Help from the inside: the work of the Holy Spirit

I have been working towards a fuller understanding of the Holy Spirit, beginning with various things the Spirit is credited with accomplishing. 

• The Spirit of God is described as the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord, rejoicing in the presence of God, particularly resting on God's anointed (Isaiah 11:1-3)
• The Holy Spirit is the spirit by which we call God "Abba", "Father" (Romans 8:15, Galatian 4:6)
• The Holy Spirit is particularly credited with fellowship among believers (2 Corinthians 13:14, Philippians 2:1)
• The Holy Spirit is to lead the apostles into truth (John 16:13)
• The Holy Spirit is known as Comforter or Advocate (John 14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7)
• The Holy Spirit makes intercession for us when we do not know what to pray (Romans 8:26)
• The Holy Spirit was promised to the apostles to supply the words to say during trials (Mark 13:11) and to teach them what to say on those occasions (Luke 12:11-12)

In some ways the Spirit is the least-seen among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Still, in some ways the Spirit is the most intimate: with us, in our hearts, in our minds, living within us and helping from the inside. 

The Holy Spirit and the bedrock virtues: faith, hope, and love

In Scripture, we hear less about the Holy Spirit than we hear through the Holy Spirit. If we consider the Father as the God we cannot see, and Christ as God with us, then the Spirit can be considered God within us. There we see Christ most clearly, and through Christ we see the Father; but the Spirit is scarcely seen. At times in the New Testament when someone is said to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit-filled person is generally not speaking about the Spirit, but about Christ. The Spirit is less of a focus, and we often learn of the Spirit only by pausing on verses where the Spirit is pointing us toward God, or a presence in our lives. 

We learn that the Spirit knows the mind of God, reveals the things of God, and speaks through the prophets. And we learn that the greatest gifts of the Spirit are faith, hope, and love: the great life-affirming virtues, the virtues fullest of joy and wisdom. 

I'm beginning to see the "gifts of the Spirit" in a different light. I had for many years supposed that "gifts of the Spirit" are things that the Spirit gives us in some sort of relay, where the Father gives us the Spirit, then the Spirit in good time may give us gifts of faith. I wonder now if those gifts are simply an aspect of the Spirit of God. As for faith: if the Spirit of God knows the mind of God, then the Spirit has no doubt about God's goodness or his intentions, so understanding the mind of God gives faith. As for hope: If the Spirit of God knows what God will accomplish, then the Spirit of God is unwavering in hope, so confidence in the knowledge of God gives hope. As for love: if God is love and the Spirit of God knows the heart and mind of God, then of course the Spirit of God is full of love, so sharing the Spirit of God gives us love. 

It seems that the gifts of the Spirit are not a separate thing from the Spirit. If I look for the gifts apart from the Spirit I will come up empty. If I look for the Spirit, there are the gifts too. 

The Holy Spirit in the Four Gospels

I have found myself wondering how much we understand the Holy Spirit, and so beginning at Pentecost this year have started a study of that. This week I am looking at what we learn of the Holy Spirit from the Gospels. 

In Matthew, the Holy Spirit is shown first as the cause of Mary's conception of Jesus. Next we see the Holy Spirit in connection with John the Baptist. John says that one who will come after him who will baptize with the Holy Spirit, and then we see the Spirit of God descending on Jesus at his baptism. Then  Jesus states that he casts out demons by the Spirit of God. That in turn leads directly to the warning about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The application of the term blasphemy shows the Holy Spirit is regarded as divine. And at the end of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus instructs his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So we see a spirit that is a creative and cleansing power, poured out first on Jesus and then through him to the apostles and others. 

While in general Mark has fewer references to the Holy Spirit than Matthew, he does include some references that Matthew does not. He mentions that King David spoke by the Holy Spirit, touching on the wisdom and discernment so often associated with the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. And he mentions that when the apostles are put on trial for their faith, they should not premeditate their responses but say what the Holy Spirit would give them in the moment. Again, this is in keeping with the "spirit of wisdom" familiar from the Old Testament. 

In Luke, the first mention of the Holy Spirit comes from the angel Gabriel, who speaks of John the Baptist (not yet conceived) being filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. As with Matthew, Luke also mentions the Holy Spirit as the cause of Mary's conception of Jesus. We see Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, speak by the Holy Spirit; so do Zechariah and later, at the Temple, Simeon. Simeon had also received a promise revealed by the Holy Spirit that he would live to see the Messiah. Again, as with other gospels, we see the Holy Spirit at Jesus' baptism. Likewise we see the warning against blasphemy, and the encouragement that the Holy Spirit would teach them what to say when they were brought to trial. In Luke, again we see the Holy Spirit's connections to baptism and to creative power, along with connections to words of empowerment, prophecy, and wisdom. 

