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Continued from (3- Transformation (Conversion) By beholding we become changed (What is called Antinomianism is not Lawlessness) <- Active Link
2 Corinthians 3:18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.
There are 4 major spiritual concepts being discussed within this Pauline sentence.
1- Having an unveiled face
2- Looking in a mirror at Jesus Christ (Jesus is the very Glory of God / Effulgence or Visible Light)
3- Transformation (Conversion)
4a- The inner working of the Holy Spirit
4b- The inner working of the Holy Spirit
God is the first "humanoid" of "humans". We were made in God's image. God has never not existed.
There is Father. The Infinite, Limitless, Spiritual Being of God which is invisible, yet beyond true capable human comprehension. Within the Father is the very Ghost or Soul or Ruach (Breath, Wind, Spirit). Once upon a time, before humanity began to laugh at the Truth of Spiritual things, it was well known that a "Spirit" is a Living Spiritual Soul. When we call the Father "Spirit", this is not reference to the "Breath, Spirit, Wind" of the Father which is the Father's very Ghost or Soul. When we call the Father "Spirit" it is to say the very Great Spirit that is beyond all that we comprehend. This Sentient Being is utterly limitless and has no restraints but what He chooses. Whatever Omni terms that mankind attempts to pin onto the Great Spirit (Father), no definitions of these terms hold sufficient to describe the Father. They all assume to know how the Father thinks or is or knows or experiences. I'm going to launch a theological nuke. All of the past, current and future definitions of the Omni's of God are total rubbish. They are so far beneath the Father that no words in human vernacular can express just how beneath the Father that they are. This is true and honest. The Father is Living and Breathing. The Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) is the Living Soul of the Father and Son.
There is the Son. The Son IS the Physical Presence of the Infinite, Limitless, Spiritual Being of God the Father. No one has ever seen the Father. Yet, when you see the Son, you have "seen" the Father. God is not a Being of Self Exaltation and Petty Human Authority. God is Love. God is Infinite, Incomprehensible Love of magnitude that again, no words in human vernacular can express the Infinity of God's capacity to Love. God is rooted, by choice in Humility. Of all things that God abhors above all things, it is Pride. If one could travel Infinitely East apart from Infinite West, this is a futile attempt at expressing that to God, Humility is the Sun Rise of His Being. This Humility is infinitely distanced from the concept of Pride. The Son is the very Physical Expression of the Father and the Ruach HaKodesh. The Son is the limitless Physical Substance of God. The Son is Living and Breathing. The same Ruach HaKodesh that is the Soul of the Father is the very same Ruach HaKodesh that is the Soul of the Son.
The Ruach HaKodesh is the very Living Breath of Father and Son. The Soul (Ghost) of God is within the Father and the Son.
In God's image, we were made. We are 3 distinct parts. The Dust of Creation filled with the "Zoe" (Breath of Life) gives birth to our Living Soul. The total union of our parts makes us one living being.
God's 3 aspects are not the union of anything created, but have always been and will never not be. Even as the Son laid dead in the tomb, lifeless for 3 horrible days, no worm nor rot touched the Son. The Father is. The Son is. The Holy Spirit is. As surely as our 3 parts make up one distinct living being, The 3 Infinite aspects of God make up One Distinct Being.
The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Ruach HaKodesh. The Ruach HaKodesh is not the Father. Yet, God is not 3 gods. It is right to say that the 3 are utterly ONE. It is wrong to say that the One is comprised of 3 ONES. It is right to say that the One Monotheistic Living God is of 3 aspects as surely as each of us are comprised of 3 parts.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are EQUAL.
It is a lie to say that ONLY the Father is Great or Lesser.
It would also be a lie to say that ONLY the Son is Great or Lesser.
It would similarly be a lie to say that Only the Ruach HaKodesh is Great or Lesser.
God is GREAT.
There is no way to theologically unpack this responsibly, except to declare the facts. When the Father Suffered the Pain of His precious Son being Tortured to Death and the Son experienced His being Cut off from His Father and being Tortured to Death, the Shared Ruach HaKodesh gained something indescribable. We know this, because God doesn't do foolish idle things. God did what God did for the purpose of Humility, Love and Compassion for all of HIS creation. It was not an act of authority, but HUMILITY. God only exalted His Physical Presence upon successfully demonstrating He, God is rooted in PERFECT HUMILITY. There is no other in all of known and unknown creation that could do this. God, Alone, was capable of doing this.
