Tag: Isaiah

  • The Holy Spirit IS that I AM

    The Holy Spirit IS that I AM

    The Holy Spirit IS.
    I am the Spirit of God.
    I am the LORD.


    The HOLY SPIRIT of Trinity

    Glory be to God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit

    Who IS God?

    It’s a question we all ask and a familiar question asked by many souls before us.

    Moses said to God,

    “If I go to the Israelites and tell them,

    The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’

    and they ask me, What is his name?’ – what should I say to them?”


    JESUS asked His Apostles a rhetorically similar question:

    And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

    τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ

    And Peter answered and said, “The [Messiah] Christ of God.”


    The Apostle Matthew’s Gospel witnesses this same relational answer of his fellow Apostle Peter:

    God our Father and Lord

    Trinity = God the Father + God the Son Jesus Christ + God the Holy Spirit

    We get it humanly – the relationship of a son (or daughter) to a father (or to our mother).

    Human AND ever-existing SON

    Mortal men and women can relate to a Son of THE FATHER.

    We understand, in part, that JESUS was flesh and blood, body and brain a perfect human son of man (Mary, actually: ‘man‘ as in human like all of us).

    John, the Apostle who speaks so well relationally in the witness of his Gospel tells us:

    But these [signs, proofs or miracles] are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

    The Twelve, having loved their friend and Master whom they followed willingly, understood a relational link between JESUS and each of His disciples personally.

    When the Lord in so many ways showed His Disciples His ever-existing relationship to Almighty God our Father — HIS Father from before the beginning — they could not have been more awe struck that GOD stood in their human presence.

    My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

    My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

    I and my Father are one.

    We get that - in a human sense of relationship.

    Jesus and Spirit

    Yet think from the witness of any of the Twelve of the impact of JESUS, the living Christ they follow, telling His disciples: “I and the Father are One.”

    Just like all faithful Jews, these disciples had recited the Sh'ma since their childhood:

    Sh’ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad

    שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד׃

    Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:


    Even so, the Disciples had heard their Master instruct Nicodemus, a leader of the Sanhedrin:

    Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

    That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

    John’s Gospel continues with Jesus’ further explanation of the Spirit:

    • Although mankind is flesh and blood, created from dust and water,
    • and Man is created in God’s image;
    • Man, LIKE GOD, is also spirit.

    What is Spirit?

    John begins his Gospel with Jesus (the Word) and the Spirit.

    John’s clear reference is the beginning written in the word of Moses:

    בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ׃

    וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהֹום וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם׃

    JESUS, THE WORD, WAS WITH GOD AND WAS GOD — ‘hovering over ‘a waste and emptiness,’ in the darkness over a face of the deep



    Spirit [spirit] – rûaḥ – רוּח

    • The KJV translates Strong’s H7307 in the following manner: Spirit or spirit (232x), wind (92x), breath (27x), (various additional)
    • Two additional uses in Genesis show both the Spirit of God and His quickening spirit in His creatures, including mankind:
      • And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; – Gen. 6:3a NKJV
      • And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life.. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. – Gen. 7:15,22 NKJV

    COMMENTARY


    Man cannot grasp the whirlwind or the unseen breath of God, yet JESUS, who IS One with the Father tells us:

    God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”


    πνεῦμα – pneuma in the New Testament

    Spirit in the New Testament – basically has the same meaning AND is just as mysterious, illusive as the breath of angels. – RH

    spirit in a living soul
    • the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated
      • the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides
      • the soul
    How do you think of your own spirit? 

    “Blessed are the poor in spirit,

    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

    Gospel of Matthew 5:3 LSB from the Beatitudes of Jesus Christ

    Consider a mysterious ethereal truth: observable, yet beyond measure of man's contemporary thought. 
    
    spirits apart from your own mortal soul
    • a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting
      • a life giving spirit
      • a human soul that has left the body
      • a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel
        • used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men
        • the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ

    spirit and soul alike, yet distinct

    Before proceeding to the more powerful and most mysterious Holy Spirit of God, 

    consider beyond flesh and blood, mind and spirit --
    that which is the same in Old and New Testaments, yet having subtle ungraspable distinction: spirit and soul.

    We hear it also in the heart of Isaiah, a Prophet of God:

    With my soul [nep̄eš] I have desired You in the night,
    Yes, by my spirit [rûaḥ] within me I will seek You early;
    For when Your judgments are in the earth,
    The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

    • soul – psychē – NT Greek
    • soul – nep̄eš – נֶפֶשׁ – OT Hebrew

    the HOLY Spirit

    Although related to spirit, we cannot examine the soul today as part of our brief topic of the Trinity and Holy Spirit.

