TrinityC22. Proverbs 8:22-31. Here God’s wisdom is portrayed as a co-worker, attribute or child of God that has a life of its own that works in conjunction with or united to God. God’s wisdom delighted in and greatly enjoyed seeing the results of its craftsmanship in fashioning the human race and working in the human race. As viewed here, Wisdom seems to reflect something of the person and working of the Holy Spirit.

John 16:12-15. “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.’” My understanding of what Jesus means when he says “you cannot bear it now” is that at that point in their faith or religious development they were not prepared to grasp emotionally and intellectually additional aspects of the fullness of what God wanted to reveal to them. As lessons are given to students in a gradated way through the many years they are in school, so too development in what God wants to grow or mature in us requires an ongoing gradual building process.

Then Jesus says, “But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” To be guided by the Spirit requires that we make it a daily habit to be in touch and in communion with the Spirit; that is, we ought to be people of prayer. Notice also that the possession of truth by the Godhead is something that is shared from the Father to the Son and then to the Holy Spirit, belonging to each Person of the Trinity separately and to whole Godhead as one.

Romans 5:1-5. “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Daily the Spirit fills us with the love of God that enables us to live a spiritual life that is infinitely beyond just a physical animal bodily life. Because of the spiritual life in him, Paul was able to turn the many afflictions he endured into that spiritual character of life called holiness. In union with the Spirit we can all grow in the Lord no matter what difficulties befall us in daily life.