KNOWING THE HOLY SPIRIT
(week 11/12)
OLUBI JOHNSON
Genesis 1:26 AMP: God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. [Ps. 104:30; Heb. 1:2; 11:3.]
John 1:1 AMP: IN THE beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. [Isa. 9:6.]
2Corinthians 3:17 AMP: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). [Isa. 61:1, 2.]
These scriptures reveal to us that God is three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Each is of them is God and called Lord: the Lord God: the Father, the Lord Jesus and the Lord Holy Spirit.
They are equal and have same life flowing in them and the same character of love and humility; so they are One in this respect, but not one Person: three Persons.
Philippians 2:5-6 KJV: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (6) Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
John 5:26 AMP: For even as the Father has life in Himself and is self-existent, so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself and be self-existent.
John 17:5 KJVL: And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
John 17:20-23 KJV: Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; (21) That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (22) And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: (23) I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
So we see that the Godhead is one just like we are one in the body of Christ:
Ephesians 4:4-6 KJV:There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; (5) One Lord, one faith, one baptism, (6) One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Same life, same nature but different Persons!
Each Person of the Godhead has His own individual will, mind and emotions and ‘spiritual body’ or shape: the shape of the form of man since man was made in the image and likeness of God.
John 5:37 KJV: And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
In particular, God the Holy Spirit has a shape (Ezk. 8:2-4); He has a will (1 Cor. 12:11); He has a mind (Rom. 8:27) and He has emotions (Eph. 5:30, Mt. 12:31,32).
Ezekiel 8:2-3 KJV: Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber. (3) And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.
So the Lord Holy Spirit is not a dove! Just like the Lord Jesus is not a lamb or a lion!
These animals just symbolize certain aspects of their character or power.
The Holy Spirit has and gives anointing, power and gifts but He is not the anointing, He is not the power, He is not the gifts: He is a Person!
In our article next week, we will continue to study the Person and character of the Lord Holy Spirit.