In John, we again see the connection to baptism, but from there the Gospel of John adds some references we have not seen in other places. We hear that the Holy Spirit was not yet given to the apostles during Jesus' ministry "because Jesus was not yet glorified." We see Jesus saying that the apostles would receive the Holy Spirit to teach them all things and to bring to their memories what he had taught them. Finally, we see Jesus breathing on them and saying to receive the Holy Spirit. 

The Spirit of God: Old Testament references

Today Christians in the Western traditions celebrate Pentecost, when God poured his Spirit on the disciples in Jerusalem, visibly seen as tongues of flame. John the Baptist had prophesied that after him comes someone who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The earliest Christians were all Jewish by faith, covenant, culture, and family. While this Pentecost started a larger understanding of the Spirit of God, I wanted to see what the earliest Christians would have understood from the Old Testament about the Holy Spirit. 

By far the most common reference I found to the Spirit of God in the Old Testament involves the spirit wisdom. This reaches as far back as providing Joseph wisdom for providing for Egypt through the long famine (Genesis 41:38). The God's spirit of wisdom and understanding -- at times also a spirit of knowledge -- was referenced for workmanship and craftsmanship, leadership, and justice. God's spirit is referenced for might and protection against enemies in battle. It also leads to righteousness, aids in grace, and guides prayer. The Spirit brings peace and restoration, creation and renewal, and especially renewal of heart and the human spirit. The spirit of God is a spirit of blessing. 

The appearance of fire in connection with the spirit at this Pentecost is not entirely new. Some Old Testament passages speak of the Spirit of God in connection with fire. Sometimes the fire is connected with justice or purification, and sometimes with inner light to search the soul (Isaiah 4:4, Proverbs 20:27)

The Spirit of the Lord was said to have spoken through the prophets, and through them brought good news to the poor. This includes the well-known prophecy where the Spirit of the Lord causes one to speak good news to the meek, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives and release to the prisoners. 

In the prophet Isaiah's description of the Spirit of God, he calls it the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and fear of the Lord, and that the one with the spirit of the Lord has joy in the presence of the Lord. 

The Holy Spirit v unclean spirits

I've mused before that holiness has more to it than we often credit, more than our irreverent age can easily understand. One thing that we can see is that the Spirit of God is holy, while other spirits are often referred to as "unclean." Is there a sense in which "holy" is the opposite of "unclean"? 

As mentioned, places in the Bible speak of "unclean spirits" on the one side, and the Holy Spirit on the other.

There are places in Paul's letters that use holy as the opposite of unclean, for example: "otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy." (1 Corinthians 7:14)

David prayed, "Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me." He spoke as if being clean and pure were part of what it means to have a right spirit. 

In some well-known passages of Scripture, the Holy Spirit is associated with baptism. There the Holy Spirit is associated with water -- especially in washing and cleansing.

Holiness starts with making us clean and pure; a clean heart is one of God's great gifts, and an honest person's heart-felt desire.

Pentecost: praising God in their language

Today, listening to the Pentecost readings, I noticed a couple of basic things:

• People listen when we speak their language
• Seekers listen when we praise God and tell the wonders he has done

At the first Pentecost after Jesus' resurrection, the apostles' words were understood in the languages of the people around them. As Christians, part of our faith is to speak and to be understood. The Spirit equips us by guiding our words, even in our own language. Time and again, we hear of the Spirit guiding words in particular:

• What the apostles were to say when brought into court -- and no worrying in advance because the Spirit would help.
  Jesus mentioned this to the apostles in advance. After the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we see the apostles actually on trial at times, and trusting that the words would come to proclaim what Jesus did.
• What the apostles said the first Pentecost
• What the apostles and other writers of Scripture would say, such as in their letters and in the gospels
  All Scripture is God-breathed ...
• What the Christians would say to help and encourage each other
  Some have the gift of encouragement or of teaching; some have words of wisdom or words of knowledge; the Spirit gives gifts including prophecy, tongues, or the interpretation of tongues. Jesus' people "are a letter from Christ, written with the Spirit of the Living God on tablets of the human heart" (2 Cor 3:3 selected/ellipses removed for easier reading)
• How the Christians would pray
  The boldness to call God "Father" -- and the trust to see him as Father -- come from the Spirit. And when we lack words, we pray trusting that the Spirit communicates for us. 

People look for the gifts of Pentecost today. If we encourage someone, teach someone, if we speak the truth with love, then the Spirit is among us.

