The subject may be made plain or simple according to the manner we may treat it.  If we view it in the light of psychological manifestation in our own hearts, or in the lives of those around us, which are ascribed to the Spirit, we shall find ourselves wandering in a maze of mystery.  If we follow the word of God, which is the only source of knowledge, we shall find ourselves walking in a light that shall grow brighter as we proceed.  It is impossible in a book the size of this to treat all the many passages that refer to the Holy Spirit, but we shall give those that have important bearing upon the subject.

I

THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT

The Old Testament does not give the same prominence to the Holy Spirit as does the New Testament.  This is doubtless true because the Old Testament deals largely with material things, while the New Testament is primarily and essentially dealing with the spiritual nature and actions of man.  It is, however, referred to in more than half of the books of the Old Testament, while in sixteen of them there is no specific mention of the Spirit.  It is, however, mentioned specifically eighty-eight times in the Old Testament.  It is generally spoken of as the Spirit of God.  The New Testament refers to these passages in such a way as to identify the Holy Spirit of the New with the Spirit of God of the Old.  In Luke 4:18 Jesus says: 

    “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
     Because he anointed me to preach good
        tidings to the poor: 
     He hath sent me to proclaim release to
        the captives,
        And recovering of sight to the blind. 
     To set at liberty them that are bruised,
     To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

This is directly connected with the “Spirit of the Lord Jehovah” in Isa. 61:  1, 2.

In the second chapter of Acts we have a direct connection with Joel 2.  These are two of many such connections that bind together and identify the Spirit of the Lord of the Old Testament with the Holy Spirit of the New.  In both Testaments we find God working by his Spirit.  The Old Testament gives three lines of work performed by the Spirit: 

1.  His relation to the material universe.

(1) In Gen. 1:2 we are told:  “And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.”  The word “moved” carries the sense of “hovered” or “brooded.”  The previous condition of the world was “waste and void,” or a “formless waste.”  In some way the Spirit of God fashioned this formless waste into the multiplicity of contrasts that followed.  It bound together those elements that were homogeneous, and separated the heterogeneous and so prepared the way for the dividing the light from the darkness that followed.  The mode of the operation we do not know, but the fact of the operation is clearly revealed.