Questions
As I am searching the scriptures all the time, my mind is thinking and learning about the Holy Spirit as follows. Please explain for me as far as you can. Thank you.
Now I shall try to mention something regarding the Holy Spirit – as I find verses in the Bible itself or explanations elsewhere.
Romans 8:14: “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” Here we could think that the Spirit of God could be a person, leading us.
Then the next verse: Romans 8:15: “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave …” Receive a spirit? Receive a person? Or rather receive a special kind of thinking? God said: “My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.” So viewing things with our own thoughts, our own spirit or spiritual abilities is different from viewing them with the ability to see them with God’s thoughts, with His spirit, which is the Holy Spirit.
And then the next verse: Romans 8:16: “The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” To me that means that when we see something as God sees it, then we see it right, not with human eyes or human spirit, but from God’s standpoint, having His Spirit within us, not as a person, but as an ability. Certainly, we should not compare a person (“the spirit himself”) with thinking (“our spirit”), but ability of thinking wit ability of thinking.
Joel 2:28: “And afterwards, I (God) will pour out my spirit on all people.” Would it be possible to pour out a person? I think not. But it is possible to pour out, to freely give in full measure, to all humans the ability to think like God, with His Spirit, i.e. with the ability to think and to feel and to see the things like He does.
In the beginning, there was the Almighty God, who created His first and only very angelic being, called the Logos which is translated “Word”. We read the prophetical words in Proverbs 8:22-31: “The LORD GOD brought me forth as the first of His works … Then I was the craftsman at His side.” And then that Logos was ready and obedient towards his beloved Father to become a man, in order to die as the ransom for Adam, giving him and his offspring back the life lost in Eden.
Therefore the angel spoke to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35) When we remember John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Logos (Word), and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was [a] God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made …”, then we see it as absolutely confirming the prophetic words in Proverbs 8:30 (workmaster at God’s side).
And so we can understand what happened and was meant with “the Holy Spirit will overshadow you”. It was a bringing to earth the most mighty and first angel from a far point in the Universe to become lowered to nearly nothing, to a tiny cell to grow up in Mary as a perfect human being without Adamic sin. Therefore we read about Jesus, “Who, being in very nature [footnote: in the form of] God, did not consider equality with God … but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Philippians 2:6-7) He “made himself nothing”, i.e. he agreed to be sent, but he did not make himself a human being, but “being made in human likeness.” GOD Himself, the Almighty Father, accomplished this conversion (in agreement with His obedient son) with the power or ability of His [God’s] Holy Spirit, His might, His energy.
As our spirit is our potential in thinking, feeling and acting, so the Holy Spirit of God is His potential in thinking, feeling and acting. I am convinced that there has not been a third person besides the Almighty Creator God and the Logos Jesus like a servant of God to do that astonishing conversion. On the contrary God’s own energy is so special, so great, so grand to bring about what HE wishes. His Spirit is really not A holy spirit but THE Holy Spirit. And the thought that we are begotten by this God’s Spirit to another nature, the nature which Jesus has now, which is a spiritual nature, is overwhelming. And because we are begotten this way, we are able to understand His thoughts and Jesus thoughts and teachings. And later the whole mankind shall receive this ability, the Spirit of God to be poured out to fill them as it fills us already now, otherwise we could not understand His word. And again and again, over the decades, we must pray for His Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of truth, of knowledge, of love.
After having been resurrected Jesus, appearing the Apostles, “breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.” Jesus did not have a person in his mouth and did not breath a person into them, but gave them (shown in this symbolical manner) a partial understanding. Fully they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, when “all were filled with the Holy Spirit” – not filled with a person spirit to be within in them all, but with the ability to think and understand like God and Jesus why Jesus came and died and went back to the Father and that he would come back etc. etc. Later, it is said that Cornelius and those with him received “the gift of the Holy Spirit”. (Acts 10:45) That gift was not a person, but the ability to understand what Apostle Peter just had teaches those (verses 37-43).
Matthew 26:41; Luke 8:55; Romans 8:16; 1 Thess. 5:23; John 7:39 “Up to that time the spirit had not been given” is pointing to the time when the Holy Spirit would be poured out at Pentacost. And in order to make this pouring out of the Holy Spirit possible, it was necessary that Jesus would be heightened to God, “Unless I go away, the counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” – John 16:7.] how should we think …..?