Beginning from Genesis to Revelation, it is all the same. When you are seeing God, you are seeing THE SON. When you read about the Ruach HaKodesh, you are reading about the Holy Ghost (Spirit). God reveals Himself through His WORKINGS. There is no place in scripture that justly reveals God more specifically than Matthew, Mark, Luke and ESPECIALLY John. Everything before and during the 3 synoptic gospels and John the first apologist is about the Old Covenant or the Prophecy of the New Covenant.
Spiritually in a very distinct way, from the time of Jesus Christ's Ascension to Pentecost, it was similar to when the ONE TRUE Tabernacle (Temple/Body/The Incarnate Son) of God lay in the Tomb. God the Son, filled with the same Holy Soul/Ghost/Spirit that the Father has, went away. The Jewish Temple was void of God. Humanity had the Zoe, but for the time in-between the Ascension and Pentecost, Mankind had no place of worship but to pray to God in Heaven. Before we speak of the Great Miracle called Pentecost, let's speak of the simplicity of the Great Mystery.
Any time that we see God, we are gazing upon the Son. There are only three places in scripture that we Gaze upon the Holy Spirit of God. One is in Genesis, when we See the HOLY SPIRIT of God Hovering above the waters. We can't "see" the Father, yet we see the Spirit through the Holy Ghost, in the Beginning. Once physical description of God begins on earth, we are Seeing the Son. The Son formed Adam. The Son Walked in the Garden. When John the Wild Evangelist Baptizes Jesus, we physically see the Holy Spirit as a Dove hovering. The other place that we "See" the Holy Spirit of God in scripture is when The Son, Who, though cut off from His Father, GIVES UP HIS GHOST and imparts Authority of HIS GHOST to His Father. In that STATE (1 Peter 3:18,19,20) God breaks captives free within Sheol (The unseen realm of the Dead). This same Holy Ghost, by Authority of the Father, Resurrects the Son, on the third Day, and upon that, begins the First Resurrection (Matthew 27:52) which is still going on, to this very day, in my opinion.
Do you see? God speaks from the Infinite Love, Humility and Sincerity of HIS SOUL (True Spiritual Heart). Every Word that proceeds from the Mouth of God is as a Poet, from Soul, gripping at His Spiritual fleshly tender Heart, over ribs with His Right Hand, through marrow of bone to lips, sincerely outpouring the honesty of His very Soul which is forever void of guile and filled with Mature Childlike Innocence.
A gathering of Believers is nothing without the Presence of God. Without God, they are nothing but rotting flesh, with Hope. They are as a man on an operating table in the midst of flatline.
This was the state of the Apostles as they awaited the Comforter.
Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
2 Corinthians 3:18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.
There are 4 major spiritual concepts being discussed within this Pauline sentence.
1- Having an unveiled face
2- Looking in a mirror at Jesus Christ (Jesus is the very Glory of God / Effulgence or Visible Light)
3- Transformation (Conversion)
4a- The inner working of the Holy Spirit
4b- The inner working of the Holy Spirit
4a- The inner working of the Holy Spirit
Isaiah 64:8 Yet Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we all are the work of your hands.
Psalm 138:8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.
The Counselor, The Comforter, The Inner Light, The Holy Soul, The very Seal of our Salvation, The Righteousness of ONLY God, Within
Above all things, I desire to emphasize a most critical point of the "Christian" walk. The word "Christian" was first recorded within scripture in Acts 11:26 but only has one distinct meaning. Christ (ian) means that person has "Turned to Jesus Christ", Who is the very Physical presence of the King of all that exists, seen and unseen, in places known and in places only known to God.God is the first "humanoid" of "humans". We were made in God's image. God has never not existed.
There is Father. The Infinite, Limitless, Spiritual Being of God which is invisible, yet beyond true capable human comprehension. Within the Father is the very Ghost or Soul or Ruach (Breath, Wind, Spirit). Once upon a time, before humanity began to laugh at the Truth of Spiritual things, it was well known that a "Spirit" is a Living Spiritual Soul. When we call the Father "Spirit", this is not reference to the "Breath, Spirit, Wind" of the Father which is the Father's very Ghost or Soul. When we call the Father "Spirit" it is to say the very Great Spirit that is beyond all that we comprehend. This Sentient Being is utterly limitless and has no restraints but what He chooses. Whatever Omni terms that mankind attempts to pin onto the Great Spirit (Father), no definitions of these terms hold sufficient to describe the Father. They all assume to know how the Father thinks or is or knows or experiences. I'm going to launch a theological nuke. All of the past, current and future definitions of the Omni's of God are total rubbish. They are so far beneath the Father that no words in human vernacular can express just how beneath the Father that they are. This is true and honest. The Father is Living and Breathing. The Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) is the Living Soul of the Father and Son.
