Hi all,
We all want to flow better with the Lord, but for me, understanding the trinity of God and then the trinity of man, helps understand how He communicates and flows within us.
It also provides a picture in our minds about the flow from the Father to us. For me this has been key to walking with the Father and distinguishing between ‘is it me or is it God?’.
The trinity of God and man – it’s this simple
Father-Spirit-Son
spirit-soul-body
That’s the flow – the Father is the source of all good things, from Him flows the Holy Spirit, to the Son. We are in His image and likeness, so we flow from our spirit, out to our soul, to our body.
Jesus said the Father is a spirit in John 4: 24. He IS a spirit, but we struggle to think of Him that way because we think of a spirit as being a cloud, a vapor, ghost-like. And in those terms we say ‘God is everywhere’. That contributes to the idea He is some sort of cloud or nebula in space. Wrong.
The Father is seen in the whole of The Revelation 4 when the apostle is brought to heaven before Him. He is very solid, though a spirit.
He sees the Father on His throne with a rainbow over it and a clear flooring before it. There are multi-winged cherubs crying out ‘holy, holy, holy’ around Him. It is to Him in 5:7 the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the one who had been slain but is alive forevermore, comes and ‘takes the book out of the right hand of Him who sits on the throne.’ (When you are in the Spirit you can see the Father, but in the flesh no man can see Him and live, the human body would be destroyed before His purity)
In Daniel 7:9-13 Daniel is given a preview of what John saw in The Revelation. Daniel describes the Ancient of Days on His throne, His white wavy hair, to whom the Son of Man comes to receive a kingdom which will have no end.
The Father is a spirit. Yet He is solid. He is always seen as seated on a throne. (see also Exodus 24: 7-11, Ezekiel 1) So we have to renew the mind to the fact though spirit, He is solid, on a throne, and this is somewhere, a fixed place called heaven, in that realm.
How is God everywhere?
The verses that show the Father as the source of all good things are too numerous to detail here, But a few are worth mentioning.
James 1: 16-18 we are told not to err, every good and perfect gift comes from the Father. Hebrews 12:9 where He is the Father of Spirits, and Ephesians 1 where we are told the Father used Jesus’s sacrifice to adopt us to Himself, and so on. In I Corinthians 15:27-28 we are told when the Father has subdued all things under the feet of Jesus, Jesus will turn everything back to the Father that He may be all in all.
If the Father is on His throne as seen in The Revelation 4, Daniel 7, Ezekiel 1 and so on, then how is He everywhere? Being on a throne fixes Him to one spot.
Let me ask you this
Right now you are physically somewhere, maybe seated at home. But if I ask you to stop and remember back to a favorite childhood memory, you can ‘go there’ in your mind. You are back in time, mentally. If I ask you to think about what you will be doing tomorrow, you can think ahead to your activities. You do all that while seated at home reading this.
Jesus said in John 15:26 the Holy Spirit ‘proceeds’ from the Father. The Holy Spirit flows from the Father. The Holy Spirit relates to and functions therefore as the soul of the Father. The mind, will, humor. By His Spirit, who functions as His mind, He is everywhere, sees all, knows all – all while seated on His throne in heaven. He is every present, so while seated on that throne by the Holy Spirit who functions as His soul, He is also seeing past and future.
Thus, we cannot separate the Father from His Spirit. Father and Spirit are one. In the same way, our spirit and soul are one. No one can separate our spirit and soul.
Hebrews 4:12-13
Hebrews 4:12-13 tells us the Person of the Word, not ink on a page, but the living Word is sharper than any sword, dividing between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and critiques our thoughts and intents of the heart.
So here in Hebrews 4:12 we have the heart of man, which is comprised of spirit and soul. Sometimes a verse will emphasize the spirit, sometimes a verse will emphasize the soul, and sometimes a verse will focus on both soul and spirit which make the heart of man.
Notice the grammar. The first of each identifies the function. The soul and spirit, joints and marrow, thoughts and intents of the heart. The soul functions as a joint between spirit and body, it is the place of thoughts. The spirit relates to the marrow, the core of us all, where blood is made, and it is the place of our intentions.
This is the same as God. The Father is a spirit, the source of life, and the deepest intentions. The Holy Spirit functions as a joint between the Father and Son (body), and the Holy Spirit carries the thoughts of the Father. He functions as the soul, and being made as God, our soul functions as the joint between our body and spirit. It is like the middle point of a teeter totter.
The Holy Spirit we are told in John 16:13, “Will not speak of Himself, but only what He hears.” In I Corinthians 2: 10-11 we are told the Holy Spirit searches the Father’s heart for what He has prepared for us. In this same way our soul searches our heart (spirit) for our deepest intent and purpose.
The Father relates to our spirit man, the Holy Spirit functions as the soul of the Father, and Jesus is the body. We are created in Him image so our trinity is the same: We flow from our spirit to our soul to our body.
That is all pretty challenging if you are contemplating these things for the first time. Next week we will look at this flow from the Father by His Spirit to His Son – spirit to soul to body. We are in His image, after His likeness.
As many have struggled with the triune God, we have no further to look than ourselves. When we understand the flow from our spirit to our soul and out to our body, it becomes easy to flow with the Father. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
