Excerpt from Following Jesus: The Trinity and the Holy Spirit
“St. Augustine of Hippo said, ‘If you can fully grasp it, it’s not God.’ God is a complicated being. But if we are to serve and love God, then we should have a basic understanding of who God is… We must seek to understand how God is one perfect, holy being, yet exists in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit… Each one is distinct yet very much a part of the same being. For example, our human body is one. We only have one unified body. However, we have distinct parts, such as our head or our feet. The foot is a distinct part, but not independent from the head. The head carries the brain, which gives commands to the foot. They are all a part of one being… God moves in the Bible through His Spirit. Jesus is God’s Word made flesh on earth (fully God and fully man). And the Father is the head directing the action. Despite God being incomprehensible, we can understand and even personally know God through Jesus, and through how we see God work throughout Scripture…
If you get nothing else, understand that the Trinity represents the community and love we are supposed to reflect. God is love, and God exists in community within Himself. This means God has an eternal exchange of love between Himself: the Father gives to the Son, the Son to the Spirit, and the Spirit to the Father, and continuing for eternity… We are created in the image of God. Therefore, we are supposed to be in community, and are supposed to love one another. The Holy Spirit is the expression of God’s love, and His Spirit enables us to love…
When we accept Jesus as our Savior, how much of the Holy Spirit do we get? We get all of Him. However, the more we give ourselves over to God’s Spirit to work in and through us, the more like Jesus we become… The more we open ourselves to God’s Spirit, the more of His fruit we will display… It is through the power of God’s Spirit that we help to bring God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven…
Paul also taught early Christians about the gifts of the Spirit…[which] help the Church grow God’s Kingdom from within… There are people who are especially gifted to teach, to help, to lead, to heal, or to speak God’s word of truth… [T]he church must work in harmony with the Holy Spirit to ensure these gifts and roles are used with order and care. God created the universe with order and symmetry, and His creation brought forth life. The gifts of the Spirit will be known because they will be used in the same way… We [also] believe the Holy Spirit convicts us of personal Christian living… The more we allow God’s Spirit to move, the more He will guide us!”
These are excerpts from week 4 of our course called Following Jesus. If you haven’t gone through the whole course yet, you can sign up for it below.