Answers
You have given me several difficult subjects to work on.
Let me begin with the nature of God. God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 44:6), but this is united oneness, even as all people before the Flood were one (Genesis 11:6) and as all disciples of Christ are to be one (John 17:20-23). The Father is God (Ephesians 4:6), The Son is God (John 1:1,14; 5:17-18; Hebrews 1:8), and the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:1-4).
These three are separate Persons. The Son and the Father are not the same Person (Hebrews 10:5); the Son and the Holy Spirit are not the same Person (John 15:26), and the Father and the Holy Spirit are not the same Person (John 14:26).
The Son (the Word) is not a created being. He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2; Colossians 1:17). All things were made by Him (John 1:3; Colossians 1:17). He has the same essential nature as the Father (John 5:16-18; Philippians 2:5-6; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:1-3). As the Father is the eternal “I Am,” i.e., the self-existent, eternal one (Exodus 3:13-15), so is the Son (John 8:58). He is not an angel but greater than the angels (Hebrews chapter one). He did become a human being, fully sharing our nature (Hebrews 2:5-18), a man (Acts 17:30-31; 1 Timothy 2:5), though He never ceased being truly and fully God (John 5:18; Titus 2:13).
The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, He is a divine Person. I do not mean He possesses a physical body (Luke 24:36-40). Rather, I means He is “a being characterized by conscious apprehension, rationality, and a moral sense b: a being possessing or forming the subject of personality” (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary [unabridged]. 2:1686). He is spoken of by Christ as a person (10 uses of personal pronouns which designate a person; John 16:13-15). He possesses the characteristics of a person: knowledge (1 Corinthians 2:11), love (Romans 15:30), and will (1 Corinthians 12:11). He does the work of a person; He speaks (1 Timothy 4:1), teaches (1 Corinthians 2:13), guides (John 16:13), forbids (Acts 16:6-7), and searches (1 Corinthians 2:10). Furthermore, He suffers the slights and injuries of a person; He can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30), insulted (Hebrews 10:29), and lied to (Acts 5:3).
What God brought forth was “wisdom” (Proverbs chapter eight), not the divine Word (John 1:1-18). “Wisdom” is personified as a woman (Proverbs 8:1); the “Word became flesh” as the Son (John 1:14,18).
The English word “spirit” translates the Greek term “pneuma.” The primary meaning of
“pneuma” is “wind,” then “breath” (cf. William Mounce, Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. 1247; cf. John 3:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:8). As of any word with multiple uses, the context determines its meaning. It can be used of a spiritual being (John 4:24), i.e., a being without material substance (Luke 24:39), the human spirit, the invisible, inward part of man that returns to God at death (James 2:26; Ecclesiastes 12:7), an attitude (1 Corinthians 12:7), and other ways depending on the context.
The word “spirit” occurs twenty times in Romans chapter eight in the New King James Version of the Bible, whereas the Greek “pneuma” is found nineteen times. “Spirit” is added by the translators in verse one, and “pneuma” is not in the Greek.
A key to the chapter is found in verse two: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). The “law of sin and death” is the rule of sin in the life of the sinner apart from Christ (Romans 7:13-24). The “law of the Spirit of life” is the gospel that frees the sinner from the shackles of sin and brings him into the freedom in Christ (Romans 1:16).
The Spirit leads us (Romans 8:14) through the law of the Spirit, the gospel. As free men in Christ, we have the “spirit” (attitude) of sons rather than of slaves (Romans 8:15). The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God (Romans 8:16), i.e., the Holy Spirit through the gospel testifies how to become children of God (Galatians 3:26-27), and our spirits testify we have done this.
The Holy Spirit was poured out (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:1-4, 16-18) figuratively in that the power of the Holy Spirit was poured out enabling the apostles and first century disciples to speak by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and to confirm their word by miracles (Mark 16:17-20; 1 Corinthians 2:9-13). This outpouring of the Holy Spirit enabled its recipients to speak in various tongues (Acts 2:4, 6-11) and prophesy (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17-18). These miraculous gifts served their purpose and ceased (1 Corinthians 13:8-13).
We do not need a direct work of the Holy Spirit on our minds to enable us to understand the Scriptures. Inspiration was to the writers of Scripture, not the readers (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Scripture is so written that when we read and diligently study it, we can understand it (Ephesians 3:1-7; 2 Timothy 2:15).
