The Trinity and the Holy Spirit

[Clintos]

I feel like I was touched by the Holy Spirit. I am currently looking for info on the Trinity, particularly the Holy Spirit. I currently believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And wanted to know what others believe and ask some questions about some day joining a church. Just wanted to know what church best fits my beliefs, if one exists.

 

[1watchman]

You can learn more about the Holy Spirit, trinity, and church truth at the sound site: www.biblecounsel.homestead.com. One can ask questions there and see something of what God intends for His testimony in the world. Look up always!

 

[Sarah G]

The Holy Trinity seems to be a confusing thing! I attended (and was baptised in a) Wesleyan Methodist church and then attended an Evangelical church as a child but we always had Jehovah Witness material (including their version of the Bible) at home and I read those books a lot so I think I got mixed up. Then I followed a false religion for twenty years and on returning to Christianity still seem to get in a mess with the Holy Trinity sometimes. As with many other topics, asking on CF can lead to 50 conflicting responses and one gets no further in understanding. Yesterday I saw a post on CF about the Holy Trinity and after studying it for five minutes determined it to be correct and edifying, gave it a thumbs up and then read a zillion comments about why it was incorrect!
I tend to use Got Questions as a general authority and pray that the Holy Spirit will convict me if I am going off course. The Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the spirit of God and Lord Jesus Christ within us, guiding us in our journey to become sanctified (I think?!).
Question: "What are some popular illustrations of the Holy Trinity?"

Answer: Illustrating the Trinity is a noble goal, but it is ultimately an exercise in futility. Theologians through the centuries have wracked their brains in a quest to formulate a doctrinally sound, fully satisfying illustration of the Triune Godhead. What stymies their efforts is the fact that God is transcendent, and some of His qualities are unknowable (Isaiah 55:8–9).

Trinity is the theological term applied to God to indicate His perpetual existence as three distinct Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) who nevertheless remain one indivisible God. The concept of a Triune God is more than difficult to comprehend—it’s impossible to comprehend, for the simple reason that we have nothing in our world that has a corresponding existence. Humans, the most complex creatures we know of, exist as single persons, not as unified multiples.

Despite the fact that nothing in our world can fully illustrate the Holy Trinity, teachers and theologians through the years have offered several analogies drawn from the realms of nature and mathematics in order to help explain the unexplainable. Here are a few of the illustrations:

One popular and simple illustration of the Trinity is the egg. A chicken egg consists of a shell, a yolk, and an egg white, yet it is altogether one egg. The three parts create a unified whole. The shortfall of this illustration, and others like it, is that God cannot be divided into “parts.” The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one in essence, but the same cannot be said for the shell, yolk, and white of an egg.

A similar illustration uses the apple: the fruit’s skin, flesh, and seeds all comprise the apple, just as the Father, Son, and Spirit all comprise God. This illustration has the same weakness as the egg illustration, namely, the parts of the apple, considered independently, are not the apple. By contrast, each Person of the Trinity, taken independently, is still God.
More here: What are some popular illustrations of the Holy Trinity?

The doctrine of the Trinity has been a divisive issue throughout the entire history of the Christian church. While the core aspects of the Trinity are clearly presented in God’s Word, some of the side issues are not as explicitly clear. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God—but there is only one God. That is the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. Beyond that, the issues are, to a certain extent, debatable and non-essential. Rather than attempting to fully define the Trinity with our finite human minds, we would be better served by focusing on the fact of God's greatness and His infinitely higher nature. “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” (Romans 11:33-34).

More here: What does the Bible teach about the Trinity?

What does the Holy Spirit do?
First, the Holy Spirit does many things in the lives of believers. He is the believers’ Helper (John 14:26). He indwells believers and seals them until the day of redemption—this indicates that the Holy Spirit’s presence in the believer is irreversible. He guards and guarantees the salvation of the ones He indwells (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30). The Holy Spirit assists believers in prayer (Jude 1:20) and “intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (Romans 8:26–27).
The Holy Spirit regenerates and renews the believer (Titus 3:5). At the moment of salvation, the Spirit baptizes the believer into the Body of Christ (Romans 6:3). Believers receive the new birth by the power of the Spirit (John 3:5–8). The Spirit comforts believers with fellowship and joy as they go through a hostile world (1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2 Corinthians 13:14). The Spirit, in His mighty power, fills believers with “all joy and peace” as they trust the Lord, causing believers to “overflow with hope” (Romans 15:13).

