There is much made about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We need to wash away our preconceived notions and simply allow God’s Word to speak on this matter. Then we can make an honest evaluation about the work of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the Christian. A good first step is examining the original Greek term most often translated in the New Testament as, “spirit.”
The original Greek word most often translated as “spirit” or “Spirit” in the New Testament is pneuma, # 4460 in The Strongest NIV Exhaustive Concordance. This was formerly entitled The Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance. It contains definitions of every Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek word in the Bible and it is the tool I prefer when looking up the original meaning to words in the Bible.
This particular Greek term appears approximately 379 times in the New Testament. What does it mean? Here are the definitions: wind, breath, things which are commonly perceived as having no material substance; by extension: spirit, heart, mind, the immaterial part of the inner person that can respond to God; spirit being: (evil) spirit, ghost, God the Holy Spirit-
In the 1984 NIV translation it is translated 325 times as “spirit”, 32 times as “spirits”, 3 times as “breath”, 2 times as “ghost”, 2 times as “spirit’s”, 2 times as “spiritual”, and 1 time as “attitude”, 1 time as “heart”, 1 time as “mind”, 1 time as “prophecy”, 1 time as “wind”, 1 time as “winds”.
It is combined with other Greek terms and translated as demon-possessed (1), gently (1), he (1), sighed deeply (1), spirit which predicted the future (1), with great fervor (1). And one time the term is untranslated.
This term is by far the Greek term translated as “spirit” or “Spirit” in the New Testament. Because there are so many different meanings for this term context and original audience are extremely important when trying to interpret the verse or passage.
There are a few Hebrew terms translated as “spirit” in the Old Testament but in the context of the Holy Spirit the Hebrew term used most often is “ruah” (8120) which has almost the exact meanings as the Greek term used in the New Testament.