“The Spirit of Life In Christ Jesus”

… a 12-part study series

By Arthur J. Licursi

A closer look at who and what

“the Spirit of God” is

as “the Holy Spirit”

in the Christian’s experience

Galatians 5:25 Since we have life by the Spirit,

let our conduct also be governed by the Spirit's power.

(A Transliteration by A. J. Licursi)

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Part 1 of 12 – Introduction – The Invisible God

I’ve written often about the Spirit but I felt led to dig a little deeper in this series.

The Bible makes clear that God is the original living, thinking, invisible, spirit. God, as creator, is the father of all forms of life and as the creator He is the father of all spirits (Eph 4:6).

We need to look closer at who and what “the Spirit of God” is as “the Holy Spirit.”

·         “Holy” signifies the absolute separateness and distinction of the Holy Spirit from all that is creaturely and worldly. “Holy” is essentially the equivalent of that which is divine, identifying the Holy Spirit as God. (taken from The New American Standard Bible)

·         The Hebrew word for “Spirit” in the New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary is “ruwach” (roo’-akh); from OT:7307; OT:7306; wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. a sensible (or even violent) exhalation;

This definition of the word “Spirit” as “wind,” etc. identifies a being in movement or activity. The Holy Spirit, also called “the Spirit of the Lord,” “the Spirit of God,” “the Spirit,” etc., is God Himself as being active, as a living being. The term “spirit” carries the basic meaning of a living power, so the expression the “Holy Spirit” represents God especially in His creative life-giving and energizing activity.

Can men see God with their eyes? Did Old Testament men actually see God?

God is an invisible Spirit (Col 1:15). “God is not a man,” according to Numbers 23:19 and Job 9:32. Jesus testified that “a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have,” (Luke 24:39).

Paul here writes that God is the only everlasting life and He, being invisible, dwells in unapproachable light.

1 Timothy 6:16a (God) Who only (alone) hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can “approach” unto...

Yet, by the now revealed “mystery, which is Christ in you” (Col 1:27) all believers are partakers of God’s immortal life (Jn 3:16, 1John 5:11-12), and being “in Christ” all believers may “boldly approach the throne of God” (Heb 4:16). For those “in Christ,” the great gulf between God and man has been bridged.

Is God a “voice in the wind”? Adam and Eve heard a “voice” walking in the “cool (Hebrew: ruah, wind) of the day,” (Genesis 3:8). The invisible God manifested Himself to Adam and Eve as a voice in the wind. Nothing in the scripture suggests that the voice came from any particular “body”; it came from thin air. This is in the same manner that a voice was later heard; by the young child Samuel (1 Samuel 3:2), by John the Baptist (Luke 3:22), and by Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:4) when he heard Jesus from heaven.

Also, “The Lord spake with Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to a friend,” in Exodus 33:11. Even though God was “face to face” with Moses, Moses did not actually see a face. “Thou canst not see my (God’s) face; for there shall no man see me” (Exodus 33:20). The only physical manifestation was a “cloud” (Exodus 34:5). The cloud obviously did not satisfy Moses, so he said, “Shew me thy glory,” (Exodus 33:18) to which God replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee,” (Exodus 33:22-23). “And the LORD descended in the CLOUD, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. ⁶ And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,” (Exodus 34:5-6) Was God’s glory or goodness seen in a body-form or seen in a “cloud”?

God put Moses in a “clift of the rock” and said He would “cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen,” (Exodus 33:22-23). Moses never saw God. God said His “hand” would “cover” Moses. How could God’s hand cover Moses, and how could an invisible Spirit extend a “hand”? Exodus 34:5-6 goes on to describe exactly what happened: “And the Lord descended IN the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him...” The hand of the Lord must have been the cloud, because that is all Moses saw. Moses did not actually view God. You can look as much as you like for a description of what Moses “saw,” but there is absolutely no evidence that Moses saw any literal physical body-form of God at all; only a cloud.

According to Christian tradition, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, the Godhead, which consists of the Father, the Word or the Son, and the Holy Spirit (1 John. 5:7). It has been taught since the Nicene Council of 325 AD that the Holy Spirit consists of three distinct personalities that agree in one.

Yet, this accepted Trinity structure of the Godhead as “three distinct personalities,” rather than as three states of being, seems to create more questions than it answers in the Christians’ minds. Among many, it seems to create the idea of three God’s rather than “One God” and “One Spirit” as Paul states clearly in Ephesians 4:4.

We will proceed to look further to find a better understanding of the invisible God as well as the practicality of the triune God who is “the Spirit.”