Testing if a theology is from God: Reasoning from the fruit of the Holy Spriit

As a corollary to the previous study of the Holy Spirit, it also seems to follow:

If:

a) the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,

And 

b) the fruit of a certain theological system in our life is something besides love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,

then it follows that 

c) that theological system is not formed by the Spirit of God. 

Now, some people don't try to have their theology informed by the Spirit of God, which is its own problem. But for those who do, here the Bible has given us another way to test the spirits. Or as The Man once said, by their fruit we know them. 

We probably all have some work to do. 

What God is like: Reasoning from the nature of the Holy Spirit

Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except his spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. (I Corinthians 2:11)

If we receive the Spirit of God and Paul says this is God's Spirit in the same way that our own spirits know our own thoughts ... then it follows that we can understand the things of God and the nature of God by this Spirit.

What happens if you take that idea and connect it with the fruit of the Spirit?

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

If that is the fruit of the Spirit, and if the Spirit is the mind of God, then the mind of God naturally produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. The reason that God's Spirit produces them in us is that these things belong to God's nature. It is what God is truly like.

All things that fulfill the law are things that restore in us the image of God. Love does no harm to its neighbor and love is the fulfillment of the law. Love is the nature of God. We have seen before how God is holy and so his people are called to be holy, how God's people are called to follow his paths, how salvation is being restored in the image of God. From the nature of the Holy Spirit, it should follow that the nature of God includes everything that is named as fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

God is good.

The fellowship of the Holy Spirit: understanding

The Spirit of the LORD shall rest on him: The Spirit of wisdom and understanding ... (Isaiah 11:2)

This may seem obvious -- and sometimes the most obvious things are the ones we overlook. (Really, being proficient -- more than a beginner -- in any skill, means having become so accustomed to certain basic things that we no longer have to think about them any more. And so we don't. Every level of expertise carries its own blind spot, in that way.) If I look back on every conversation I've ever had, and look forward to every conversation I expect to have, all those conversations share one thing: a common language. The other person and I could understand each other, if we tried. Every long-term friendship I've ever had was with someone that I could talk to, or write with, in a language that we both understood. I've had some casual interactions with people who don't speak the same language; you can get a certain distance with signs and body language and facial expressions. But there is only so far we will get without a common language.

At Pentecost, the gift of languages was a gift of communication, a gift of understanding, a gift of including all people. It is a gift of fellowship ("the fellowship of the Holy Spirit") which begins at the basic level of understanding each other.

Like all the great gifts, even understanding must take its direction from love or it becomes unwelcome. Consider how much Amazon and google "understand" us from keeping close track of our actions, and how much Big Brother "understands" us from our communications, for examples of how someone can "understand" without any real understanding of us as people, or any wish to understand us as people. I do not mean to start anyone worrying about Amazon, google or Big Brother; I mean to mention that in our own small way, we're hardly any better if all our understanding is without love. As a follower of Christ, I want to understand my neighbor in a way that helps me see them through the eyes of love, so that my understanding is a gift. We all desire that kind of understanding. May God grant that the Spirit of wisdom and understanding help us.

The Spirit and the fire

The Bible has a collection of images that it uses for the Holy Spirit -- and fire is one of the main ones. This fire is not a destructive fire, but a purifying fire, a holy fire. It is light in the darkness. It is the light that shines before men, the lamp on the lamp stand. It is the smolder that clings to the wick that is not snuffed out yet. It is the burning in the bosom as we hear the words of Christ. It is the flame that we fan. It is one way that faith passes from us to the next person -- that they feel the warmth, see the light, and are drawn. It is part of how we encourage each other, and part of why there is so much power in fellowship. In isolation, we are candles in the dark. Together, we are a bonfire.

In one of the Greek myths, man is denied fire -- it is reserved for the gods -- and the man who steals the power of fire is dealt a stern punishment. On Pentecost, God takes the fire of His own Spirit, and sends it down to man: The tongues of fire light on all the believers so that the young men will see visions, the old men will dream dreams, and on all -- both sons and daughters -- the spirit is poured out. God does not try to deny man the power of God: He pours it out on us, to lift us up, and restore us, and kindle the divine Spirit in us. God is a gracious God.

The spirit and the water

So many things in the Bible are used as either symbols or sacraments -- we can save the "sacrament" discussion for another day. There are so many things in God's word that have layers of meaning added to them, beyond what is there on the surface. And one often-used is that the Holy Spirit is associated with water. To be sure, the Holy Spirit is also associated with other things, but water deserves its own look.

Water is pure: it is what we use to clean things. Water carries away dirt -- and then itself becomes pure again in the course of nature. Much like my footprints might spread dirt, water instead spreads cleanness and purity. Water is how things are renewed. Each Christian is called to baptism, and the water carries much of the meaning: we are washed and cleaned.

