When we speak about the Holy Spirit, we are entering into the mystery of God’s inner life — the eternal communion of Father, Son, and Spirit. Many people have asked me, “If the Father sent the Son, and the Father and the Son send the Spirit, doesn’t that mean the Spirit is somehow ‘less’?” It’s an honest question, and it touches something deep in our faith: how one God can be three distinct Persons, equal in majesty and glory.
The Church teaches, from Scripture and ancient Creed, that the Holy Spirit is fully and eternally God, not a created power or a lesser being. In the Nicene Creed we profess, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father (and the Son), who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified.” Notice those words — “adored and glorified.” The same worship we give to the Father and to the Son, we give to the Spirit, because He is one in being with them.
In Scripture, we see this equality clearly. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus commands His disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). There is no hierarchy in that phrase — all three are named together as one divine name. In Acts 5, when Ananias lies to the apostles, Peter says he has “lied to the Holy Spirit” and then adds, “You have not lied to men but to God.” The Holy Spirit is not simply God’s breath or force, but God Himself, the living presence of the divine within us.
Still, we experience the Spirit differently. The Father is the Creator, the source of all life. The Son is the Word made flesh, our Redeemer. The Spirit is the sanctifier — the One who dwells in our hearts and makes us holy. Their works differ, but their nature does not. Every act of God — creation, redemption, sanctification — involves all three Persons working as one. As Saint Augustine said, “Each works in harmony with the other, inseparable in what They do, distinct only in who They are.”
For us, this truth is not only theological but deeply personal. The Holy Spirit who lives in us is the same God who spoke to Moses, who raised Jesus from the dead, who calls us ‘children of God.’ To receive the Spirit is to receive the fullness of God’s love. When we pray, when we love, when we forgive — it is the Spirit within us who moves us, drawing us into the eternal communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
May we never think of the Spirit as distant or lesser, but as God Himself dwelling in us — the breath of divine love that unites us with the Father and the Son forever.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with Your fire, that we may live each day in the fullness of Your divine love.
— Fr. John Matthew, for Christian Way
