The Dove Symbol

 
“As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, He saw heaven open up. The Holy Spirit came down on Him like a dove.” - Mark 1:10 
 
 
As we continue to talk about the Holy Spirit, “the forgotten God,” as Francis Chan says, we want to understand the purpose. What are we trying to accomplish by better understanding the Holy Spirit? When you better understand the Spirit, you experience for yourself the person the Holy Spirit is in your own life! 
 
As we uncover who the Holy Spirit is, we see a common word used in several verses. Matthew 3:16 says, “When Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens opened. He saw the Spirit of God coming down and resting on Jesus like a dove. Then Mark 1:10 says, “As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, He saw heaven open up. The Holy Spirit came down on Him like a dove.” 
 
We see it in the other two gospels as well, Luke 3:22 says, “The Holy Spirit came down on Him in a body like a dove…” and John 1:32 says, “Then John said, ‘I saw the Holy Spirit come down on Jesus as a dove from heaven. The Holy Spirit stayed on Him.’” 
 
By now you are asking, what’s up with the dove? There are three instances where we see the symbol of a dove. In Genesis 8, Noah sent a dove to search for dry land after the flood.  
 
The second piece of symbolism that would eventually find fulfillment in the life of Jesus was in the sacrificial system of the Mosaic law. This is where doves were the only birds that could be offered as acceptable sacrifices because of their perceived purity. We see the dove as a symbol of purity, gentleness, and grace in the Old Testament.  
 
In other words, there is a significance to understanding the dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit. The Spirit descending upon Jesus in the form of a dove at His baptism was a public display of Christ’s divinity, a confirmation of His anointing, and a connection between His ministry and previous symbols of the dove.  
 
The Spirit that lives inside of us possesses that same divinity, confirms Christ’s anointing and power that we have access to, and makes us a part of His ministry. The dove gives us just a peek at who this person, The Holy Spirit, is living inside of us!