Water is one of the absolute necessities of life. The Bible speaks of a deer panting for the water, and of a tree planted by the waters that has no fear of drought. It talks about still waters and restoring the soul. It talks about rain that comes down from heaven and does not return without giving life and renewal to the earth. It talks about a river whose waters make glad the city of God. Time and again, the Word of God uses water to describe God's life-giving role.

The Book of Revelation is a vision, and a book of symbols. But that does not make it meaningless: it makes us need to reach out to see what those symbols mean. We have seen that when the Bible speaks of water, it speaks of cleansing, and renewal, and the source of life -- all worked in us through the Holy Spirit. It reminds us where we are to look for the source of that fountain:

And he showed me a pure river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Revelation 22:1)

The life of the world, and the cleansing of the world, flow like a river from the throne of God. That is the river in which we are baptized. That is the still water that restores the soul.

Grace and the Trinity

The current series on grace has three main posts still planned: this entry plus two others. There is also some additional material that may not fit cleanly into one of those posts and may be posted separately. The remaining posts are all interrelated; as this piece seems more of a foundation to the following two, it will be posted first. 

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God in Three Persons, or Father, Son, and Spirit?

I'll start by briefly mentioning some thoughts I've written before -- some time ago -- about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It does actually matter whether we think of "God in three persons", or whether we think of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible does not know the language of "three persons in one godhead"; it speaks about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When the Bible speaks of "God" it generally means the Father. Speaking of the Father, Jesus says that people call him God (John 8:54). The Father is the "first person" not by accident but because He alone is without origin, unbegotten, self-existing; in Him the Son and Spirit have their source. If the Father alone is self-existing, how and why do we see God as more than the Father alone?

The Word of God is sent out by grace

So what is the true nature of Christ? The Bible does not speak of the "second person of the Trinity"; it speaks of the Word of God becoming flesh and living among us. I take this to mean that the Word of God is the true nature of the divine in Christ. The earliest church does not proclaim the "second person"; it speaks of the Word of God who becomes flesh and dwells among us in Christ. If God did not care to establish a relationship with the world, then the Word of God would have stayed hidden within God; the Word would not have been sent into the world. If God desired that we should relate to him only as servants -- to do as we are told, and look no further than that -- then all his words to us would be commands. The Word of God is not all commands; that teaches us that God did not intend us to be only servants.

The Word of God was sent forth into the world through various messengers and different types of message, each with its own kind of grace (more on that in an upcoming post). First, the Scriptures tell that the Word of God was the means of creation -- in which grace was established as the foundation of God's relationship with the world. In time, God's word called forth a people to live under his blessing and protection, to work for his purposes in this world. Under that covenant, the law called for God's people to be known for their integrity and goodness. In other times through his word, God showed us the beauty of holiness, held out visions of paradise, and promised the coming Messiah in the kingdom of God. God's word reveals his decision to be our leader, our teacher, our protector, our guide through the wilderness, and our hope.

Moving forward, the Word of God became flesh and lived among as Jesus. Here we see the fulfillment of God's decision to join with us, to be "God with us". In Christ, in living with us, God establishes his love for us, and establishes our forgiveness. Where grace had always been our human hope, that hope was given solid ground in Christ: grace was set as a covenant. The covenant was no afterthought, and the incarnation was no afterthought. The act of love, the purpose of grace, is part of the essential nature of Christ, the living Word of God.


The Spirit of God is sent in grace

Then what is the true nature of the Spirit? Again, the Bible speaks of the Spirit of God in the same way that it speaks of the spirit of a man knowing his thoughts within him. I take this to mean that the Spirit of God is the true nature of the Holy Spirit. When we think rightly of the Holy Spirit, we remember that the Spirit is essentially, genuinely, the Spirit of God who knows God's thoughts within him.

The Spirit of God is poured out on the world and lives in us.* This living in us is an act of goodwill towards us -- that is to say, an act of grace. In it, God increases his fellowship with us, which is a remarkable gift. The ancient Temple at Jerusalem was inlaid with gold, with cedars of Lebanon, adorned with fine embroidery and images of heavenly beings -- it was a beautiful, pure, and holy place, and was blessed with the presence of God. Now we are called to be his living temple. (Are we supposed to build our hearts inlaid with love like gold, and righteousness like the cedars of Lebanon? Or as the Psalmist says, "Your Law to me is better than gold.") If God living in a city was a blessing and honor to the city, if God living in a nation was a blessing and honor to the nation, then consider God's presence living in us, and in all his people. If the Spirit of God is that inner part that knows God's thoughts within him, then how does that Spirit come to us? The Spirit of God only comes to us because God chooses to pour out his Spirit on his people. Grace is the essential answer of how the Spirit of God comes to be within us, rather than only within God.

