Trinity: The Holy Spirit

 

Trinity: The Holy Spirit


In previous posts we have reasoned that God the Father experiences only pure love, joy, peace, and beauty, but not the sins and grievances of this world, because to do so would grant them reality. Furthermore, the Son that the Father created in His own image, must be like Him in this respect, since each of us is an extension of the Father Himself. Nevertheless, we find ourselves in this artificial world of bodies, with all of its pains and grievances, searching for some kind of meaning. This situation, left unattended, would leave us hopelessly stranded, with no means of communicating between the two worlds. The Father provided the solution to the problem: the Holy Spirit. He understands both the world of spirit and the natural world, and acts in both worlds.

He is like the Son in that He also is a one-in-many being. He consists of children of God who voluntarily accepted understanding of the pain and grievances of this world, and who unite in oneness of accord to help us. He does not force a solution on us, because He relies on our prayers to supply the power for His activity.

First, He teaches, as we see from these quotations from the Gospel of John:

“the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

“. . .And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.”

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

This passage implies that as long as the disciples had a body that they could look to for guidance, they would not be motivated to look to the Spirit within. He taught in their language, and he performed miracles that they could witness. Thus, even though he referred to himself as the Christ, and said, “I and the Father are one”, in acknowledgment of the unity of the Holy Trinity.

“I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth”.

These passages tell us that spiritual understanding is a gradual, cumulative process. The things of the spirit are so different from the things and the ways of this world that our minds have to be gradually brought into acceptance of the unfamiliar.

This helps to explain the rather surprising scripture about blasphemy:

“Therefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men”. (Matt. 12:30-32)

Blasphemy: the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God. (Merriam-Webster).

Blasphemy against the Father or the Son, as defined in the previous posts, is not experienced by either of Them, because They are beyond such thoughts. However, the Holy Spirit knows this world and it is our only means of escaping from it. If we have no respect and reverence for the Holy Spirit, then we have precluded that means. It is not a matter of saying insulting words, because God in any of His three aspects has no ego to be affected. It is the blasphemer's refusal to accept that means that denies his forgiveness.

A wonderful fact about the Holy Spirit is that, once we accept His guidance, He will lead each of us, as an individual, along the path that he can most readily travel, in accord with his willingness to learn.

There is a second function of the Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts, and in the teachings of Paul, He appears as a giver of spiritual gifts, including the gifts of healing and of miracles. When we pray to God for help on matters of this world, we're calling for an interaction between the worlds of matter and of spirit, and that interaction must of necessity be carried out by the Holy Spirit. As was mentioned above, He relies on our prayers to supply the power for His activity.

We will have more to say about the Holy Spirit in subsequent posts.

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