    Spirit – rûaḥ or pneuma

    Spirit of God, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son

    1. as inspiring ecstatic state of prophecy
    2. as impelling prophet to utter instruction or warning
    3. imparting warlike energy and executive and administrative power
    4. as endowing men with various gifts
    5. as energy of life
    6. as manifest in the Shekinah glory
    7. never referred to as a depersonalised force

    Gospel of Matthew 1:18 NKJV

    Simply the human beginning of the son of man (Mary, a virgin, that is; bearing a second adam in the line of God’s created ones).

    Certainly mysterious, controversial to this day to the psyches and spirits of mortal men and women who resist the Spirit of God.


    πνεῦμα – pneuma – spirit OR ghost


    As mysterious as Ghost or the Spirit may be to mankind, its root word [Strong’s G4154 – pneō] directs our thoughts

    • to breathe hard, i.e. breeze:—blow (of the wind)

    Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

    Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’

    The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

    The HOLINESS of God

    GOD IS HOLY text of Deuteronomy 6:13

    NO mention of Trinity is absent the key concept of HOLY in reference to the HOLY GHOST or the HOLY SPIRIT.

    We have examined the doctrines of Holiness previously:

    DOCTRINE: GOD IS HOLY

    I encourage you in the spirit to pray with ears to hear the Holy Spirit of the Lord God, who IS ONE with the Father and the Son our savior Jesus Christ.


    Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

    God has raised this Jesus to life, to which we are all witnesses.

    Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

    God LORD Father JESUS Son Holy Spirit

  • ANNOUNCEMENT of the Testimony of GOD

    ANNOUNCEMENT of the Testimony of GOD

    And I, when I came to you, brethren, came not in excellency of word, or wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of God.

    1 Corinthians 2:1 DBY

    Further rebuke of CHRISTIAN MINISTERS

    Google Earth map near Corinth. "We preach Christ Crucified

    The Apostle Paul begins NOT with a reminder of his considerable credentials but with an apologia for God’s evidence in Christ crucified and risen.

    1 Corinthians 2:

    I did not come with superiority of word or of wisdom [sophia]..

    Superiority, (elevation, pre-eminence, excellence in) Wisdom would have been what many Hellenists in Corinth might have expected in Paul.

    Note that the Apostle’s approach of rebuke of his Corinthian ‘brothers’ in the faith relies ONLY on the Authority of Almighty God. NOT speech (logos), NOT of wisdom [sophia], but an ANNOUNCEMENT and PROCLAIMATION.

    proclaiming to you the witness of God.

    καταγγέλλω – katangellō

    to announce, declare, promulgate, make known, to proclaim publicly, publish

    Strong’s G2605 – katangellō – BlueLetterBible.org

    AND shortly Paul will ask these Corinthian believers:

    For who among men knows the depths of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?

    1 Corinthians 2:11a LSB

    Even so the depths of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.


    testimony – μαρτύριον – martyrion

    The APOSTLE of the RISEN CHRIST JESUS is providing ‘something evidential, i.e. (genitive case) evidence given or (specially), the Decalogue (in the sacred Tabernacle):—to be testified, testimony, witness.

    Paul has already written his thanks to God for the Corinthians, ‘even as the witness G3142 about Christ was confirmed in you1 Cor 1:6


    DO YOU FEAR GOD?

    Here is my testimony as Christ's apostle to you, my Corinthian brothers and sisters in the Lord:

    Jesus Christ, and Him crucified

    And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my word and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power..


    Listen to some of the descriptions Paul uses here for their condition:

    • WEAKNESS of the body: its native weakness and frailty, feebleness of health or sickness
    • of the soul: want of strength and capacity requisite
      • to understand a thing
      • to do things great and glorious
      • to restrain corrupt desires
      • to bear trials and troubles
    • φόβος – phobosFEAR, dread, terror
    • MUCH TREMBLING
      • quaking with fear
      • with fear and trembling, used to describe the anxiety of one who distrusts his ability completely to meet all requirements,
        • but religiously does his utmost to fulfil his duty
    Does this description of the Apostle Paul (who rebukes these Corinthians) resemble the pastoral approach of the ministers of YOUR church in any way?

    for ministers mature in Christ

    Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten.

    1 Corinthians 2:6 NLT – Paul’s ‘word to the wise,’ mature ministers of God’s word

    Jesus taught followers to be mature

    “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

    “And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

    “Therefore you are to be perfect G5046, as your heavenly Father is perfect G5046.

    Gospel of Matthew 5:38 LSB

    Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete G5046, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

    Matthew 19:21 LSB

    PAUL writes to the Corinthians who are MATURE ministers of the Lord to “be PERFECT,” become COMPLETE in your TESTIMONY of GOD.


    the Mystery of God’s Wisdom

    No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, (we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery ) which He destined for our glory before time began.

