According to the Bible our true nature--Spirit--is a field of pure consciousness.

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The Holy Spirit - God's Divine Power

http://www.adishakti.org/text_files/holy_spirit.htm

 

" The Holy Spirit, rather than being a distinct person, is spoken of

in the Bible as being God's divine power. The Anchor Bible

Dictionary, in its article on the Holy Spirit, describes it as " the

manifestation of divine presence and power perceptible especially in

prophetic inspiration " (Vol. 3, Doubleday, New York, 1992, p. 260).

 

Scripture refers to the Holy Spirit as the power of God (Zechariah

4:6; Micah 3:8). Paul told Timothy that it is the " spirit of ...

power and of love and of a sound mind " (2 Timothy 1:7, emphasis

added throughout).

 

Luke 4:14 records that Jesus Christ began His ministry " in the power

of the Spirit. " Speaking of the Holy Spirit, which would be given to

His followers after His death, Jesus told them, " You shall receive

power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you ... " (Acts 1:8).

 

Peter relates how " God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy

Spirit and with power, [and Jesus] went about doing good and healing

all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him " (Acts

10:38). The Holy Spirit is here associated with the power by which

God was with Him - the power through which Jesus Christ performed

mighty miracles during His earthly, physical ministry. The Holy

Spirit is the very presence of God's power actively working in His

servants.

 

According to various Jewish/Christians scholars the Holy Spirit in

the Bible is regarded as:

 

1. Some mysterious, creative power of God, possessing and inspiring

humans;

 

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of

God dwelleth in you.

 

1 Corinthians 3:16

 

Now the Lord is that Spirit: And where the Spirit of the Lord is,

there is liberty.

 

2 Corinthians 3:17

 

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of

God

 

Rom. 8: 14

 

Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: For we know not what

we should pray for as we ought:

But the Spirit itself makes intercession for us, with groanings

which cannot be uttered.

And he that searches the heart know, what is the mind of the Spirit,

Because She makes intercessions for the saints, according to the

will of God.

 

Rom. 8: 26-27

 

 

2. The Spirit of God;

 

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the

face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

 

Genesis 1:2

 

Then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this be, seeing I know not

a man?

And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost will come

unto thee:

Therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee, shall be

called the Son of God. "

 

Luke 1:34-35

 

For what man knows the things of man, save the spirit of man which

is in him?

Even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit

which is of God;

That we may know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom

teaches,

But which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with

spiritual.

 

1 Corinthians 2: 13

 

 

3. The inner principal in the `new life' in Christ;

 

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because She hath anointed me to

preach the gospel to the poor;

She hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to

the captives,

And recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that

are bruised

 

Luke 4:18

 

 

4. A quasi-physical force in the form of wind;

 

But knowest not whence it comes and where it goes; thus is every one

that is born of the Spirit.

 

John 3:8

 

 

5. The personal activity of God Himself;

 

Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit

from me.

 

Psalms 51:11

 

 

6. A supreme Spirit in prophecy;

 

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man:

But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

 

2 Peter 1:21

 

 

7. The Spirit which baptizes;

 

For John truly baptized with water;

But ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.

 

Acts 1: 5

 

 

8. The mode of God's activity in history;

 

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the

Father,

Even the Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the Father, She shall

testify of Me.

 

John 15:26

 

" We might go so far, as to consider the Holy Spirit, God's feminine

presence in the world. The primary attribute of the feminine

principle is receptivity. Therefore, the Holy Spirit demonstrates

itself through it receptivity to others. I have mentioned before,

the Kabbalist look upon Shekinah, a Hebrew term which means God's

presence, as the feminine expression of the Divine. Likewise, in the

Genesis story, the Spirit of God is said to be " hovering " over the

void and formless world just before creation. In college, my Old

Testament Professor remarked, " It's the idea of a hen hovering over

her egg, waiting for it to hatch. " In this sense, the Holy Spirit,

is mother God, who loves and shelters all her children without

condition. "

 

www.cliftonunitarian.com/

 

 

9. The living energy of a personal God;

 

But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of

God is come unto you.

 

Mat. 12:28

 

 

10. The breath of the Almighty;

 

By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of

them by the breath of his mouth.

 

Psalms 33: 6

 

The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty has

given me life.

 

Job 33: 4

 

Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created: and Thou renewest

the face of the earth.

 

Psalms 104: 30

 

The grass withers, the flowers fade: Because the Spirit of the Lord

blows upon it.

 

Isaiah 40:7

 

The other word used most often of the Holy Spirit is the Greek word

pneuma. It is translated as " breath " or " spirit " and means breath,

breeze, wind or spirit. "

 

www.ucgstp.org/

 

" The term " Spirit " translates the Hebrew word ruah, which, in its

primary sense, means breath, air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the

sensory image of the wind to suggest to Nicodemus the transcendent

newness of him who is personally God's breath, the divine Spirit. "

 

J. Cardinal Ratzinger, Catechism of the Catholic Church

(J.C.R., Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994, p. 182.)

