“Seek ye out of the book of
the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for My
mouth it hath commanded, and His Spirit it hath gathered them.” (Isa. 34:16).
“Come ye near unto Me, hear
ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it
was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and His Spirit, hath sent Me.” (Isa.
48:16).
I have wrestled over these
texts, because it appears to say that the Spirit of God is separate from God, as
in the Spirit being a separate person from God. And these verses have been used
as solid proof that such is the case. But, when we lay precept upon precept and
line upon line we see that the Lord and His Spirit represented by two separate persons was not the understanding of
the Bible writers.
Listen to David express his
praise to Jesus.
“O LORD, Thou hast searched
me, and known me.
Thou knowest my downsitting
and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off.
Thou compassest my path and
my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word in my
tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether.
Thou hast beset me behind and
before, and laid Thine hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too
wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?
or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?...” (Ps. 139:1-7).
David’s praise sounds like
Nebuchadnezzar’s.
“And at the end of the days I
Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured Him that
liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is
from generation to generation: and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed
as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among
the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What
doest Thou?... Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of
heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk
in pride He is able to abase.” (Dan. 4:34,35,37).
Both testimonies declare that
there is the bodily King of heaven; and yet the King of heaven is felt
everywhere. Likewise, in Psalm 110 David had seen Jesus Adonai on His throne
next to His Father, and Jesus was even seen as travelling around the heavenly
kingdom in Psalm 45. David saw Jehovah Jesus as a being, having a tangible, defined form. David saw Jehovah Jesus, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. To
both David and Nebuchadnezzar Jehovah not only oversaw, but also personally
worked His will. Paul penned their ideas of the work of God: “Him who worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will.” (Eph. 1:11); and, “To wit, that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them.” (2Cor. 5:19). At Golgotha, Jehovah was personally in His
crucified Son through Their eternal Spirit, as He was personally present in the
cloud on the holy mount for Christ’s transfiguration (see Matthew 17:5; Hebrews
9:14). David knew that Moses had described Christ’s bodily pre-incarnate form
as “the body of heaven in His clearness.” (Ex. 24:10). Notwithstanding that,
David also knew that Christ’s personal presence far exceeded His throne in
heaven, as David’s Psalm 139 indicated. The difference between David’s and
Nebuchadnezzar’s testimonies of the bodily persons of Jehovah and Adonai was
that David added a revelation of Jehovah’s Spirit, or Jehovah’s omnipresence,
that can see and intervene everywhere. Thus, David could testify of Jehovah and
His omnipresent Spirit, or of Adonai and His omnipresent Spirit. Hence, Isaiah’s account of “the Lord GOD, and His Spirit” (Isa. 48:16).
God’s pervasive kingdom
results from His pervasive Spirit. “And when He [Jesus] was demanded of the Pharisees,
when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of
God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there!
for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20,21). “The word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith.” (Rom.
10:8).
Nebuchadnezzar learned about
the kingdom of God when he saw the goodness of God toward him. Only by the
Spirit of God in the soul can a sinful mortal extol and honor the one true God.
Only through the Spirit from God can we appreciate the things of God and give
Him thanks. “Now we have received … the spirit which is of God; that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God.” (1Cor. 2:12).
The Spirit of God in us is
God the Father manifesting Himself through His only begotten Son. The Spirit is
not God in the sense that God is the Godhead and the Spirit is a third member
of the Godhead council. The Spirit of God is the life and soul of God through
His Son that pervades all of Their created works, bringing life to all. This is
what we see from Revelation 4 and 5.
“And out of the throne
proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of
fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” (Rev. 4:5).
The Son of God embodied the seven Spirits of God, His holy person enjoying the
infinitely blazing and brilliant purity of God His Father.
“One of the elders saith unto
me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath
prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld,
and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of
the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven
eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” (Rev.
5:5,6). The Son of God still embodies the measureless, eternal Spirit of Him
who sits on the throne. His is the Spirit that we hear, the Good Shepherd’s
voice that we follow.
“And unto the angel of the
church in Sardis write; These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of
God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou
livest, and art dead…. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith
unto the churches.” (Rev. 3:1,6).
Revelation shows Jesus prior to His incarnation as seven lamps of fire, burning in response to the infinitely austere holiness of Him who sat on the throne. And His eternal pre-incarnate body, glorified by His Father, Jesus yearned to have again after His resurrection and ascension.
