The Holy Spirit

I like the title Holy Spirit better than Holy Ghost. Maybe because Ghost has so many negative connotations in our language- one of haunting, lost, unfulfilled, left behind, remnant. And, I cannot think of this member of the Godhead as that way.

I am writing because I wanted to put my thoughts down somewhere about this. I have thought about Heavenly Father, Heavenly Mother, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. And, although we know the most about Jesus Christ, we know a little less about Heavenly Father, far less about the Holy Spirit, and next to nothing about Heavenly Mother. But, my thoughts have turned recently more to the Holy Spirit. What is the Spirit's gender? Will he have a body? Does he have a form? How can he be so many places and do so much- does that mean there is more than one?

I was reading in 1 Nephi 11 where Nephi is thinking about all the stuff his dad just told him about the Tree of Life, and how amazing and precious and desirable, and how to get it. Nephi wanted to know more for himself, and so he was "pondering" these things when he was "caught away in the Spirit of the Lord" (v 1).

As I read, after the Spirit of the Lord testified of God the Father and his son, Jesus Christ, and that the Savior is the Tree of Life, he tells Nephi to look, but then he disappears, but soon an angel comes to visit with Nephi to teach him more.

It was when I was reading this that I thought, "Hey! Wait a minute! That's two different messengers!"

And, then I started wondering was the "Spirit of the Lord" the Holy Spirit/Ghost? or was it Jesus Christ?

Then, today as I was reading in 1 Nephi 15:12, I read "by the Spirit of the Lord which was in our father" as Nephi is referencing something taught to him and his brothers by their dad. This made things click for me.

The Spirit of the Lord is the third member of the Godhead, the Holy Messenger, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. One of his main purposes is to testify of God the Father and of the Son, Jesus Christ. And, that is exactly what he did for Nephi. I went back to 1 Nephi 11 to look again to see if Nephi had said anything more about the Holy Spirit and in verse 11 I read this:

"... for I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another. And it came to pass that he said unto me: Look! And I looked as if to look upon him, and I saw him not; for he had gone from before my presence."

I suppose one could argue that this was still the Lord, Jesus Christ. And, I can go for that. But I think that it is really the Holy Spirit, the third separate personage of the Godhead. He testifies of the others, teaches Truth, and brings comfort and peace. There can (and are!) other messengers (angels, prophets, etc.), but the Holy Spirit is one individual male spirit. He has the form of a man, has the voice of a man (else why would Nephi try to speak to him "as a man speaketh with another"). He has not a body, but a spirit.

It is crazy what you can learn from really looking at a couple of verses, and referencing them to other passages/scriptures. Of course, that can also lead into slippery slopes, so everything must be done with guidance... from the Holy Spirit.