spirit a person?
As we said above, the Holy Spirit is not a human. However Christians call the three "parts" of God "persons", at least in part because they are living and intelligent. You might think of him as "more than a person". (They are also not strictly "parts" - it's complicated).
Is the Holy Spirit male?
In general Christians believe God has no gender. However the Holy Spirit is often referred to as "he", because in English the only neutral gender pronoun "it" is considered insulting. A few Christians believe that God and/or the Holy Spirit have male or female genders.
Is the Holy Spirit a spirit?
Absolutely yes. That's why he is called that. He has no body, he is entirely spirit. He is also called the "Holy Ghost", where "ghost" is just an old word meaning "spirit ". The word didn't originally carry the the associations we have today of hauntings, torment, etc.
The Holy Spirit is also likened to many things - wind, fire, water, a dove. These are usually taken as forms the spirit takes, or as metaphors. "Poured out like wine" probably falls into that category.
It should be said that a small number of Christians believe the Holy Spirit to be a name for the "force" or "presence" of God and not an entity in his own right.
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