The man-made doctrine of the Trinity, by dividing God into three equal persons, brings confusion. Who do we pray to for example? But the Lord’s Prayer teaches us to pray to our Father in heaven. It is in Him that the majority of power is concentrated. Jesus said: my Father is greater than I. (John 14:28)
The Holy Spirit is, I believe, that portion of God the Father’s Spirit, which is free to roam away from His presence upon the throne, and, as it affects us, is not one-third of God’s fullness, but is only a small portion. Yet it unites us to God.
I believe that there are only two persons in the Godhead: Father and Son; and that the term Holy Spirit refers to the Spirit of either one of these, or perhaps better, the action of these two Spirits working in unison.
In the context of speaking of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, Jesus, speaking of Himself and His Father, used the first person plural, saying: we will come unto him. (John 14:23) Notice that in this case he does not use the third person singular as he does in John 16:13: the Spirit of truth . . . he will guide you. So is the Holy Spirit, the Spirits of Father and Son, or is it the Spirit of a third person? There are several reasons why we should believe it is the Spirits of Father and Son.
Firstly, we cannot believe extraordinary concepts regarding the constitution of the Godhead on the basis of meagre evidence. The word Trinity does not appear in the Bible, as surely it would if we were meant to believe in this doctrine.
Secondly, there is no reason for Jesus to say that He (Jesus) and His Father would presence themselves with us, if the Holy Spirit is not Jesus and His Father. There are, however, several reasons to describe the Holy Spirit as He, even if the Spirit is not distinct from Father and Son.
First, it distinguishes His spiritual capacity to comfort and guide us from His other capacities. This is similar to Jesus referring to Himself as the Son of man, rather than I, to distinguish His earthly role from His heavenly role to rule. He said: The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)
Second the use of the words, Holy Spirit, Comforter etc, make it clear that when a soul is born again, the fullness of the Godhead does not reside in them, but only a small portion of His Spirit.
Now we shall look at Scriptural evidence that when a believer is born again, they receive both the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son.
Firstly, we shall look at the Spirit of Christ indwelling:
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you. (Rom 8:9,10)
Now the Lord is that Spirit. (2 Cor 3:17)
Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col 1:27)
Secondly we shall look at the Spirit of the Father indwelling:
By comparing Matt 10:20 with Luke 12:12, the Holy Spirit is equated with the Spirit of the Father.
Matt 10:20 says: it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
Luke 12:12 says: the Holy Ghost shall teach you in that same hour what ye ought to say.
Other Scriptures referring to the Father’s Spirit within us are:
if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you. (Rom 8:11) Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father (Rom 6:4). Usually in the bible, the word God refers to the Father; so the following Scripture speaks of the Spirit of the Father: ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them. (2 Cor 6:16)
In the light of these Scriptures, to believe in a third person of the Trinity makes the Scriptures confusing. It is to say that where the bible speaks of the Spirit of Christ indwelling or the Spirit of the Father indwelling, it is really referring to someone else. It would be as confusing as Jesus calling His twelve apostles by the wrong names.
Christ is God because a portion of God’s Spirit was taken from Him to become the Spirit of the Son. But this may have been a finite portion. So Christ is not necessarily omniscient (all-knowing,) or omnipotent (all-powerful.) And, what concerns us here, neither is He necessarily omnipresent (being everywhere at once,) by His own power.
It may only be by the power of His Father that He can send His Spirit into the hearts of millions of Christians at the same time, to a company both in heaven and on earth. This seems to be the sense of Gal 4:6: God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts.
But Jesus also spoke of sending the Holy Ghost. He said: when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father. (John 15:26) But the sense of the word send in the case of the Son, differs from that of the Father. The Father sends by His power. The Son sends by praying to His Father. He said: I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter. (John 14:16) In answer to this prayer: the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, (John 14:26) said Jesus, is sent.
The Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father, where the present tense of the word proceedeth indicates an ever-enduring present. I believe that the link between the Father and His Holy Spirit is never broken, so that we should not call the Holy Spirit a separate person. This is how Acts 2:17 should be understood, where it is written: it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. Note the word, my. The Holy Spirit is of the essence of God Himself. As our arms can reach out, so the Spirit of God the Father can reach out to us from heaven, where He sits upon the throne.
Yet the Father does seem to place a portion of His Spirit at Christ’s service. This does not mean that His Spirit helping Christ is lower in rank than Christ. God once said, even to His faithful people on earth: concerning the work of my hands command ye me. (Isaiah45:11)
Now we shall look at the authority of Christ over the Spirit from the book of Revelation. First we see: seven Spirits which are before his throne. (Rev 1:4) These are later pictured as: seven lamps of fire burning before the throne which are the seven Spirits of God. (Rev 4:5) This, I believe, speaks of that portion of God the Father’s Spirit, which is free to roam and assist Christ. (Seven, the number of perfection is not significant. There is only one Spirit.)
