Timeless Truths. What Christians Believe about the Holy Spirit
This post is the last of three Timeless Truths posts that highlight portions of the Apostle's Creed.
The Apostle's Creed is the earliest attempt by the church to codify beliefs.
The Apostle's Creed is the earliest attempt by the church to codify beliefs.
- There were several changes until the 7th Century.
- Christians used it extensively at baptisms.
- It tells Christians What and Who defines us.
- It reminds us of history and predecessors.
- It defines true values that shape and form us by showing how the church/Scripture/God combine in the formation of our beliefs.
This is an "all or none" statement. It is not a cafeteria of choice you can choose or ignore.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Genesis 1:1-2
Then the Lord God formed a man[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
The same term is found in Samuel, Judges, etc., throughout the Old and New Testaments.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me. (Psalm 51:11)
Mary is found pregnant through the Holy Spirit--the Breath of God.
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18
The Spirit gives life.
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[e] and life.
John 6:63
The Spirit is Counselor/Spirit of Truth and Makes God Known to Us
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. ...
"When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Faither--the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. John 14:16-17, 15:26
- Advocate above is Counselor in several translations. Both terms refer to a helper or assistant.
- The term Spirit below is the same as above and has to do with making God known.
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” John 16:12-15
Elsewhere in the New Testament, the Spirit is the Giver of life and the Power enabling us to live as followers of God here on Earth.
The Spirit In Action
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commandedme, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
Ezekiel 37:1-14
At the time Ezekiel wrote the above, Judah existed as a small community in Babylon.
They had the FORM of being God's people without the LIFE of being God's people.
The bones in the valley--like Adam in Genesis 2:7--had the form but not the life until God's breath came upon them.
God tell Ezekiel that His Breath with come and bring life to the lifeless bones.
There is life beyond the form of Christianity, but only when the Holy Spirit is present!
God needs you to go beyond form.
Invite the Holy Spirit into your life
so you can go out and
live as God's people through God's power.
Thanks to Rev. Beverly Stanton Cook for the primary teaching in this blog.
The next Timeless Truth: What Christians Belive about Jesus
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