…. we’re not saying its name accurately.
The OT Hebrew
word for spirit is ruah, Romanized ruwach, pronounced ROO akh, and means:
wind; by resemblance of breath as exhalation, either calm or turbulent. The NT
Greek word is pneuma (pronounced
PNYOO mah) and, incredibly, means about the same as Hebrew but with an update:
a current of air, i.e. breath (blast) or a breeze; by analogy or figuratively,
a spirit: i.e. the soul (human), (by implication) vital principle, mental
disposition, etc., or an angel (superhuman), or God (divine), Christ's spirit,
the Holy Spirit. I guess that covers it.
Apparently we
should be saying “holy breath” as it pertains to the word of God expelling his
will, breathing on us if you will. The analogy and figurative portion is about
implication as it pertains to the human ability to receive this information
from God. But let’s try to get it down to our level.
A friend once
described the word of God, the Holy Spirit, as a hot stream of brown breath as
it left God’s mouth. You may not appreciate the color, especially since the
Pentecost color is red. Whatever color or lack of color you wish to attribute
to it, I like the idea that God speaks not in words but in power, a power that may
or may not be felt but is overwhelmingly taken into the mind and body and
translated to the wisdom of the moment as God wishes us to know it. Below we’ll
see where Jesus is mediator of it.
Visuals are also powerful.
Our visual of Jesus is as a bearded human. The typical visual of God is the OT
gray-bearded angry old man throwing lightening bolts at us to punish for our
sins. The visual for the Holy Spirit, or Spirit of God as I prefer, is….. a bit
more vague. A bird? A dove? A flame? As Benny Hinn once said on his TV program:
“I’ve seen the Holy Spirit, he’s a man”. John the Baptist saw something that
seemed like a bird hovering over Jesus’ head as John was about to baptize him.
Was it a dove as Matthew’s Gospel describes it?:
3:16. And when Jesus had been baptized,
just as he came up from the water,
suddenly the
heavens were opened to him
and he saw the Spirit of God descending
like a dove and
alighting on him.
Notice it’s like a
dove not was a dove. That Spirit (wind) of God, pneuma, was exhaled breathe from God apparently wafting in power over
Jesus’ head; therein described by John. By the way, did you notice it’s Spirit of God not Holy Spirit in the
passage.
Investigating the
word holy, Greek hagios, pronounced
HAG ee os, means sacred (physically pure, morally blameless or religious,
consecrated). Another meaning, in OT-speak is “set-apart”, meaning, God has
chosen those who believe as set apart from those who don’t; and enjoy a
relationship with God from which a certain positive behavior results, therefore
holy. However, the meaning has devolved to where when we use the word holy, it
refers to how we perceive a person’s behavior, sometimes not positive as in “holier
than thou”. It should be easy to tell who’s holy and who isn’t simply by their
behavior. Those that are truly holy have experienced a transformation from a
worldly behavior to a heavenly behavior because he/she is giving thanks for the
visit like a dove from God and want
very much to share it with us in a loving way. It isn’t about putting on an act
or necessarily placing themselves above the fray, it’s about a new way of life
very much in the fray.
To cut to the
quick, using the word Spirit seems appropriate as it applies to God’s breath
and the potential transformational value to us in receiving it, followed by
using it (being holy) every moment of our lives.
What is the evidence
that there is a Holy Spirit; a person, a breath, or otherwise?
It’s easy not to
take Scripture literally when the events described are vague and ambiguous, but
I’m continually amazed how we ignore what Scripture says when it describes an
event as vividly as it does the Pentecost experience. We seem to glide over the
event as if it was taking place on a movie screen and has no effect on our
lives today. Movie (sermon) over, the lights come on and we move on to the rest
of the day. Ho hum. If on one hand we are willing to accept that Jesus is God
as interpreted from Scripture, why we aren't willing to take the rest of the
good stuff with it as well? Here’s where it gets interesting.
The classic
Readings for Pentecost are Acts 2:1-3:
1 When the day of Pentecost had come,
they were all
together in one place.