    8 None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 Rather, as it is written:

    “No eye has seen,

    no ear has heard,

    no heart has imagined,

    what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

    Isaiah 64:4

    But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit.
    The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

    1 Corinthians 2:10 Berean Study Bible

    How are mature ministers of God different?

    The relationship of God and Man can become a Spirit to spirit love in Christ our Lord.

    14 The natural [psychikos] person does not accept the things of the Spirit [pneuma ] of God, for they are folly [foolishness] to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. – ESV

    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.

    And 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.

    1 Corinthians 2:12-13 BSB

    Natural human? OR Spiritual minister?

    • a natural man [anthrōpos] does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God
    • 15 The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment.

    The Apostle again returns to the Prophet Isaiah:

    16“For who has known the mind of the Lord [LORD or kyrios – ],

    he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord

    so as to instruct Him?”

    The APOSTLE here rebukes ministers of the church to be complete or mature in the Lord Jesus Christ:

    But we have the mind of Christ.

    1 Corinthians 2:16b BSB
    Paul will later mention Peter's testimony (1 Cor 15).

    Christ Crucified AND Risen!

    Then He opened their minds G3563 to understand the Scriptures…

    Gospel of Luke 24:45 LSB

    Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God..

    11 He tends His flock like a shepherd;

    He gathers the lambs in His arms

    and carries them close to His heart.

    He gently leads the nursing ewes.

    Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

    or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand?

    Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,

    or weighed the mountains on a scale

    and the hills with a balance?

    Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD *,

    or informed Him as His counselor?

    Isaiah 40:13 BSB
    *Or mind of the LORD in the Septuagint (LXX)

    NEXT: Meat for Ministers

    and Milk for New Babes

    and we — we have the mind of Christ. And I, brethren, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly — as to babes in Christ..

    1 Corinthians 2:16b-3:1 – Young’s Literal Translation


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  • King for a Common Era Holy Week 3

    King for a Common Era Holy Week 3

    KING jesus! KING jesus! KING jesus!

    Gospel of Matthew 21:

    Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

    Gospel of Matthew 21:14 – New King James Version
    first century AD Jerusalem

    Today in Jerusalem

    ~ A.D. 30

    another account of a fictional witness 

    • SUNDAY had been a day with a festive parade into town by our savior KING.

    HOSANNA! King Jesus! Thank God for our conquering KING!

    In case you missed my account from SUNDAY:

    • MONDAY everybody was asking, “Who is this?”
    • Will this KING jesus now conquer our captors?

    Every Jew coming to the festival knew all-to-well of our obligation to buy a kind of kosher indulgence.


    We tried to follow this KING

    ALL of Jerusalem was abuzz with this Jesus, who had ridden into our captive city like a KING! And this Son of Man (as he called himself) began the day overturning tables of moneychangers and chasing merchants and animals out of the Temple courts!

    Of course the Temple police appeared (though unprepared for such a disturbance as this), then pharisees and priests and scribes, even the chief priests.

    In fact — they WITNESSED the marvelous miracles, signs of JESUS’s power from God!

    .. and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” 

    Gospel of Matthew 21:15b New King James Version – witness of Jesus in the Temple

    Rather than praising GOD as even the children were now doing, THEY BECAME INDIGNANT.

    One of them said to him (I think it was a chief priest):

     “Do You hear what these are saying?”

    YES, this Jesus answered him AND then quoted a familiar Psalm.

    “Yes, Have you never read,

    ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
    You have perfected praise’?”

    Gospel of Matthew 25:16 NKJV – Jesus’ response to children singing about Him

    By now a few more Legions became clearly visible in the distance, yet the Temple police seemed to be nowhere in sight.

    Roman squad of Legions

    In general the crowds were JOYFUL and above all praising the healings which Jesus had been doing for some who came to Him.

    This irked the officials of the Sanhedrin, although they now turned away from making any trouble today for this Son of Man and Son of David, who some zealots in the multitudes were urging to be KING.


    This Jesus slipped out through the crowds quickly and headed toward a gate leading to the road to Bethany.

    an earlier Passover

    I'm trying to recall if it was last year [A.D. 29] or the year before that I had heard from someone that this was not unusual for this humble Nazarian Rabbi.

    Jesus had shown signs to more than five thousand men near Nazareth.

    Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said,

    “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

    Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

    Gospel of John 6:14-15 NKJV

    Why would the Son of David who rode into Jerusalem like KING DAVID leave to stay in Bethany overnight, I wondered?

    To be continued.. God-willing…

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