THE EVOLUTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Thursday 7 August

When we hear the word evolution most people think about events like the Big Bang theory or the idea that creation as we know it came out of some primordial slime pit. Others talk about Darwin’s theory of natural selection: survival of the fittest. Man coming from single cell invertebrates to monkeys, to what we see today. A lot of Christians believe it is sacrilege to use the concept of evolution in a biblical setting. But is it inaccurate in this particular case? I’ll let you be the judge.

Let’s go back to the beginning. The Genesis of the Spirit as it were. Where was the Spirit of God in creation? Simply put, in God. God’s Spirit was in God and God’s words were in God. God was one being. There wasn’t three thrones up in heaven; one for the Father, one for the Son and one for the Holy Spirit. At this point God was not a Trinity.

This only happened when God put His plan of redemption into action. He became Father, Son and Spirit to save man after the fall. The first three verses of Genesis were the story of salvation not creation. The Spirit of God moving over the sea of humanity and the voice of God saying ‘light be’ are spiritual future events not natural events.

So where was the Spirit of God? In Himself. Where was the Word of God? In Himself. He was not yet Father because there was no son. God was one being whose Spirit and Word was in Him.

Jesus said of Himself in John 1:18

‘No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.’

Jesus also said of the Spirit in John 14:26, ‘But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.’

The Father sent His Spirit from where? Himself. Therefore we know that the Word and the Spirit both came from ONE God. So we have established that God was ONE and that the Word of God and the Spirit of God was residing in Him.

Then came the Word out of the Father. Imagine if your words became a person. That is who Jesus was. God’s thoughts, ideas, attitudes, words in a man. That’s why He is called the Living Word. Jesus at His baptism received the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of the Father.

‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was WITH God and the Word was God.’ ‘Pros’ in the Greek for ‘with’ can also mean in or within.

Jesus said ‘I will be WITH you, even unto the end of the age’ How? By being WITHIN.

So the Holy Spirit in Jesus was the Spirit of the Father. What about after the resurrection?

Jesus preempted the change when He said “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and WE will come to him and make Our home with him.’

Did you catch it? The Holy Spirit was no longer going to be only the Spirit of the Father in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit was going to be the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of Jesus.

After the resurrection the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost and this became a reality. But there was more. Something that none of the prophets ever saw coming. A further evolution of the Holy Spirit; the new creation in Christ.

‘I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in ONE, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.’

‘He that is joined unto the Lord is ONE SPIRIT.’

This is truly mind blowing. Now that we are in Christ and Christ is in us, we don’t have two spirits within; The Father and us. We don’t have three spirits; the Father, Jesus and us. We only have ONE Spirit. Have you caught it yet? You have now become the Holy Spirit of God just like the Father and Jesus in you. ONE new creation, not three spirits.

This is the final evolution of the Holy Spirit. We have all been made ‘perfect in ONE’ in Christ, in the Spirit. No wonder the Bible says we have been ‘presented holy, unblameable and unreprovable in His sight.’ An inextricable union with the Father and the Son.

‘For our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ’

If this is the reality and the Bible shows it to be so, what kind of life could we live if we caught hold of this revelation in its entirety? We are ONE Spirit with Him. The only way to drive this reality deep is to meditate on the Word of God and pray in the Holy Ghost often. Now these facts are the only kind of evolution that is worth teaching.

APPLICATION

Study the verses that we shared in this devotion and develop the consciousness of being ONE new creature in Christ.