And so the time has come to open the subject of the Trinity. The Father Son and Holy Spirit.
1 John 5
7For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one
There is hardly a more divisive issue in the kingdom of God, nor one more defining of Christianity. If one believes in the triune nature of God, that Father Son and Holy Spirit are one and they are God, then one is a Christian. If a Person does not believe this, no matter how devout they appear, they are not. For Jesus is God….and any other “Jesus” is a false Christ and not THE Christ.
I will not present arguments for the case of trinity here, for God does not need me to defend Him. I will not try to define what is quite beyond our ability as humans to comprehend fully. The True Nature of God.
1 Cor 13
12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
We cannot simply understand the fullness of God but we can know in part. What I intend to put forth here then is a part of the understanding of the Triune Nature of God. And that is in how we interacted with Him.
The Father, God Above us
First we Have the Father. Yahweh, El Shaddiah, Jehovah. The God the people of the Old testament. He was the God Above them….the most powerful, the earth shaking, plague sending , sea parting thunderer of heaven.
Most people saw Him as simply that. They had no understanding of Him, and they had know interaction with Him. He spoke to His people, through His prophets. He spoke to Adam, He Spoke to Noah, He spoke to Abraham to establish His People. He Spoke to Moses to free His people and to give them His law, so that that might be able to live in the righteousness appointed to them by the sacrifice of atonement.
He Spoke to Elijah and Elisha, so that the people would not forget The Power of His glory to them. He spoke to Samuel and Nathan to establish the Kingdom of Israel an to remind her kings when they misstepped. He Spoke to David and taught him psalms so that all the people could sing the goodness and glory of God. He spoke to Isaiah and Jeremiah and many other of the minor prophets to tell them the penalty of the sin they pursued. And He talked to Daniel to tell him of the things that would happen in the end times. And finally He spoke through John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Savior.
In All these things the people of God saw Him as the God above them.
Then Jesus Came.
Matthew 1
23“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us
Jesus Christ, God with us.
No longer was God apart from us. But He walked among us, and ate what we ate and felt the pain we felt, and he talked to us. No Longer did we have to hear the word of God from the mouth of a prophet, we heard the word of God from the Word…Himself. He spent 3 and one half years among us, teaching us in ways we could understand, preparing us. Sharing the very will of God with us. He explained the law to us. He showed us the kingdom of heaven in His words and in His deeds. He healed the blind, He cured the lame, He cleansed the leper and he raised the dead, all the fullness of God with us. Amazing!
And yet, that was limited, to those who lived in His time and His land. He knew He had a job to do, that was for more than just Jerusalem, or Nazareth or Capernaum but for all the world. He had to die for us. But God had a plan. He had one more step closer to take to us than Jesus, God among us.
John 14
Jesus Promises Another Helper
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever– 17the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
The Holy Spirit, God in us.
The Holy Spirit, God Himself, the maker of the heavens and the earth, now, because of the work of Jesus dwells in the heart of each believer.
He doesn’t have a phone booth that you can call Him from there. He hasn’t given you His e-mail address so that you can contact Him if you need Him. He dwells with you and in you.
The Mighty Holy Spirit of God, has taken residence in your heart.
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
God no longer resides only in the foggy firmament in heaven…..when you go before the throne of God you have to go know further than your own heart. For there resides the WHOLENESS of God. For the Holy Spirit is not Part of God, He is God. In that special triune that we will never fully understand until we are there with Him, that they are three in one.
I would ask you now, if you would, to go to your prayer closet, where ever that may be and reflect on the nature of God, and that God is in you, right now with every breath, with every heart beat, sharing every trial and every joy, God is now within you. Take time, meditate on it…and perhaps He will open an understanding of His presence with you, that you never knew.
I pray that God bless all of you in the richness of His glory, that we might know that He is Our God and we are His people….Him in us and us in Him, Glory be to God forever