HOLY SPIRIT: Lesson #2

Relationship

The LORD longs to be especially present with with each one of us.

HE longs to personally relate to and to engage in an intimate relationship with every person.

GOD is not satisfied with being some big eyeball in the sky, and HE does not live in the moon.

Understanding this has everything to do with the work of The HOLY SPIRIT, Who alerts us to The PRESENCE of The LORD in our lives.

Genesis 1:1-2 NIV

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

• The Hebrew word used for GOD here at the beginning of the Bible is “ELOHIM.”

This word is plural.

However,

The word used for the verb “created” is singular, like “a potter shaped a jar.”

Genesis 1:26 NIV

Then GOD said, “Let US make man in OUR IMAGE, in OUR LIKENESS, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

• The use of the personal pronoun “US” is also clearly plural.

John 1:1-5, 14 AMP

IN THE beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being. In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it [put it out or absorbed it or appropriated it, and is unreceptive to it].

And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.

• “Trinity”

This word never appears in Holy Scripture.

However,

The reality of 3-in-1 is very much a part of Scripture.

The Concept is just hard to really explain or understand.

I and many others are examples, however poor they may be, of three existing in one and of the three working harmoniously in continual patterns.

• OK, so THE PERFECT EXAMPLE

Rachel is a:     Chelsa is a:     GOD IS:

Sister              Daughter      FATHER

Aunt              Wife               SON

Best Friend  Mother           HOLY SPIRIT

• What does the idea of Trinity tell us about The LORD?

HE IS RELATIONAL.

John 16:13-15 AMP

But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]. He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you. Everything that the Father has is Mine. That is what I meant when I said that He [the Spirit] will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.

John 17:4-5 AMP

I have glorified You down here on the earth by completing the work that You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me along with Yourself and restore Me to such majesty and honor in Your presence as I had with You before the world existed.

The word “Glorify” is used here, what does it mean?

To Praise

To Enjoy

To Delight In

• Now consider your own personal best friend.

You enjoy her/his company, don't you?

What is your ultimate joy in being around them?

Don't you want to please your best friend?

Don't you want her/him to be blessed?

What is your response to these feelings?

Don't you often sacrifice your own interests, material and immaterial?

• Compare that relationship to the relationship each MEMBER of The Trinity has to The OTHERS.

What does it mean then, that FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT glorify each other?

• When someone is self-centered everything orbits around them. In The Trinity, each personality voluntarily circles around the other two, pouring love and delight into them
• Consider what GOD would be like if HE did not exist within The Trinity.

Would HE be LOVE?

If HE was just ONE PERSONALITY, could HE have been so loving for all of eternity?

If there was no other part to GOD: how could HE participate personally with love; how could HE express that love?

In our humble opinion, HE couldn't. HE would be impersonal as some of the founding fathers of America thought [note: Rachel's college degree is in history] GOD with no love because there has to be an object of affection for love to sprout.

• If you believe the world was made by a GOD who is in a community of PERSONS who have loved each other for all eternity; and if you consider yourself to be made in HIS IMAGE, what conclusions can you arrive at in regards to who you are; and what is your purpose here?
• What are you made for?

Are we made to pour out love, a mutual self-sacrificing kind of love onto others?

• How do we destroy this GOD-Given purpose?

Being self-centered destroys The LORD'S PRESENCE in our lives.

• Consider your relationship with your best friend again.

Don't you admire them more than anything in the world?

Won't you do anything you can for them?

[If you have to imagine, then do so] Now, does your friend think about you the same way you do about her/him?

When the two of you agree to enter into a life-long relationship, are you not agreeing to work together for each other's benefit?

• Don't you think this is what heaven is like? Believe us, this is what heaven is like!, Only Better!

John 17:20-24 AMP

Neither for these alone do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching, That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me. I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one: I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You have entrusted to Me [as Your gift to Me] may be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, which You have given Me [Your love gift to Me]; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

• GOD made us to share ourselves together in HIS Perfect LOVE, centering our lives on HIM. We were created to know, serve and resemble HIM in all we do, especially sharing HIS LOVE with those who do not know HIM or HIS LOVE for them.

• But can we do this beautiful thing with our own power alone? Have you noticed what you can do? Can you exist in a perpetual state of selfless love for others?

No! No person can do this by his/her own power.

• Is there a way to live like this?

If so, how can we develop that life affirming relationship?