Father, help to worship you in spirit and in truth.
When I first saw the title I immediately thought of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It has the same sort of test to find and understand an attribute of God. And like previous studies we first have to define just what we understand by 'spirit'. You often here the phrase "they've got spirit" meaning they've got determination. Unfortunately spirits are often associated with ghosts or other pagan beliefs.
The word spirit in the Bible simply means 'breath'. We have our spirit as long as we breath. It can also mean 'word' or 'thought'. It's very interesting to note that in Genesis 1:2 we read "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" and that God didn't build the heavens and the earth and everything in it, but God said ... and it was created. And probably most importantly, after God created Adam He "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Genesis 2:7)
I'm not sure exactly what the Holy Spirit is. Is it just God's power or his message or his will or something else entirely? There's a few instances in the Bible where the word for God, angel, messenger, prophet or else a person can be interchangeable. Probably this concept led to the idea of the trinity. (And as we're not covering it as a specific topic this year, I'll add a few comments here)
The trinity is the idea that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all one, physically. Jesus said he was doing God's will, as was the Holy Spirit, but that doesn't make them God. It's a bit like thinking the three musketeers must have been one person because they kept saying "One for all and all for one"!The Bible tells us that Jesus was the Son of God, never that Jesus was God. 1 John 4:2 has this to say
"Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:"Yes, Jesus did what God wanted, but that's something we should be trying to do as well.
There's one other aspect of the Holy Spirit that we should cover here, and that is the power which was Jesus gave to the disciples to perform miracles. He had already sent them out to preach and to heal (Luke 9:2) previously, but it was at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit came upon them (Acts 2:3,4). This power wasn't a one off for the Disciples, but it allowed them to do wonderful miracles throughout their preaching. And that's something that we should look forward to, because its also a sign that will happen again, when Jesus returns. (Isaiah 32:15)
Just as God gave Adam life via the Spirit (breath of life) so we must continue in the spirit of glory, love and truth.
Galatians 5:22 "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance:"
What do you understand the Holy Spirit to be?
How can we do the 'works of the spirit'?
I'm going to leave the topic fairly open this week to get your thoughts on the subject.