3.4 The Flow of the Spirit - As Word Becoming Us

It is very interesting, now, as we consider the flow of the Spirit, that we realize that we cannot think about the Holy Spirit as separate from us, even in the classroom setting. We never define the Spirit; it is the Spirit who defines us.

When God spoke to me, “You are My son,” that was God speaking, but God’s voice is Jesus, the entrance of hearable word. Nonetheless, I could hear and know such a word as God speaking only by the Spirit already upon me. Thus, as you can see, Jesus was the intermediary between God and me, but the Spirit was on my side of things, causing me to know. The Spirit always comes before the entrance of Word.

Spirit? Let’s dispense with any “fear” regarding the Spirit by paraphrasing Jesus’ comments. “You can mess with Me or God and still be forgiven, but if you mess with the Spirit, then you will give answer to God and Me.”

Then, let’s puzzle again over the meaning of “the Spirit of God.” You see, God the Father, in His transcendence, is Spirit. Nonetheless, this transcendent God also has a Spirit, and the going forth of God’s Spirit is the “lubricating oil,” one might say, the anointing, by and inside of which all things in creation live and move and have their beings. Then, inside of this “Spirit,” angels exist as created spirits distinct in themselves. We cannot fully answer our puzzle, but we know these things are true.

I Am Free. So, I live and move and have my being inside of and by God’s sent-forth Spirit, and I exist in every moment by the Words of power that are Jesus. Yet all of this exists separate from my knowledge and without any attempt to “control” me, thus it appears impersonal. I am still free to receive, or to reject, a Personal Word entering into me, and I am still free to know and live out from, or to refuse and quench, a Personal Spirit anointing me.

Now, the Spirit is the female side of God, that which enables me to receive. And as I ponder these things, I realize that the great issue of the Holy Spirit is TRUST, my trust sinking into God’s Spirit.

Will Make Known. When He, however, might have come, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you inside of all truth; indeed, He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He may hear, He will speak, and the things coming [from God] He will make known to you. All things the Father possesses are Mine; through this I said that He will take out of that which is Mine and will make it known to you (John 16:13-15 – rough JSV).

The key of this incredible passage is the phrase “will make known to you,” which could be translated in this way – “He will give to you the completed declaration.” We could say it this way. God is the Source – Jesus is the spoken and made visible “out from God” – the Spirit completes God’s declaration as us, as our expression.

The Completion. Without realizing it, I just wrote out my understanding of our union with Christ – Union, Communion, Expression. One in union, Source, God Himself – two in communion, Voice, In-Between – one in expression, Spirit, completion.

The point, of course, is God made visible, God seen and known by all. God enjoying His creation as part of His creation. Transcendence – Fellowship – Immanence. Invisible – Heart – Appearance.

The word translated “make known” as the Spirit will make Me known to you, actually means to bring to completion. The Spirit is on my side of this equation, causing me to be the completion of all that God speaks.

Considering “Flow.” Yet here is our title – “The Flow of the Spirit as Words Becoming Us.” Source – Pattern – Flow. Rivers of living water means a Flow. And living water is Word, the words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are life. Sounds are a flow, a continuous movement out over.

Pattern can be fixed, we can consider the pattern as something in itself – a Personal and real Jesus. But flow is never fixed, it is continuous, it is coming upon – The wind blows where it wishes; the sound of it you hear, but do not know from where it comes and to where it goes (John 3:8). He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him.

Our Human Construction. Spirit is one-half of our human construction, of the substance of our form. A human is spirit upon flesh. We know a lot about the physical side of our body, but we know almost nothing about the spiritual side of our body. It’s one body made of two substances, spirit and physic. The physical side is complex; we are free to assume that the spiritual side is also complex, matching the parts of the physical at every point. (We’ll address the words we are using in the next chapter.) My spirit and Jesus’ Spirit are the same one Spirit. Yet this is God’s Spirit. We can understand none of this.

What Does the Spirit? The Spirit flowing out is Kingdom, and since Spirit as Kingdom flows out from our hearts and mouths, it is imprinted with our own personalities, our own likes and dislikes. Human is the expression and appearance of God inside creation. – He who has seen Me has seen the Father.

What flows out, however, must first flow in. And this is what we are attempting to consider. What does this Spirit that flows into us causing us to be the pattern of words that is Jesus? We cannot say, “What is,” but I think we can consider “What does.” You cannot see the wind, but you can see what it does.

A Tapestry. I, a human, am what the Spirit does. My form is the expression side of things. The Spirit is never without words, however. There is no such thing as a “wordless spirit,” just as there is no such thing as a “spiritless word.”

Consider a tapestry. A tapestry actually consists of two parts. The visible part, that beauty of design which people see and enjoy, is mostly the dye, the coloring, the personality. But beneath that picture being presented, there is a fabric, a weave of threads, which supports and gives form to that outer coloring. The color, the picture, is what we are as humans.

The Fabric of Our Existence. And this is really what I am after. The fabric of our existence, the underlying web by which we are held together as an entity inside of a spirit/physic universe, is a flow of Living Spirit Word. But when the Helper comes, whom I will send you in the presence of the Father, the Spirit of truth, who goes forth and is spread abroad in the presence of the Father, He will bear witness concerning Me (John 15).

Our humanity, then, is the testimony that the Spirit bears concerning Jesus as every Word God speaks. This brings us back to TRUST, trust that the Spirit is and that the Spirit does.

Faith and Trust. Faith is the active part of female in aggressively receiving word, but trust is the, not passive, but restful part of female. Faith is the “Let it be so,” and trust is the “It is so.” We are active towards Jesus, but restful towards the Spirit. We trust that the Devoted Spirit, the Spirit of Devotion, is causing us to be the full expression in creation in every moment of every Word God speaks.

This is a PROFOUND trust that never stops going deeper. We sink back into Trust as a continuous flow. And as we sink with utter Trust in Devotion, so the words flowing over us cause us to be what we are – humans.

From the Spirit. Isn’t this what Paul said? Being transformed into the same image from glory into glory, just exactly as from the Spirit of the Lord. This is not a “future event.” This is and has always been our only reality.

Yet God never leaves us out of the equation because of His high regard for us; our part is faith towards Word and trust towards Devotion, knowing that both are always woven together. Word and Devotion woven together are the fabric of our existence, the background, the causation of all that human is and means. The flow of the Spirit as Words becoming us.

The Appearance. If, in reading this lesson, you determine that I bounce around without really knowing what I am talking about, you have determined correctly. Spirit flow is always this kind of a topic, and as we catch the sense of the wind as it blows here or there, so also is the only way by which we know Spirit.

Yet, again, we know wind by what it does, and we know the Spirit the same. You and I, our humanity, is what the Spirit does; we are the appearance of the work of that Flow of Living Spirit Word. We bring forth the life of God through faith, but we exist as humans by TRUST. And trust comes first; the Spirit of Devotion hovers first.