 

 

11. The Spirit in supernatural endowments of ethical and spiritual

understanding;

 

I have heard of thee that the Spirit of the Gods is in thee,

And the Light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in

thee.

 

Daniel 51:14

 

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of Wisdom

and understanding,

The Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of Knowledge and of the

fear of the Lord.

 

Isaiah 11: 2

 

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man, to profit

withal.

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; To another the

word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

To another faith by the same Spirit; To another the gifts of healing

by the same Spirit;

To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; To another

discerning of spirits;

To another diverse kinds of tongues; To another the interpretation

of tongues;

But all these worketh that one and selfsame Spirit.

 

1. Corinthians 11: 7-11

 

 

12. The Spirit of wisdom and judgement;

 

But there is a Spirit in man: And the inspiration of Almighty gives

them understanding.

 

Great men are not always wise: Neither do the aged understand

judgement

 

Job 32:8-9

 

Turn you at My reproof: Behold, I will pour out My Spirit unto you,

I will make known My Words unto you.

 

Proverbs 1:23

 

 

13. The mode of human communion with God;

 

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit

upon all flesh;

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall

dream dreams,

Your young men shall see visions, and also upon the servants and

upon the handmaidens,

In those days will I pour out My Spirit.

 

Joel 2:28-29

 

 

14. The mode of transmitting God's revelation to humans;

 

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed

me,

To peach good tidings unto the meek; He has sent me to bind up the

broken-hearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison

to them that are bound.

 

Isaiah 61:1

 

 

15. The Spirit which liberates;

 

Now the Lord if that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is,

there is liberty.

2 Corinthians 3:17

 

 

16. The Spirit which brings renewal;

 

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to

His mercy He saved us,

By the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.

 

Titus 3: 5

 

 

17. The Spirit which brings hope;

 

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad

in our hearts,

 

By the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.

 

Rom. 5:5

 

Now may the God of hope fill you with all the joy,

And peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, by the power of

the Holy Spirit.

 

Romans 15:13

 

 

18. The Spirit which comforts;

 

I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,

That may abide with you forever.

 

John 14: 16

 

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the

Father,

Even the Spirit of Truth which preceedeth from the Father, She shall

testify of me.

And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from

the beginning.

 

John 15: 26-27

 

 

Supporting evidence that the Holy Spirit is Feminine

 

If any of you lack wisdom [sophia], let him ask of God, that giveth

to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

 

- James 1:5

 

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your

children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy

Spirit to them that ask him?

 

- Luke 11:13

 

Perhaps the first argument which can be offered in support of the

feminine gender of the Holy Spirit is Her association with " the

spirit of wisdom " (Exodus 28:3; Ephesians 1:17). In both the Old and

New Testaments, Wisdom is often personified in the feminine gender:

 

" Say that Wisdom is thy sister " (Proverbs 7:4)

 

" Wisdom has built a house for herself, and set up seven pillars "

(Proverbs 9:1)

 

Proverbs chapters 8 and 9 are in fact an extended allegory of Wisdom

depicted as a woman.

 

" Wisdom is known by her children " (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:35)

 

" Therefore also said the Wisdom of God, I will also send them

prophets and apostles . . . " (Luke 11:49). In this text our Lord is

equating the " Wisdom of God " with the Holy Spirit who provided

Divine inspiration to those who wrote the Scriptures (2 Peter 1:21).

He refers to Wisdom in the feminine gender.

 

The Old Testament word for " wisdom " is chokmah which has the

feminine ending.

 

The New Testament word - in the Greek - is sophia - also feminine.

In fact " Sophia " is the name for a goddess of wisdom in the Greek

pantheon. It should be obvious that the Early Church, when reading

the Greek Septuagint - the translation of the Old Testament for the

Greek-speaking Jew - would have made the connection between that

goddess and the Holy Spirit. Of course, a Gentile Christian would

have known that the Holy Spirit was not a Greek goddess. Rather, he

would have confessed that the Holy Spirit was the true Sophia in

contrast to the pagan imitation.

 

The connection between the Holy Spirit and Sophia is more pronounced

in the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha are writings from the

Intertestamental Period which was contained in the Septuagint but

are not included in our modern Bibles. (They are regarded as deutero-

canonical by the Anglican Church).

 

For Sophia is a loving spirit... For the Spirit of the Lord filleth

the world.

 

- Wisdom of Solomon 1:5,7

 

For Sophia, which is the worker of all things, taught me: for in her

is an understanding spirit, holy, one only. . . For she is the

breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the

glory of the Almighty . . . And being but one, she can do all

things: and remaining in herself, she maketh all things new: and in

all ages entering into holy souls, she maketh them friends of God

and prophets. For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Sophia.

 

- Wisdom chapter 7 (excerpts)

 

And thy counsel who hath known, except thou give Sophia, and send

thy Holy Spirit from above?

