THE CODE 16 AUGUST 2025 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition Allow me the privilege of introducing you to the Holy Spirit. Perhaps there has never been another person as misrepresented and misunderstood as He. He is not some mysterious, nebulous force that can be equated to the famous Star Wars saying, "May the Force be with you." Nor, for those who know something of the Bible, did He show up on the scene for the first time on the day of Pentecost in an upper room on Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit is God Let's begin with a foundational statement. The Holy Spirit is God. One of the foundational truths of orthodox Christianity is the belief that God is one, and yet He eternally exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In theological Jargon this is called the Trinity, three in one, and it is a great mystery. It has been revealed to us in various ways through the Bible but can be challenging to wrap our minds around. I have come to the conclusion that If I could understand all there is to know about the Godhead in my own limited mind, there would not be much to it. It is simply a theological truth that manifests itself from the first chapter of Genesis to the end of the book of Revelation, and because it is rooted in sacred Scripture, must be taken by faith. Many have attempted to explain the reality of the Trinity through metaphors and analogies, but none of them are completely valid. He was from the beginning Some believe that the Father is the God of the Old Testament, the Son, Jesus Christ, is the God of the Gospels, and the Holy Spirit is the God of the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament. But this is heretical thinking. Jesus did not just show up in the manger at Bethlehem. He was from the beginning. Neither did the Holy Spirit just show up at Pentecost. He was there from the beginning. We cannot separate the Godhead. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one… three in one. They always have been, and They always will be. There are 31,102 verses in the Bible, and the Holy Spirit shows up in the first two: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:1-2). He was there way back in the beginning at creation, "hovering over the face of the waters " In fact, there has never been a time when the Holy Spirit was not here manifesting the mighty presence and power of God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all were active in creation It is said of the Father that "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). It is said of the Son that "In the beginning was the Word All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made" (John 1:1,3) So that we might never be confused as to the identity of this "Word," John went on to add, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Further, as mentioned above, the Holy Spirit, being a member of this triune God, was there as well, doing His part in the creation event. One God manifested in three persons Repeated in every Jewish synagogue all over the world in every Sabbath service is the Shema, the Jewish confession of faith: "Hear, 0 Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one!" (Deuteronomy 6.4) This confession is immediately followed by what Jesus referred to in the New Testament as the greatest commandment, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength" (Deuteronomy 6:5) As followers of Christ, our Messiah, we affirm this truth-the Lord is one! Yet Scripture is clear in revealing that this one God is manifested to us in three persons* the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul made this crystal clear in his benediction to the church in Corinth: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14). Jesus made this emphatic claim in dialogue with the Jews when He said bluntly, "I and My Father are one" (John 10:30). Earlier, at Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River, Matthew recorded, "When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3:1617) As Jesus, the Son, stood in the waters of baptism, the Father spoke from heaven, and the Spirit descended like a dove. Then as Jesus was about to physically leave us and just before He ascended, He left us with a Great Commission: "Go therefore and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). Thus, we join our Jewish friends in confessing the Shema, "The Lord our God, the Lord is one!" But we understand that this God is the great Three in One, manifesting Himself to Us in all His glory as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has always been at work in our lives. It is He who convicts us, converts us, commends us, commands us, consoles us and comforts us. It is He who ultimately completes us. The Holy Spirit knows everything there is to know about us. He is an essential part of our journey toward finding the fullness of joy in life Taken from The Spirit Code by O.S. Hawkins. Copyright © 2024 by Dr. O.S. Hawkins. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. O. S. Hawkins is the Legacy Pastor of First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale and chancellor of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served pastorates, including the First Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, for more than 25 years. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, he has a BBA from Texas Christian University and his MDiv and Ph.D. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. For almost a quarter of a century, he served as president of GuideStone Financial Resources, with assets under management of $20 billion, serving 250,000 pastors, church staff members, missionaries, doctors, university professors, and other workers in various Christian organizations with their investment, retirement and benefit service needs. He is the author of more than 40 books and regularly speaks to business groups and churches nationwide. All of the author’s royalties and proceeds from the Code series support Mission:Dignity. You can learn more about Mission:Dignity by visiting MissionDignity.org. - Dr. O.S. Hawkins - Chancellor, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Meet the Holy Spirit The dove of the Holy Spirit – AI generated image
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjE2MjU=