There is the Son. The Son IS the Physical Presence of the Infinite, Limitless, Spiritual Being of God the Father. No one has ever seen the Father. Yet, when you see the Son, you have "seen" the Father. God is not a Being of Self Exaltation and Petty Human Authority. God is Love. God is Infinite, Incomprehensible Love of magnitude that again, no words in human vernacular can express the Infinity of God's capacity to Love. God is rooted, by choice in Humility. Of all things that God abhors above all things, it is Pride. If one could travel Infinitely East apart from Infinite West, this is a futile attempt at expressing that to God, Humility is the Sun Rise of His Being. This Humility is infinitely distanced from the concept of Pride. The Son is the very Physical Expression of the Father and the Ruach HaKodesh. The Son is the limitless Physical Substance of God. The Son is Living and Breathing. The same Ruach HaKodesh that is the Soul of the Father is the very same Ruach HaKodesh that is the Soul of the Son.
The Ruach HaKodesh is the very Living Breath of Father and Son. The Soul (Ghost) of God is within the Father and the Son.
In God's image, we were made. We are 3 distinct parts. The Dust of Creation filled with the "Zoe" (Breath of Life) gives birth to our Living Soul. The total union of our parts makes us one living being.
God's 3 aspects are not the union of anything created, but have always been and will never not be. Even as the Son laid dead in the tomb, lifeless for 3 horrible days, no worm nor rot touched the Son. The Father is. The Son is. The Holy Spirit is. As surely as our 3 parts make up one distinct living being, The 3 Infinite aspects of God make up One Distinct Being.
The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Ruach HaKodesh. The Ruach HaKodesh is not the Father. Yet, God is not 3 gods. It is right to say that the 3 are utterly ONE. It is wrong to say that the One is comprised of 3 ONES. It is right to say that the One Monotheistic Living God is of 3 aspects as surely as each of us are comprised of 3 parts.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are EQUAL.
It is a lie to say that ONLY the Father is Great or Lesser.
It would also be a lie to say that ONLY the Son is Great or Lesser.
It would similarly be a lie to say that Only the Ruach HaKodesh is Great or Lesser.
God is GREAT.
There is no way to theologically unpack this responsibly, except to declare the facts. When the Father Suffered the Pain of His precious Son being Tortured to Death and the Son experienced His being Cut off from His Father and being Tortured to Death, the Shared Ruach HaKodesh gained something indescribable. We know this, because God doesn't do foolish idle things. God did what God did for the purpose of Humility, Love and Compassion for all of HIS creation. It was not an act of authority, but HUMILITY. God only exalted His Physical Presence upon successfully demonstrating He, God is rooted in PERFECT HUMILITY. There is no other in all of known and unknown creation that could do this. God, Alone, was capable of doing this.
Beginning from Genesis to Revelation, it is all the same. When you are seeing God, you are seeing THE SON. When you read about the Ruach HaKodesh, you are reading about the Holy Ghost (Spirit). God reveals Himself through His WORKINGS. There is no place in scripture that justly reveals God more specifically than Matthew, Mark, Luke and ESPECIALLY John. Everything before and during the 3 synoptic gospels and John the first apologist is about the Old Covenant or the Prophecy of the New Covenant.
Spiritually in a very distinct way, from the time of Jesus Christ's Ascension to Pentecost, it was similar to when the ONE TRUE Tabernacle (Temple/Body/The Incarnate Son) of God lay in the Tomb. God the Son, filled with the same Holy Soul/Ghost/Spirit that the Father has, went away. The Jewish Temple was void of God. Humanity had the Zoe, but for the time in-between the Ascension and Pentecost, Mankind had no place of worship but to pray to God in Heaven. Before we speak of the Great Miracle called Pentecost, let's speak of the simplicity of the Great Mystery.
Any time that we see God, we are gazing upon the Son. There are only three places in scripture that we Gaze upon the Holy Spirit of God. One is in Genesis, when we See the HOLY SPIRIT of God Hovering above the waters. We can't "see" the Father, yet we see the Spirit through the Holy Ghost, in the Beginning. Once physical description of God begins on earth, we are Seeing the Son. The Son formed Adam. The Son Walked in the Garden. When John the Wild Evangelist Baptizes Jesus, we physically see the Holy Spirit as a Dove hovering. The other place that we "See" the Holy Spirit of God in scripture is when The Son, Who, though cut off from His Father, GIVES UP HIS GHOST and imparts Authority of HIS GHOST to His Father. In that STATE (1 Peter 3:18,19,20) God breaks captives free within Sheol (The unseen realm of the Dead). This same Holy Ghost, by Authority of the Father, Resurrects the Son, on the third Day, and upon that, begins the First Resurrection (Matthew 27:52) which is still going on, to this very day, in my opinion.
