You may have heard people talking about the Holy Spirit before but are not sure what (or who) it (He) is. The Holy Spirit is a mystery, and part of the Godhead. We haven’t spoken, yet, about the Godhead, otherwise known as “The Trinity”. The Trinity basically describes our understanding of the way that God exists. Contrary to what some religions teach, Christianity is not poly-theistic, but mono-theistic. This means that Christians believe in One Single God, who created the Heavens and the earth, but Christians believe that He exists in three persons. This is really impossible for us to grasp our INFINATE GOD with our finite human brains. To gain a little understanding we can perhaps take a physical object and use it to consider the spiritual reality of the Trinity. Let’s look at water…it can exist as a gas, as a liquid, or as a solid, but it is still water. Of course, the Godhead is not physical, but spiritual, and a lot more complex than water, but this is just an idea of a way to think about the Godhead (Trinity), also called the Triune God.
Another way to think of our Triune God would be to consider a rope. A single cord of rope can consist of three individual strands of thread, woven together.
The members of the Godhead are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They are three distinct, individual members, and yet they are One. They are separate and yet completely joined together. Again, it’s hard to wrap our minds around. God the Father is that part of God who exists in infinity and is very difficult for us to really relate. He is outside of Time and Space, He even created Time and Space, He is HUGE, and He is omniscient, and omnipotent, meaning God is all-seeing and all knowing. Of course, the Son and the Holy Spirit are also omniscient and omnipotent. God the Father is both Righteous and Holy, but thankfully also Merciful and Gracious. God the Son is Jesus. He is the Logos of God, the Word of God, the “Revelatory thought” of God wrapped into the likeness of human flesh (human flesh without the sin nature). The Bible tells us that all things exist FROM God the Father and through God the Son. I know…this is hard to wrap our tiny minds around. Jesus Christ (YAHUSHUA HAMASHIACH) is the WORD OF GOD made Flesh. Jesus is One through whom ALL THINGS were created.
1st Corinthians 8:6: yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
Honestly, we could probably spend an eternity trying to grasp the Godhead and still not scratch the surface of all that there is to learn about Him.
Jesus is the part of God that we can totally identify with because He walked the earth in the likeness of human flesh. In the Garden of Eden, mankind was able to walk alongside God the Father without burning up because in the Garden of Eden mankind’s flesh was “different”, perfected, “immortal ” so to speak. But after the Fall, mankind became clothed in mortal, fallen flesh with the sin nature that is attracted to sin. Because of the sin nature that is in our fallen flesh, our bodies are subject to sickness, suffering, and death.💀
The Holy Spirit🕊️ is the part of God that is totally unseen and unites the Godhead to one another. The Bible describes Holy Spirit as like the wind. You can’t see Him, but You know He’s there because you FEEL His effects. The Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, has been present on the earth for millennia (since the beginning). It is the LOVE that emanates from God’s Spirit, even unseen, that causes the flowers to bloom, the sun to warm the earth, and people to have the ability to love one another. God is LOVE..and His Spirit emanates LOVE all throughout the earth. If God’s Holy Spirit was not on the earth, it would be a dark, depressing place, devoid of REAL LIFE. Even people who do not believe in God, the Creator, benefit from the Love of God that is on the earth through God’s Holy Spirit. 🕊️
God’s Spirit has always been active on the earth. After the Fall, and prior to Jesus’ Sacrifice on the Cross, God’s Spirit would occasionally “come upon” people (Like Mary, when she was made pregnant via the Holy Spirit) or the Old Testament prophets for a specific purpose, but God’s Spirit did not permanently indwell people. This is because God’s Spirit cannot dwell in sin, and there is sin in our flesh. It’s just a fact that we must understand. But, once our sins were forgiven through the Sacrifice of Jesus (God the Son), this enabled God’s Holy Spirit to literally indwell the body of Believers. This doesn’t mean that a Believer is “possessed” by Jesus, but that Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, takes up residence in our hearts…..LITERALLY. It’s really an AWESOME Gift, that God bestows on the Believer. God’s Spirit gives LIFE, so all those who have His Spirit indwelling them experience ABUNDANT LIFE. God’s Spirit shall “quicken” (gives life to) our mortal bodies at the end of the age, when mortality is CHANGED to immortality.🕊️
1 Corinthians 15:51: Behold, I am telling you a mystery; we will not all sleep (in death), but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
The Bible lists nine fruits of the Spirit. Of course, the minute you repent of all sin (as best you can), believe that Jesus died to free you from sin, and ask Jesus to dwell within your heart, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 🕊️The Holy Spirit’s “job” is to guide the believer, to teach the believer about Jesus and all truth, to show the believer his or her sin, to help the believer repent of sin and move away from it, to comfort the believer, and to help the believer produce “fruit”, growing the believer into something that looks more like our Savior Jesus. The fruit that the Holy Spirit helps a person produce includes the following…
The 9 fruits of the HOLY SPIRIT….🍇🍉🍊🍐🍏
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- Longsuffering
- Kindness
- Goodness
- Faithfulness
- Gentleness
- Self-control
This is not to say that a believer in Christ IMMEDIATELY produces all of this “fruit”, but that should be a continuing process over the life of a believer. The fruit above runs counter intuitive to human nature, which is by-nature, selfish and inwardly focused. But the Holy Spirit empowers the Believer to focus on others and not on self. The Spirit is the life that unites Father and Son. The Spirit plays the same role in the body of Christ (community of believing Christians). When the Holy Spirit is operating in a group of people, He unites them in love.
The Holy Spirit connects the believer to God the Father and Jesus the Son, and to one another, all united IN LOVE.
- The Spirit is our guarantee and deposit of the future resurrection (2 Cor. 1:22, 2 Cor 5:5)
- The Spirit seals us unto the day of redemption (Eph. 1:13, 4:30)
- The Spirit sets us free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2)
- The Spirit will quicken our mortal bodies (Rom. 8:11)
- The Spirit reveals the deep things of God to us (1 Cor. 2:10)
- The Spirit reveals what has been given to us from God (1 Cor. 2:12)
- The Spirit dwells IN us (Rom. 8:9, 1 Cor. 3:16, 2 Tim 1:14, John 14:17)
- The Spirit speaks to us, in and through us (1 Cor. 12:3, 1 Tim. 4:1, Rev. 2:11, Heb. 3:7, Matt 10:20)
- The Spirit is the agent by which we are baptized into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13)
Mathematics and science tell us that there is an invisible force holding the Universe together. The Bible tells us what (or WHO) that force is….It’s GOD.
Colossians 1:15: He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: 16 for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
