Bart loved the gospel accounts of Jesus and found his teachings profound, so much that he joined a church and had the pastor baptize him. He respected the pastor’s sermons, following them closely week after week and then year after year. Bart learned a lot about God, his Son Jesus, salvation, and many other things. But the one thing that he never quite understood whenever the subject came up was the Holy Spirit. His pastor mentioned the Spirit infrequently and only in passing, as if Bart should know who or what the Spirit was. Yet Bart didn’t think he knew who or what the Spirit was. And he had an increasing sense that he needed to find out.
Description
Get a good sense of who the Spirit of God is. The Spirit is a co-equal person in the three-in-one godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Like the Son Jesus Christ, the Spirit existed with the Father before creation, outside of time and space, in perfect communion. The three in one were God and are God. The Father, Son, and Spirit are coterminous, meaning having the same existence, and consubstantial, meaning having the same substance and essence. When one refers to the Spirit, one refers to God, much as one refers to God when speaking of the Father and of the Son. The Spirit of God is not a specter, wraith, apparition, or force. Don’t mistake the Spirit for a phantom or ghost. The Spirit is instead a person with whom and through whom one communes with God.
Role
The Spirit has a distinct role within the godhead, consistent with the name identifying him as spirit. The word spirit generally refers to the non-physical essence of a person including the person’s character, emotions, or soul. One may say, for instance, that a person has a sweet spirit, a mean spirit, or a spirit of joy. In the same way, the Holy Spirit reveals to us the person and character of the Son Jesus Christ. In so doing, the Spirit reveals all truth to us. Jesus himself said to the disciples at the Last Supper that if he did not leave them to return to heaven, the Spirit, to whom he referred as the Advocate or the Helper, would not come to them to glorify Jesus and reveal all truth. Jesus explained that the Spirit tells us what the Spirit receives from Jesus. The Spirit helps us to understand Christ’s commands and desires, and distinguish them from false instruction and deception. Followers of Christ test and confirm things as true and from Christ through the Spirit. Since Christ’s ascension and the descent of the Spirit that followed it, believers in Christ have experienced Christ’s presence through the Spirit.
Creation
Creation depended on the Spirit. The Genesis account of creation tells us that when the earth was still formless and empty, the Spirit of God hovered over the dark, deep waters. The Spirit of God brought to the deadly uncreated chaos the order that would sustain life, as God separated light from darkness, heaven from earth, land from sea, and day from night, and brought forth vegetation and animals. The Spirit separates, names, and orders to bring forth life. When God breathed into Adam at creation, God gave humans not only their life but also their consciousness, reason, rationality, and spirit. When the resurrected Jesus likewise breathed on the disciples, he was signifying that he would impart his Spirit to them in their newborn life in Christ, giving them not just conscious life but the consciousness and presence of Christ and his desires. It is only through the Spirit’s breath, life, reason, and rationality that we consciously order things and only through the Spirit that we order things in the way and person of Christ.
Participation
People question whether God continued to act in the world after creating it and whether he still acts in the world today. The answer is a resounding yes. Since creation, the Spirit of God has continued to participate in human affairs and individual lives. The Hebrew Bible records the Spirit coming upon judges, prophets, and other figures, bringing incredible courage and strength and profound prophetic insight. The Spirit’s coming shaped the course of nations and history while also affecting individual lives. The Hebrew Bible records the Spirit guiding the Israelites through the wilderness, while providing wisdom and encouraging holiness and righteousness. The Spirit’s role exploded with the advent, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. The New Testament describes the Spirit as indwelling believers. The Spirit carried the believers throughout the region like a spreading wildfire, establishing the church of Jesus Christ. Christians continue to characterize the global spread of Christianity today to new continents and regions as movements of the Spirit. The Spirit continues to help us participate in the life, truth, and way of Jesus Christ.
Representation
You may conceive of the Spirit’s appearance in different ways. The scriptures represent the Spirit of God in several encounters and forms. The Hebrew Bible records the prophet Ezekiel encountering the Spirit as the likeness of a fiery man with the appearance of glowing metal. Old Testament figures frequently anointed one another with oil, signifying the Spirit’s light and strength. The Hebrew Bible also records the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night leading the Israelites through the wilderness, commonly construed as representations of the Spirit. The New Testament records the Spirit descending in bodily form on Christ, looking like a dove. A dove is a common symbol of peace and purity. Jesus referred to the Spirit as clothing the disciples with power from above, as living water flowing from within him, and as wind carrying the believer wherever the Spirit pleased. The Spirit descended on the believers at Pentecost in the appearance of tongues of fire, showing the presence and approval of God. The apostle Paul refers to the Spirit as a down payment or pledge in our hearts and as a seal marking and securing our identity in Christ. Don’t expect the Spirit to appear in a single form, or you may miss him.