There is no complexity to this. The Father works through the Son to accomplish things in a much more amazing Fashion than you and I will to lift a glass of water to our lips for a drink. The Pre-Incarnate Theophany that we see all throughout the OT, one day, By the UNIFIED Will of God, was Joined to the very God tended bloodline of humanity, by the immaculate working of the Holy Spirit of God, to the very flesh of God's creation. The Son became Flesh. The Soul of the Son was none other than the very HOLY SPIRIT of God. You must believe and know that the Same Holy Spirit within the Father is within the Son to fully comprehend how amazing Pentecost is. You must believe and know that the Same Holy Spirit within the Son is within the Father to fully grasp where we are going in discussion. (John 14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.)
Do you see? God speaks from the Infinite Love, Humility and Sincerity of HIS SOUL (True Spiritual Heart). Every Word that proceeds from the Mouth of God is as a Poet, from Soul, gripping at His Spiritual fleshly tender Heart, over ribs with His Right Hand, through marrow of bone to lips, sincerely outpouring the honesty of His very Soul which is forever void of guile and filled with Mature Childlike Innocence.
A gathering of Believers is nothing without the Presence of God. Without God, they are nothing but rotting flesh, with Hope. They are as a man on an operating table in the midst of flatline.
This was the state of the Apostles as they awaited the Comforter.
Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
This was a light so bright that it burned like fire. The word "tongues" is employed to denote that this incomprehensible ball of light had movement like licking flames, which split apart and rested over each of the Apostles, waiting for the Comforter. God is making a very MAJOR deal of this provision! It's not some wonky "Active Force". God is displaying HIMSELF as the very FIRE of the Shakina Glory and Burning Bush before Moses. We are the bush that burned before Moses, yet wasn't consumed. The Work, the LITERAL BLOOD, SWEAT and TEARS of Jesus Christ made this Possible!
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
I would like to believe that as this light penetrated their physical being before one another, their very flesh glowed until the Physically manifested Holy Spirit transitioned through Flesh to the Darkness of the Spiritual Human Soul of each of the Apostles.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
I'm going to exegete something that just has to be exegeted. This speaking in tongues is not some language of Angels. These Apostles didn't drop to the ground and start rolling around as if "possessed" by a demon. These Apostles were indeed "Possessed", but not in the Demonic sense. They were bought, paid for, sealed and GRASPED by the Mighty Hand of God. Not only were they GRASSPED, but they were now INDWELLED by the very Holy Spirit of the Lord of lords and King of kings. The Son, by mutual will of God, left His Father Who dwells within eternity, was born a man in this, now, ephemeral World, was Murdered, Resurrected, Ascended and had Satan thrown from Heaven with all of his angelic minions, to the darkness of this passing world and now, has sent, by Will of He, His Father and their Holy Spirit, His Living Holy Spiritual Soul (Ghost) unto all that believe in HIS All Sufficient GOODNESS. The Father and The Son provided. The Holy Spirit was the WILLING Provision.
Once upon a time, mankind tried to build a PHYSICAL KINGDOM that reached God. In Honesty, mankind hasn't ceased this effort. But, it was called the Tower of Babel.
Genesis 11:6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
God's Desire has always been to fellowship with us. He provided EVERYTING for this to happen. Creation can NEVER Afford the Spiritual and Carnal Currency to accomplish this. Spiritual God, the Infinite, always and never not was, created the Carnal, Sarx, Flesh of ALL existence. God drew forth from the Son, all that is. Only Living, Breathing Spiritual God can PROVIDE both Carnal and Spiritual Union of Creation with Creator. Any effort of creation to accomplish this is destructive, futile and rife with evil intentions, no matter how genuine the creation may believe them to be.Through Jesus Christ, God set the Spiritual Foundation of His Kingdom and Jesus Christ (The Son) is the Head of this Kingdom. He is the cornerstone of the Spiritual Kingdom. He is the Head of the BODY (KINGDOM). Upon Pentecost, God literally INDWELLED Believing Humanity and reversed the Babel. The Castle of the KING, (THE BODY OF JESUS CHRIST) is now ever growing more amazing, century after century. We are Temples of God. We, individually are each a brick of the Church. We are the Worshipers who are Grafted INTO the Jesus Christ, who is literally Grafted into our very SOULS in the most REAL, Literal way possible, via the Same Holy Spirit which is the Soul of God the Father and God the Son. The Holy Spirit of Christ now dwells within our very Souls.
Now, the Architect is building HIS spiritual Kingdom with the LANGUAGE OF LOVE.
This concludes Part one of part 4, of this OP series. To be continued, tomorrow.
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