“And now, O Father, glorify Thou
Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world
was.” (John 17:5). That very glory and infinite Spirit without measure that clothed
Jesus at His transfiguration in His Father’s invisible presence.
“And after six days Jesus
taketh with Him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high
mountain apart by themselves: and He was transfigured before them. And His
raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can
white them.” (Mark 9:2,3).
“And there was a cloud that
overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my
beloved Son: hear him.” (Mark 9:7).
Oh, what a relief to have His
fallen human nature completely put down by His invisible Father present, before
whom no unholiness can exist! God, His Father only showed His Spirit in the sparkly,
shimmering cloud of glory that night in order to stop the mouth of Peter before
his arrogance spread to James and John.
“God … the Father of glory” (Eph.
1:17), “the Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17), was the source of Christ’s Spirit
without measure, and His pre-incarnate glory.
“The Sovereign of the
universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate—a
co-worker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving
happiness to created beings. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.’ John
1:1, 2. Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal
Father―one in nature, in character, in purpose―the only being that could enter
into all the counsels and purposes of God. ‘His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’ Isaiah
9:6. His ‘goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.’ Micah 5:2. And
the Son of God declares concerning Himself: ‘The Lord possessed Me in the
beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting….
When He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one
brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.’
Proverbs 8:22-30.
The Father wrought by His Son in the
creation of all heavenly beings. ‘By Him were all things created,… whether they
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created
by Him, and for Him.’ Colossians 1:16.” Patriarchs
and Prophets, p. 34.2.
Since the very beginning, there
has been no other being in the Godhead except the Two: “the Sovereign of the
universe” and His “Associate”, His “Co-worker”, “Christ, the Word, the only
begotten of God”, “the only being
that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God” [emphasis mine].
But, They have Their Spirit. Even
as we were made in Their image and as we have a spirit, so do They each have Their
own Spirit that is infinitely greater than ours.
“But God hath revealed them
unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep
things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man
which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of
God.” (1Cor. 2:10,11).
But, there is another spirit
beside the Spirit of Father and Son. That is the spirit of Satan manifested in
mankind, the “spirit of the world” (1Cor. 2:12), the “god of this world” (Gal.
4:6), “the prince of this world” (John 14:30). That spirit is what Paul called,
“principalities, … powers, … the rulers of the darkness of this world, …
spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph. 6:12). Satan is a person, and he
has his spirit. Likewise, God is a person, Christ is a person, and They have
their individual Spirits that are one Spirit. “Ye are not in the flesh, but in
the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” (Rom. 8:9).
“Get thee behind Me, Satan:
thou art an offence unto Me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God,
but those that be of men.” (Matt. 16:23). The spirit of the world has no place
in the kingdom that Jesus came to set up. It is the “spirit of
antichrist”, “the spirit of error.” (1Jn. 4:3,6).
Through the false doctrines
of men, the spirit of Satan influences and vehemently controls this world to be
violent toward each other, and especially toward God. “Then he said unto me,
Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah
that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled
the land with violence, and have returned to provoke Me to anger: and, lo, they
put the branch to their nose.” (Eze. 8:17). “And I have seen folly in the
prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused My people Israel to
err. I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they
commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers,
that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto Me as
Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.” (Jer. 23:13,14). Satan’s
spirit whispers into the world’s minds from the devices he inspired men to
create. He controls the kingdoms of this world through his idolatrous religion
and lifestyles that he has pushed upon the human race. But, God is stronger
than Satan, and His Spirit wages constant warfare against the spirit of Satan. “So
shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the
rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the
LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” (Isa. 59:19).
“Now we have received, not
the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God.” (1Cor. 2:12). The phrase, “Spirit
of God” is simply what the words from Paul more explicitly denoted as he tried to
state its terminology in more grammatical clarity—“the Spirit which is of God”.
It has become the assumption that the words, “Spirit of God” was the “Spirit’s”
name. Rather, the phrase was a description of the work of God Himself in the
human spirit. “God is a Spirit.” (John 4:24).
But, the Spirit of God is God
the Father meeting His children in their spirit. “The Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead” (Rom. 8:11)
is the “God the Father, who raised Him from the dead” (Gal. 1:1). Again, the
Spirit of Him that resurrected Jesus is “God” who “raised Him from the dead” (Rom.
