Spiritual Perceiving (7)

The Holy Spirit is lives and moves in the spiritual realms, but he can take a physical appearance. When Jesus was baptised, the Holy Spirit descended on him. Luke tells us that he came down in a physical form.

The Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove (Luke 3:22).

The Holy Spirit is a spirit, so he would not normally seen. In the situation, he deliberately took a physical form. I presume that he did this to authenticate Jesus ministry.

Luke says that the Holy Spirit looked like a dove. A Holy Spirit in physical form is a bit of a contradiction for human eyes and human minds. The best that could be done to describe his appearance was to say that it was like a dove.

Luke does not say who saw this physical appearance of the Holy Spirit. It can be assumed that Jesus perceived it. John’s gospel tells us that John the Baptist saw it too. John the Baptist said,

I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him (John 1:32).

It is not clear if the other people who were present saw what John saw. John may have seen more, because the Spirit had been upon him since his birth (Luke 1:41).