In both the Old and New Testaments, the original Hebrew and Greek words for "spirit" mean "wind" or "breath". The original words are "ruach" and "pneuma". Spirit in the Bible is an unseen power that does things in the same way that wind is unseen, but it makes things move.
The Bible uses the idea of an unseen power in several ways:.
God's Spirit is the unseen power that sustains all life:
14 If he set his heart on himself,
if he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath,
15 all flesh would perish together,
and man would turn again to dust.
God's message to us in the Bible came to us by God's unseen power:
21 For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ was born as a result of God's Spirit power working on his mother Mary:
35 The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.
The word is often used of the mental or emotional life-force in people.
An Egyptian king woke up having a problem understanding his dream:
8 In the morning, his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all of Egypt’s magicians and wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh.
Caleb was a man who thought differently from others and followed God:
24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him I will bring into the land into which he went. His offspring shall possess it.
Jesus referred to his message as an unseen power giving life:
63 It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.