The Christian belief in the Trinity says that God holds all things in positive relationship. Paul says it this way: “17 He Himself is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” Colossians 1:17. This tells me that as long as we’re in honest and loving relationship with God who what is right in front of us, the Spirit can keep working in us and through us and for us.
Jesus comes as a vulnerable baby, totally dependent upon relationship with others. Such vulnerability means that we are going to let another influence and change us. When we don’t give other people any power or influence over our lives, when we block them by thinking we can stand alone, or that another can’t change us or teach us anything, we are spiritually dead. Perhaps one of the great lessons we all need to learn in 2025 is this: Nothing — No One — Stands Alone. And it’s true! We are in some ways intrinsically like the Trinity, living in an absolute relatedness. This is what we call love.
We really were made for love, and outside of love we die very quickly.
We are not ourselves without love. We dry up! If we are going to understand the Trinity, then loving relationship is the pattern, the very nature of being for us. I’ve been a pastor for more than 40 years and can say that so many Christians seem to be afraid of God. But we Christians aren’t necessarily more loving than anyone else; sometimes, we’re even less loving than other people! In some ways, that’s inevitable if we’re basically relating to God out of fear, and we haven’t been drawn into the love between the Father and the Son by the Spirit. Many believe God is very far away — watching.
But Jesus says the Spirit is always with us, and yet the Spirit is the hardest to describe, because “the Spirit blows where it will” (see John 3:8). Jesus’ message to us is clear: don’t ever try to control the Spirit and say where it comes from, where it goes, or who has it. It’s called complete narcissism to believe and say that our group is the only one that has the Spirit or the Truth. Every group at less mature levels will try to put God in their own pocket and say God only loves their group. I’ve see that happen! Such a belief has nothing to do with the love of God. It isn’t a search for Truth or Holy Mystery, but a search for control. It’s the search for the small self, the search to make myself feel superior and to stand alone. I’m not in control or in charge of this Holy Mystery. I don’t presume to understand. All I know is that I’m forever being drawn — through everything — each manifestation (epiphany) calling me to surrender, to communion, and to divine intimacy.
Symbolic of all of us, the “three wise men” — the Magi — traveled long distances from their native religion and country to bow down fittingly before such an unknown Holy Mystery. It always leads to another Epiphany.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” John 14:26.
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words”
Romans 8:26.
“And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord” Isaiah 11:12.
“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” Luke 11:13!
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you” John 16:12-15.
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