The Spirit was active from the beginning of time, "moving over the face of the waters". The Spirit gave power and wisdom - to Joshua, to Samson, to the prophets. The Old Testament looked forward to God's future anointed king, the servant who would both reign and suffer. The Spirit would work in him and with him, and in the new kingdom, the Spirit would allow us to know God directly (Ezek. 36:26).
And so it is. For the Spirit who overshadowed Mary, who descended as a dove at Christ's baptism, stands beside us now, as our Advocate and Comforter, and gives us the gifts of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance (Gal. 5:22). And the Spirit works in the church, both generally, and specifically through the laying on of hands (Acts 8:17, 19:6), giving wisdom and power to know and witness to God.
The church leaders who met at Nicaea in 325 did not go into details about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The Nicene Creed developed later, and was the fruit of debates that went on in the fourth century about the nature of the Trinity. (The Council of Constantinople in 381 finally declared that the Spirit was truly God, and equal with the Father and the Son, although the wording of the Creed was not formally fixed until the Council of Chalcedon, seventy years later.)
We declare in the Creed that the Spirit is Lord. Just as Jesus is truly God, so is the Spirit more than just a "holy feeling".
The Spirit gives life. Jesus said so (John 6:63), and Paul, with his deprecation of the Law and the flesh in favour of the Gospel and the Spirit, echoes the same words (2 Cor 3:6). Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and in a very real way the Spirit is present with us, and "gives us Jesus".
The Spirit proceeds from the Father. Through the centuries, people have tried to understand the Trinity, and gallons of ink have been spilled trying to explain how the Eternal Son is "begotten" and the Spirit "proceeds". The clearest analogy might be St Augustine's, who described the Spirit as the bond of love that unites the Trinity. But not everybody would agree.
...and the Son. In the western church we add these words. They fit with Augustine's analogy, and with the idea of the Spirit "declaring Jesus" to us (John 16:14). Paul talks of "the Spirit of Christ". But the original creed did not have this filioque clause (the Latin word for "and the Son"), and it became a source of bitter debate as to whether there could be two "founts of divinity" within the Godhead. Eastern, and some western churches miss it out, and perhaps we should too, for unity is sometimes more vital than precision!
With the Father and the Son, the Spirit is to be worshipped and glorified. There is something we should never miss out! How many of us worship the Holy Spirit? How many of the hymns we sing on Whit Sunday do we sing during the rest of the year? We may feel that some Christians focus too heavily on the direct charismata (the Greek word for gifts) of the Spirit. But we do far worse if we lock the Spirit out of our worship!
The Spirit spoke through the prophets. We affirm that God spoke directly, and this does not exclude the idea that God can speak directly today.
This is our faith. So let us never fail to worship and glorify the Lord, the Holy Spirit, who stands beside us and comforts us!
HD