2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound
like the rush of
a violent wind,
and it filled the
entire house where they were sitting.
3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them,
and a tongue
rested on each of them.
And John
When he had said
this,
he breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the
Holy Spirit.”
Did you hear it?- rush
of violent wind; he breathed on them. Classic manifestation of the
description of the words as I defined above. No one had to make it up, no one
had to interpret the original Greek for a desired outcome; it happened as the
will of God intended! And reported as witnessed. As early as Genesis we get a
notion of the power of God’s breath in Genesis 2:7:
then the Lord God formed man from
the dust of the ground,
and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and the man became a living being.
Did you hear it this time? and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life!
In Acts, the word
of God was expulsed from his “mouth” as a violent wind (though no fear was
expressed by its recipients) and manifested this time as flames. In John, Jesus
breathed on them and they received the Spirit of God; manifested apparently as
grace. In either case they definitely did not receive the clone of a man.
What I’m saying
may or may not effect how we look at the dogma of Trinity. The classic
explanation is “three separate yet equal persons in God”. I’m saying, Jesus is
in there tight with God in ways that are not abundantly clear to me, but the
Spirit of God is the Power of God,
not a man. It’s that power that leaves God’s “mouth” as he “speaks”, manifested
in the manner in which we see it: like a
bird or divided tongues of fire;
a vision so powerful mere human words can’t describe it.
What more do we
need to read to be convinced that that power exists today. It’s available to us
and God is waiting for us to be open to receiving it. But, should we take part
in that step, what do we do with it? It isn’t what we do with it, it’s how God intended for it to be used for his purpose as described in yet another
Reading you’re likely to hear on Pentecost Sunday; the nine gifts of the Spirit
in 1 Corinthians 4:4-11
4 Now there are varieties of gifts,
but the same
Spirit;
5 and there are varieties of services,
but the same
Lord;
6 and there are varieties of activities,
but it is the
same God who activates all of them in everyone.
7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom,
and to another the
utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the
one Spirit,
10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy,
to another the
discernment of spirits,
to another
various kinds of tongues,
to another the
interpretation of tongues.
11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit,
who allots to
each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
Is the power of God’s breathe handing out gifts left and
right just for those who lived 2000+ years ago, or is it for us too? Is the
breath of God waiting for us to put out our hand (i.e., our openness of mind,
heart, and spirit) to receive any or all as
the Spirit chooses? Do you have any of the nine gifts? Do you want any? Does
it seem a bit spooky? Do our teachers want us to have the gifts? That’s six
questions; turn in your answers please.
Did you notice
the word holy doesn’t accompany the word Spirit in the Acts passage. I wonder
why. It’s the same Greek word (pnuema) as
found where it says Holy Spirit. Apparently there’s different kinds of pnuema.
God activates all of them (gifts) as given through the Spirit. The Spirit
manifested in Acts as tongues as of fire.
Did you hear the word as? Not tongues
of fire but as tongues of fire. Ah,
so our language falls short when it tries to describe an event of supernatural
occurrence: i.e., like a bird; as tongues of fire. In either case, I
take it to be the power of God’s intervention into the event, manifested by a
phenomenon that’s like something we
know but only come close to the actual description, always denoted by the word like or as.
Once a year in
Sunday Readings we hear the events of 2000 years ago. We hear, we listen, we
say Oh how wonderful, and move on to whatever our Sunday afternoon distraction
is; never taking seriously what that event of 2000 years ago means to us/me. It
should mean everything. It should mean I totally expect God to breathe one or
more of the nine gifts upon me in power and it will be transforming,
life-changing, wonderful. It will be wonderful because finally I can be united
and aligned with God’s will for me. I can realize the plan he has for me by
coming to know what it is, so I can walk in it and share it with others without
seeming holier than thou! I can come to know not only is there a God, but he’s
my friend and wants to work with me during my days on earth.
The problem with
the Holy Spirit isn’t the Spirit, it’s how our teachers aren’t teaching the
literal meaning of the words and events of 2000+ years ago and how they apply
today.
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