What does that mean?

The very nature of the God -- Father, Son, and Spirit -- reaches into the world until it is accomplished that he lives in us, until we have hope in him, and we have fellowship with him and with each other. If "Trinity" is how our minds see and understand God, then our understanding of God is structured by his workings in the world to accomplish the beginnings of restoration here and now in our lives.

It may be that this is how and why, if the Father alone is self-existing, we see God as more than the Father alone. Trinity is inherently a matter of grace: the Word and the Spirit reach out into the world and communicate God's attributes and God's own spirit to us, by their constitution -- by God's decision from the foundation of the world to be the God who loves us, to be God with us.

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And the footnote referenced above, which would have disrupted the flow of thought earlier

* The Holy Spirit lives particularly where the message of Christ -- the message of God's grace -- has been trusted, as Paul challenges his readers in Galatia to remember: "... before your eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. Tell me just one thing: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?" (Galatians 3:1-2)

Purgatory and Pentecost: purifying fire

I once knew a Roman Catholic fellow who was terrified of purgatory. It really haunted him. He had done something genuinely awful that was burned into in his thoughts: he had blamed one of his own mistakes on someone else, who had lost her job as a result. He described -- fearfully -- the cost of purification that he expected to endure in purgatory, and he quoted the Bible to the effect that everything would be purified by fire. He could make himself unsteady contemplating the horrors of purgatory.

At the time I wasn't really sure what to say. I think I looked up the verse in question and mentioned that the Bible also said anything that couldn't endure fire would be purified by water, hoping that Numbers 31:23 was the passage he was quoting. I knew my belief "there's no such thing as purgatory" would not get me far with him; he knew he needed purifying and to him that was all there was to say on the topic of whether there is such a place as purgatory. But I write this in the hopes that anyone else in the same situation might consider it:

If we are purified by fire, consider that the apostles met with purifying fire too. It was at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descended on them as tongues of fire. Yet they were not hurt. God's purification is not necessarily different than Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire that we were promised that Jesus brings.

Gifts of the Spirit: Faith, Hope, and Love

My pastor once said that Pentecost is the longest season of the church year because we live even now in the days of history that are celebrated by the season of Pentecost, and that all the days of history since the first Pentecost after Jesus' resurrection have been part of the great unfolding of Pentecost throughout the world.

Yes, my pastor in a liturgical church said this. Some of my Pentecostal (denomination) friends are sure we short-change the gifts of the Spirit because we do not speak in tongues. I have written before about the greatest gifts of the spirit: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest mission of the Spirit: going into the world proclaiming Christ. I have even written about how some people have faked having gifts of the Spirit -- especially tongues and translations. (As explained before, this is not a comment on whether such gifts continue; only a comment on the sad state of self-deceit in places where there is much performance-pressure to have one particular gift.)

But self-deceit goes much deeper than babbling in tongues in order to satisfy performance pressure. It comes close to home even for Christians who do not attend churches where spirituality is measured by private prayer languages. Sure, the lesser gifts of the Spirit such as tongues and translations can be faked easily. But what happens when the same spirit of self-deceit turns to the greater gifts? What happens when people fake faith, hope, and love?

The gifts of the Spirit are not self-generated; they are gifts coming from outside, coming from the Spirit of God, not from the will of man. So as soon as we try to manufacture from inside us faith, or hope, or love, we have made a counterfeit. And few attest their own faith, hope, and love so stridently as those who seem to be trying to convince themselves. Someone who is deeply faithful does not spend much time worrying whether she is deeply faithful; she has other things on her mind. Someone who is deeply hopeful does not spend much time trying to remind himself that nothing can keep a good man down and things will get better: he knows that God's goodness does not promise that, so his hope does not depend on circumstance. Being perky can be a tiresome and shallow substitute for having something to be glad about. Those who are loving focus more attention on their beloved than on themselves. Someone who is constantly self-monitoring to see how faith, hope, and love are growing are almost sure to disrupt their growth by constantly turning inwards, away from the source of these gifts.

The way faith grows is by looking at the cross of Christ where we see that God is faithful, where we see God with us. The way hope grows is by looking at Christ's empty tomb and hearing Christ's promise that he will also raise us up from our own tombs at the last day. Hope grows also by hearing Christ speak those words of forgiveness, knowing there is healing and restoration for our souls. The way love grows is by looking at him who loves us and treasuring these things in our hearts.