Manifestation
The Spirit’s significance may in any case be less in his appearance, whether as a man, metal, oil, pillar, cloud, fire, dove, clothing, water, wind, tongues, payment, seal, or pledge, than in his impact or effect. Notice from the above accounts how we observe and experience the Spirit’s presence as much by his manifestation as his representation. The above accounts suggest that depending on the need and circumstance, the Spirit may bring or mark power, courage, strength, guidance, counsel, wisdom, discernment, understanding, recollection, insight, foresight, vision, judgment, peace, purity, comfort, joy, exhilaration, awe, healing, direction, miracles, words, faith, or life. The apostle Paul expressly describes the fruits of the Spirit as including love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You can see from the diverse ways in which the Spirit manifests his presence, and their uniformly positive and indeed essential characteristics, how significant the Spirit’s activity is in the life of a believer.
Purpose
The Spirit’s manifestations, though, also have purposes. The Spirit is not a self-help guide or program for personal improvement. The Spirit does not come simply to make things easier, more comfortable, or more enjoyable for us. The Spirit is instead God, with all the larger purposes of God. While the Spirit may bring you healing, healing alone is not the point, The point is instead the witness to God’s power that your healing exhibits. The Spirit may bring you courage and strength, or discernment and understanding, but those benefits are not in themselves the point. The point is instead how you glorify God and serve others with those benefits. Enjoy the benefits of the Spirit not for that end but as an offshoot of their greater purposes. The Spirit’s role is to point us to God, reveal God’s desire for good and his glory, and empower us to serve God and one another in the way that God commands. Don’t misconstrue the Spirit as a personal-empowerment tool. The Spirit instead carries God’s will and desires, not just for you but also for others and for God.
Indwelling
You’ve seen in the above discussion that the Spirit doesn’t just strike and depart. The Spirit doesn’t just appear, act, and disappear. The Spirit may instead descend, come to rest, and indwell or reside within a person. Much as God sent the Spirit to come to light and rest on Christ at his baptism, and Christ breathed on the disciples for them to carry his Spirit out to establish his church, the Spirit may rest within us and move with us as we carry out God’s desires. You may look for the Spirit’s appearance in symbol or form, or observe the Spirit’s manifestation in character, emotion, or act. But you may also rest in the Spirit and invite the Spirit to dwell within you. The Spirit may from time to time arrange things for you, call you to certain acts or stances, or appear and instruct or equip you. Yet the Spirit may also imbue you so that you continually drink from and feed on him. The Spirit is your sustainer, bringing you the living water of Christ.
Discernment
Consider again the image of the Spirit descending. To recognize that God is above does not simply mean that he dwells high in the sky. To be above or higher can mean to be of a greater purity or finer quality, higher in the hierarchy of authority and power, and of greater influence, meaning, and vision. The Spirit brings higher things to our lower position, marking us as mediators of heaven and earth. Through the Spirit, we bring together heaven and earth, uniting meaning with material, raising, redeeming, and restoring the lower things for their higher purposes. That the Spirit falls on the head as fire signifies the burning clarity of mind that the Spirit brings to our thinking and burning clarity of purpose that the Spirit brings to our actions. One also does well to keep in mind the image of the Spirit moving like the air or wind and entering one’s breath. For with breath we speak words, shaping our thoughts and guiding and justifying our actions. Make the Spirit your clarifying fire and justifying breath, and you will know and do the desires of Jesus Christ.
Reflection
Have you encountered, felt, or sensed the Holy Spirit? Can you recall a thought, movement, discernment, arrangement, or foretelling that you believe involved the Spirit? How frequently do you think the Spirit is present and acting in you, in others, or around you? In what representation or form do you conceive of the Spirit when thinking of him? What actions, attitudes, or characteristics of others make you recall the Spirit’s manifestation? Who, among your acquaintances or figures of whom you know, would you identify as marked by the Spirit’s indwelling? Which of the fruits or attributes associated with the Spirit would you most like to possess or increase? For what purpose would you like to have more of the Spirit’s fruits? Does your desire for the Spirit’s fruits align with God’s purpose in sharing them?
Key Points
The Holy Spirit is a third person within the godhead of Father and Son.
The Spirit reveals the presence, desires, and will of Jesus Christ.
The Spirit participated in creation, dividing, ordering, and giving life.
The Spirit has participated throughout history in the same fashion.
The scriptures represent the Spirit in forms like a man, fire, and oil.
Manifestations of the Spirit include courage, strength, joy, and purity.
The Spirit imbues us not just for our benefit but also for God’s desires.
The Spirit rests on and dwells within us rather than simply appears.
The Spirit brings discernment from on high for us to order creation.