10:9); it is “the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory” who “wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand
in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:17, 20); the Spirit is “God, who hath raised Him
[Christ] from the dead” (Col. 2:12), “the living and true God;… to wait for His
Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us
from the wrath to come.” (1Thess. 1:9,10).
The Spirit is not “the Spirit
of the Godhead”, as in an individual, a person separate from the Father,
His Spirit, His mind. “The Spirit” is “the Spirit of your Father” (Matt. 10:20),
who has a Spirit like the spirit which He gave every human to have, but which Spirit
in the children of God is a special gift of God in all whose spirit has cried
out in desperation, “O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of death?”, and have surrendered to God. The Spirit of God is God’s Spirit,
His person, His mind, His creative and redemptive influence upon His creation,
animate and inanimate, His intelligent creation and otherwise. It is because we are made in His image that our spirit taps into the things of man (our thoughts and
intents and memories), and fills our homes and our spheres of influence.
The “spirit
which is ofG1537 God” is the
Spirit of God, or the Spirit from God. G1537 ek, ex. A primary
preposition denoting origin (the point whence
motion or action proceeds), from, out (of place, time or cause; literally
or figuratively; direct or remote): - after, among, X are, at betwixt (- yond),
by (the means of), exceedingly, (+ abundantly above), for (- th), from (among,
forth, up), + grudgingly, + heartily, X heavenly, X hereby, +very highly, in,
…ly, (because, by reason) of, off (from), on, out among (from, of), over since,
X thenceforth, through, X unto, X vehemently, with )-out). Often used in
composition, with the same general import; often of completion.
Only the Son can reveal His
Father. The Son of God is the recipient of His Father’s glory and Spirit. “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is
expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” (John 16:7).
“And I will pray the Father,
and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even
the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not,
neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in
you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18, cf
John 17:25).
“But when the Comforter is
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth,
which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” (John 15:26).
“Cumbered with humanity,
Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for
their advantage that He should leave them, go to His father, and send the Holy
Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the
personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as
present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent.” Manuscript Releases, p. 23.3.
Some have misinterpreted this statement to say that a third person of a trinity is spoken of here. But, is it correct to say that “the Holy Spirit is [the Holy Spirit]”? Why would Ellen White write that the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit? Does it make sense? Not at all. It is a waste of words and intelligible nonsense. Or, how about, “[The Holy Spirit] would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit”? Does the Holy Spirit have a Holy Spirit? Does saying that make sense? Not at all. The Holy Spirit is Jesus
Himself, divested of His human person and independent of it. He represents
Himself by His Holy Spirit. Thus, the
Holy Spirit is Christ’s own Spirit, His representative. And let us not forget the definition of “divest”. To divest means that one was formerly vested, or invested. therefore, to be divested of the personality of humanity is to have have previously been vested with human personality. Jesus is the only being of the Godhead who is disemcumbered from His human form and divested of human personality.
“The Holy Spirit is Christ’s
representative, but divested of the personality of humanity, and independent
thereof. Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally.
Therefore it was for their interest that He should go to the Father, and send
the Spirit to be His successor on earth. No one could then have any advantage
because of his location or his personal contact with Christ. By the Spirit the
Saviour would be accessible to all. In this sense He would be nearer to them
than if He had not ascended on high.” Desire
of Ages, p. 669.2.
“He that hath My
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me
shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to
him.” (John 14:21). John was most certainly keeping Jesus’ commandments and His
word. He had spent many years preaching the word of God and the testimony of
Jesus. And, true to His promise, Jesus manifested Himself to John.
“I John, who also am your
brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus
Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the
testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard
behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.” (Rev. 1:9,10).
It was this Spirit voice of
Jesus, divested of the personality of His humanity, speaking with the volume of
a trumpet, that spoke to the apostles during the Early Rain. And it was the same voice all the
apostles heard command them as He led them in victory after victory, “the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” (Mark 16:20).
“While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.” (Acts 10:19).
“And the Spirit bade me go
with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we
entered into the man’s house.” (Acts 11:12).
“After they were come to
Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.” (Acts
16:7).
“And finding disciples, we
tarried there seven days: who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should
not go up to Jerusalem.” (Acts 21:4).
“Then the Spirit said unto
Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.” (Acts 8:29).
The voice was Jesus. “And I
saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown
was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” (Rev. 6:2).