 

- 9:7

 

In the writings of the Early Church, Wisdom (Sophia) is preserved as

feminine (e.g. the Shepherd of Hermes)

 

Jesus associates the " spirit of truth " with the Holy Spirit (John

16:13). Sophia and the Holy Spirit share identical roles (1

Corinthians 2:7-11; Romans 5:5; 1 John 5:6-7 KJV). Were it not for

the masculine bias of later theologians, the Church would likely

have acknowledged the allegorical associations in the Old Testament

as literal theophanies of the Holy Spirit.

 

The second argument which can be offered in support for the feminine

gender of the Holy Spirit is found in the very names ascribed to God

and the Holy Spirit. The name for God in the Hebrew language

is " Elohim " . Most scholars acknowledge that this word has a plural

ending, which some use to suggest an Old Testament anticipation of

the Trinity. What most scholars either do not know or care not to

inform their constituents is that " Elohim " is not the plural of " El "

the masculine form of the name. It is plural of the

feminine, " Elowah " . Strictly speaking, we can translate the Old

Testament name for God as " goddesses " .

 

Such a fact is naturally shocking to traditionalists who are largely

ignorant of the origins of their faith. We do not favor, however, a

translation of the name for God into the feminine because masculine

pronouns are used in association with " Elohim " . But we do argue that

the use of the feminine ending by Divine Revelation ought to settle

unequivocally that God's being encompasses both the masculine and

feminine genders. Indeed, when describing man as made in God's

image, the Scriptures say,

 

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he

him; male and female created he them.

 

- Genesis 1:27

 

Thus indicating that both genders exist in the Godhead.

 

That the Holy Spirit is the designated representation of the

feminine principle is further supported by the Hebrew word

for " spirit " . I quote now Jerome, the author of the Latin Vulgate:

 

In the Gospel of the Hebrews that the Nazarenes read it says, " Just

now my mother, the Holy Spirit, took me. " Now no one should be

offended by this, because " spirit " in Hebrew is feminine, while in

our language [Latin] it is masculine and in Greek it is neuter. In

divinity, however, there is no gender.

 

- Jerome's Commentary on Isaiah 11

 

This explanation contains an astonishing admission. First, it tells

us that there was a tradition among a sect of Early Christians which

believed that the Holy Spirit was our Lord's spiritual mother.

Second, Jerome - a more orthodox figure cannot be imagined - admits

that the Hebrew word for " spirit " (ruach) is feminine, meaning that

for the 1st Century Christians - who were largely operating in the

Aramaic world (Paul's churches were tiny in comparison) - the Holy

Spirit was a feminine figure. It was lost in the translation from

the Hebrew into the Greek, and then it was changed to a masculine

gender when it was translated from the Greek into the Latin.

 

Finally, Jerome's theological bias leads him to believe the

distinction of gender is unimportant. He believes there is no gender

in God, therefore, it does not matter whether God is referred to as

a " he " or a " she " or an " it " , presumably. With many centuries of

misogynist behavior by Christian leaders behind us, I think it does

matter. We are not allowed to change one " jot or tittle " of the Law,

and if God is represented as a being encompassing both the masculine

and feminine genders, then we are foolish to hide that fact in our

translations of the Sacred Text.

 

The third argument which can be offered is the example of early

Christian leaders in how they handled this doctrine. In his Homily

on Jeremiah 15, the learned Origen argued the case that the Holy

Spirit was Christ's mother. In a more practical application,

Methodius - also a leader with an impeccably orthodox reputation -

states directly that the family is meant to reflect analogously the

blessed Trinity:

 

[T]he innocent and unbegotten Adam being the type and resemblance of

God the Father Almighty, who is uncaused, and the cause of all; his

begotten son [seth] shadowing forth the image of the begotten Son

and Word of God; whilst Eve, that proceedeth forth from Adam,

signifies the person and procession of the Holy Spirit.

 

- Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 6, p. 402

 

The Didascalia, a 3rd Century clergy manual, commanded the churches

that, " the deaconess should be honored by you as the Holy Spirit is

honored " . Thus, officially confirming that the role of the Holy

Spirit is of a feminine nature.

 

It should be emphasized that we are not saying that the Holy Spirit

is a woman. Neither is God the Father a man. We are made in God's

image. God is not made in our image. We must maintain a theistic

perspective, rather than a humanistic one. The Holy Spirit is not

married to the Father, nor is She His wife in any human sense of the

word. Rather, marriage is a creaturely reflection of the glorious

unity which exists within the Trinity. As long as we remain loyal to

the Ecumenical Creeds, we will not go astray with this doctrine.

 

In conclusion, we affirm that it is not impious, nor does it in any

way diminish the deity of the 3rd Person, to address the Holy Spirit

as a " She " rather than as a " He " . While we do not favor the call for

a gender neutral Bible, we do believe that a new translation of the

Scriptures is in order - under the supervision of the Desposyni -

which will correct the Latin biases which have been carried over

from the Vulgate.

 

Supporting evidence that the Holy Spirit is Feminine

www.grailchurch.org/sophia.htm