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 The Leadership of the Holy Spirit |
This refers His primary distinguishing character as a human being to His special relationship to the Spirit of God.
This relationship began under the symbolic descent of a 'dove' upon Him as He arose from the water of John's baptism
which symbol indicated that this characteristic was the human new beginning as the dove had so indicated to Noah.
The Spirit of God is not an attribute or quality of God!
He is the essence of God. |
| "...John [the Baptist] bore witness: 'I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him. I myself did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God [the Messiah/Christ/Anointed]." |
| In the New Testament Jesus is referred to as the 'Christ' about 565 times. It is His primary description. |
for the history of Christian understanding, the fourth century Arian controversy over the deity of Jesus had the unfortunate side-effect of spreading a hierarchical view of the Trinity of God, so that eventually the Holy Spirit came to be seen/downgraded as the 'third person' of the Holy Trinity.
very briefly, the Bible teaches us that the self-humbling of God in His intrinsic plurality (in directly associating Himself with what has a beginning and is therefore infinitely less than the eternal infinity of God) had its focus in the one whom we now call Jesus and who was therefore the channel through which all things were made;
as a consequence of which the one we now call the Father became the focal point of authority over all that is made ('on the Throne');
as a consequence of which the one we now call the Father became the focal point of authority over all that is made ('on the Throne');
and so the Holy Spirit alone therefore is God in His intrinsic eternal mode of unrestrained infinity in the course of history.
Structure of History
reason we are given a perspective in the Bible of this sinless man Jesus being authoritatively led or managed by the Holy Spirit –
| "The Spirit immediately drove (ἐκβάλλω) Him out into the wilderness" |
fulfilling the prophecy of Him, where it is written –
| "...He will come like a rushing stream, which the Wind (רוּח) of the LORD drives (נוּס). And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, declares the LORD." |
Isaiah 59:19-20 ESV.
This strong term ἐκβάλλω is used because the Christ's withdrawal from all human contact immediately after His anointing specifically for His ministry to the people seemed directly contradictory.
This act of the Spirit was the assertion of the Holy Spirit's authority over the man Jesus.
authority of the Holy Spirit is restated for us in the description of the exemplary missionary journey of Paul and Silas –
| "...having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in [the province of] Asia." |
Again, this was in a circumstance where the Holy Spirit's direction seemed illogical, and so it illustrates to us the Holy Spirit's authority over these leaders in the early Christian Church as had been the case in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.
sovereign management of the universe is from the judicial Throne of the Father, flanked by the twenty-four angelic assessors, at the right hand of which is the resurrected man Jesus representing His Church against the accusations of Satan. The Holy Spirit, who stepped into the leadership relationship of Jesus to His disciples at Pentecost (John 15:26) bears that continuing leadership relationship to Christ's Church today, and therefore it is written concerning Christ's coming return for His people to share His resurrection and His rule, that –
| "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.'" |