Sanctification is another work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. The Spirit sets Himself against the desires of the flesh and leads the believer into righteousness (Galatians 5:16–18). The works of the flesh become less evident, and the fruit of the Spirit becomes more evident (Galatians 5:19–26). Believers are commanded to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), which means they are to yield themselves to the Spirit’s full control.

The Holy Spirit is also a gift-giver. “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them” (1 Corinthians 12:4). The spiritual gifts that believers possess are given by the Holy Spirit as He determines in His wisdom (verse 11)
More here: What does the Holy Spirit do?

 

[Radagast]

Just wanted to know what church best fits my beliefs, if one exists.

You'd have to explain more, but joining just about any church is better than joining none.

 

[lettuce]

I feel like I was touched by the Holy Spirit.

In Romans 5, the Apostle Paul writes that the Holy Spirit's job, in a believer's life, is to show them the love the Father has for them. When you were touched, the Holy Spirit went into the deepest part of your heart to show you how much you are loved. Did you experience an inexplicable joy? 1 Peter 1:8.

The Holy Spirit will touch you often to remind you how much you are loved, Romans 5:5.

Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost! Romans 14:17.

 

[DreamerOfTheHeart]

I feel like I was touched by the Holy Spirit. I am currently looking for info on the Trinity, particularly the Holy Spirit. I currently believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And wanted to know what others believe and ask some questions about some day joining a church. Just wanted to know what church best fits my beliefs, if one exists.

They are all one. But, also distinct, though the Spirit is said to also be the Spirit of the Father and the Son, which the Spirit is.

The Holy Spirit is the Comforter. Jesus is the Teacher. And, the Father is the Master.

I think of them as family. They are like a human family, but also very different, as 'God's ways are higher then mortal human ways as the Heavens are higher then the earth'.

 

[ViaCrucis]

I feel like I was touched by the Holy Spirit. I am currently looking for info on the Trinity, particularly the Holy Spirit. I currently believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And wanted to know what others believe and ask some questions about some day joining a church. Just wanted to know what church best fits my beliefs, if one exists.

Outside of Scripture itself, obviously, the best sources are going to be the historic confessions of faith of the Christian Church, namely the Creeds. Here is what the Nicene Creed has to say about the Holy Spirit,

"We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. Who proceeds from the Father [and the Son], and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. He spoke through the prophets."

So this relatively short statement actually says a lot.

1. The Holy Spirit is Lord. Which is to say, He is truly and really God, even as the Father and Son are God.

2. The Holy Spirit is the giver of life, or in Greek ζῳοποιόν (zoopoion), the One who creates life, makes alive, etc.

3. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father [and the Son]. This is perhaps more complicated by the fact that you'll notice "and the Son" being used in square brackets, and that's a really complicated piece of history that may be best discussed elsewhere. But what is meant by "proceeds" here is that even as the Son is generated (begotten) from the Father, sharing in the Father's own Being and Essence as God; so here the Holy Spirit proceeds, sometimes we use the word "spirated" as in, the Holy Spirit is breathed out by the Father [and the Son], and this is eternal, without beginning. Such that the Holy Spirit is the eternal and uncreated Spirit of God.

4. The Holy Spirit is to be worshiped and glorified as very and real God, just as the Father and Son are worshiped and glorified as very and real God--the same God. The Holy Spirit is God, just as the Father and Son are, and is thus worthy of all glory, adoration, praise, and worship as the one true and living God.

5. The Holy Spirit is the One who spoke through the ancient prophets, gave voice to the ancient prophets, and inspired all Scripture.

Herein we see that the Holy Spirit is truly and really God. He is God with the Father and with the Son. One with the Father and the Son in the undivided Being of God. So that we can always say there is only one God, and the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity are con-substantially God, the one and only. What the Father is, the Son is, and the Spirit also.

-CryptoLutheran