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God, Who is a Spirit
author: Ivo Koychev
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The Holy Spirit is the Divine point of contact of the celestial with the earthly. Everything which God has created, He has done is by the Spirit of God, Who is revealing His spiritual essence and nature.
The Spirit precedes the Word
In this connection, I would like to offer one assertion, based on the Scripture: The Spirit precedes the Word!
Christian tradition teaches us, that God interacts with creation in the following line: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. But at a more detailed analysis to Scripture, we will see that God interacts with creation, first revealing the personality of the Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:2). So here’s the correct orderliness: The Father reveals the Spirit, and the Spirit comes to reveal the Word.
Matthew 3:16-17:
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
So, the Holy Spirit came to reveal the Word.
The Gospel of John 1:14 reveals to us the essence of the Word under the work of the Holy Spirit:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Here we see that God’s Word that comes to us carries with itself two dimensions – grace and truth. Those two dimensions, revealing the essence and nature of Jesus, are completely dependant on the personality of the Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 we can also see that the Spirit precedes the Word:
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
In these two verses apostle Paul reveals that the revelation and the word he was carrying, came by God’s Spirit and His power. Exactly this built a victorious faith in the life of the Christians.
The Holy Spirit dealing with the demonic powers
In Zacharias 4:6, the Lord says: “Not by might (human), nor by power, but by My Spirit”. In Acts of the apostles 1:8 as well, he reveals to us that the power will come on us, when “the Holy Spirit comes upon you”. Then, if we have the Holy Spirit, we will have His power as well.
Many times Christians think that they can cast out demonic spirits by traditionally speaking the Scriptures, but Matthew 12:28 shows us that satan is being cats out by God’s Spirit:
But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Christians must understand the following principles:
- If we are carrying the Right Spirit, we will also carry the Right Word.
- The Holy Spirit is for the Word and not the Word for the Holy Spirit.
The biggest issue today is: what kind of a spirit do the believers carry? If we are not with the right spirit, even if we are carrying the truth (The Word), it will not profit us. The essence and the actions of the religious spirit are also based on a word, but without God’s Spirit. That’s why, in Luke 9:55 Jesus rebuked the disciples who wanted to bring fire down from heaven:
"You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."
In John 15:26 Jesus said to His disciples that when He goes to the father, He will send them the Spirit of truth. It’s important to note that Jesus, as a divine Person is the Word, but He was interested not only the Word (Himself) to His disciples, but also the Spirit, Who revealed Him. Here the phrase The Spirit of Truth can be paraphrased as The Spirit of the Word.
The creation of God is created by a Spirit, to demonstrate a Spirit (Genesis 1:26). We as Christians are also a spirit, created in the image of Christ. That puts us in position to represent and show the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
There are three main reasons, because of which the Holy Spirit is coming on the front:
1. So He can bring us to the right worship before God
It is very easy for a person to worship visible images and idols. But in order to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, it requires faith, because God is a Spirit, Who is invisible. The worship before God in spirit is not a religious ritual, but a way of life, giving us a revelation about the Word of God and this becomes the base for development of our faith.
The Bible talks about Joshua and Chaleb, that they had a “different spirit”. About Daniel it is said he had an “excellent spirit”. This gives us the understanding that there is a parallel between Faith and the Holy Spirit.
Romans 10:17:
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
This verse shows us exactly the fact that our faith is being developed by “The Word of Christ”, e.g. the Word – Rhema, which is coming from God’s Spirit. Therefore it is important for us to have the Holy Spirit, so we can have a revelation about God and the right faith, through which to worship Him.
2. So He can establish God’s Kingdom in our life
In the Old Testament David understood that God’s Spirit was tightly connected to God’s Kingdom and His Rule. When God’s Spirit withdrew from Saul, David could clearly see that together with God’s Spirit, God’s rule also withdrew. So, when David sinned, he said: “Do not cast me away from Your Presence and do not take Your Spirit away from me” (Psalm 51:11). We therefore see that there is a parallel between God’s Spirit and God’s kingdom.
All signs and miracles Jesus performed during His earthly ministry reveal this Divine parallel. In the gospel of Matthew 12:28, Jesus said:
But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
But when sending the apostles, H told them in Luke 10:8-9:
"When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you.Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.'
Emphasizing on the personality of the Holy Spirit in this teaching, somebody may think, that we are ignoring the work and personality of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the truth is that Jesus Christ Himself said in the gospel of John 14-16 Chapters, that the Holy Spirit would take from Him and Him would He glorify. This clearly shows that the Holy Spirit is as much involved in the process of redemption, as The Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself.
I want to note that the entire work of the Holy Spirit in the past, present and future is based upon the work and redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. From this we can draw the principle that the Holy Spirit is sent to reveal the Word Jesus in the lives of Christians. Worship, faith and glorifying Jesus Christ in our life are possible only through the Holy Spirit.
When we are talking about the Holy Spirit and His manifestation, we need to clearly understand that we are speaking about God’s Kingdom. Just as the central theme in Jesus teachings was God’s Kingdom, so today the work of the Holy Spirit is focused on the demonstration of God’s Kingdom.
3. So we can carry the revelation and understanding about God
1 Corinthians 2:10-16 says:
But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
From the verses mentioned we can see that there is a total contrast between the carnal people and the people of the Spirit. The carnal people can not understand the things that God has prepared for them, for God reveals them by His Spirit (verse 10).
The human spirit searches out the human depths, while God’s Spirit searches out God’s depths (verse 11). That is still one more reason the Spirit of God to precede God’s Word, so He can make the revelation about God and His purpose understandable to the people.
Here it is important to note that the revelation coming from the Spirit of God has a two-fold meaning:
- The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus as the Lord and Savior in our life.
- The Holy Spirit reveals to us the essence of God’s Kingdom.
Unfortunately, many Christians remain only on the first aspect of the revelation of the Spirit, which is the salvation aspect. Apostle Paul categorized this type of Christians as carnal (1 Corinthians 3:1-3). They have not grown spiritually and have not accepted the revelation of the essence of God’s kingdom. This is also the reason why they can not realize the potential of the salvation in their lives, church and society.
Here’s a principle for spiritual growth: Our spiritual growth is based on the revelation and understanding of God’s Kingdom.
Christians who have accepted the second aspect of the revelation of the Holy Spirit concerning God’s Kingdom, have come to know God’s purpose and calling for their life. About these people apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:15:
The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment
This verse is speaking about the faith of the spiritual man, which nobody can judge, but the spiritual man himself can judge everything, which makes such a person successful and creative towards the expansion of God’s Kingdom.
In conclusion I would like to say the following:
The Christians in our generation have to know their spiritual identity. This means not only to know Jesus Christ as Savior, but also know His purpose for their life. In John 14:20 Jesus gives us the following great revelation about the essence of our spiritual identity:
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
This verse reveals three main things to us: first, Jesus is in the father, second, we are in Jesus and third, Jesus is in us. We will never be complete in our spiritual identity, if we remain in our knowledge of Jesus only about the first two things. Our spiritual identity accomplishes its fullness, when Jesus reveals Himself in us. This revealing of Jesus in us is possibles only by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is that Divine Personality, Who is giving a Divine identity to the Christians, so they can reveal Christ on the earth.
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