Next we see Jesus saying: These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God. (Rev 3:1) So Jesus has some sort of control over the seven Spirits. But what sort of control? In Rev 5:6 we see Him pictured as: a Lamb . . . having . . . seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God. Eyes are not only controlled by the brain. They also provide input. They interrelate with the brain. And so, I believe the seven Spirits of the Father interrelate with Christ’s Spirit, enhancing His power, but not overriding His will.
Jesus received this promise after He rose from the dead: being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. (Acts 2:33) This that they saw and heard on the day of Pentecost were the signs of Christ who: shall baptize . . . with the Holy Ghost and with fire. (Matt 3:11)
I believe that the promise to Christ was to be baptized with His Father’s Holy Ghost in a new way; and that this made available to Christ a Spirit(s) with the character of the Son but the power of the Father. It is with this mingled Spirit that Christ now baptizes Christians on earth according to Christ’s prayer for His disciples: I in them, and thou in me. (John 17:23) Perhaps this mystery is not fully explained, but the miracle is simply called the Holy Ghost, or the Comforter.
It may be that Christ's Spirit can communicate thousands of independent messages simultaneously, but not millions; and that for the simultaneous transmission and fellowship of millions of messages with comfort, the power of the Father's Spirit must be invoked. But this communication is in the guise of, or spirit of, what Christ would wish to say, and is in fact actually saying to others. Perhaps in the same way that a television station shows the newsman speaking, so the Spirit of the Father shows Jesus speaking. But the Spirit of the Father can communicate not only information, but also fellowship.
How can a billion Christians all have fellowship with Jesus at once, if Jesus is finite? By the illusion of, or mystery of, the Holy Spirit. They are really fellowshipping with the Father, or that portion of His Spirit, with the character of, or comprehending the character of, the Son, but which did not take separate existence when the Son was born. And this portion of the Father's Spirit is constrained by the wishes of Christ.
It seems more wonderful to have a direct link to God the Father and to the Son of God, than to be linked by a third person. Of the Father, Paul writes: we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. (Eph 2:18) And of the Son he writes: he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. (1 Cor 6:17) The result of this is that: truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:3) This happens because: God . . . hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:4,6)
But do not some Scriptures indicate a measure of independence of the Holy Spirit, suggesting a third person. I will answer this pictorially. The best picture, I think, of the Holy Spirit’s relationship to God, is that of the spinal chord and nervous system to the brain. And this picture is biblical as it is written: Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. (Eph 5:23) Some reflexes do not go all the way to the brain, but are mediated by the spinal chord, but the spinal chord is of the same person as the brain.
So perhaps Acts 15:28 is explained which speaks of the will of the Spirit. Christ must pray for multitudes of different Christians at the same time, perhaps using different parts of His brain, yet He is one person. Or perhaps the Spirit simply communicated the will of the Son of God, similarly to when: the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them (Acts 16:7 NASB) to go to Bithynia.
It is our union to God which enables us to pray. It is written: the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities . . . the Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit. (Rom 8:26,27) The Spirit of Christ within us gives us the right attitude to prayer: crying, Abba, Father. (Gal 4:6) And I believe that the Spirit of the Father strengthens that attitude and desire. Although it may look as though the Father must be a separate person from the Spirit if He reads the mind of the Spirit, I believe that it is saying that the Father both helps us to think and knows what we are thinking. A certain amount of poetic language may be being used. And that I know what I am thinking does not mean I am two persons.
It is our union to God that imparts revelation as we read the bible. It is written: the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. (1 Cor 2:10,11) Jesus said that God the Father imparts revelation, saying: Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. (Matt 16:17) And this revelation, was by the Spirit of the Father, which was with them before Jesus was glorified, but not in them until afterwards (John 16:17)
But the Father’s Spirit will not work towards men independent of Christ. Jesus said: He shall receive of mine, and shew it unto you. (John 16:14) This applies not only to the revelation of Christ, but also it means that all revelation is through Christ. And it is a promise, to the apostles of revelation, and to us of illumination of that revelation. To us John writes: the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. (1 John 2:27)
The service which we can render God also flows from our union to Him. Jesus said: I am the vine, ye are the branches: He hat abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (John 15:5) The same picture of gifts flowing from our union to Christ is spoken of in terms of a body with Christ as the head: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. (1 Cor 12:12,13) Gifts which flow are not for self-glorification. They are God in heaven, working in us on earth, for the edification of the church: ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. (1 Cor 12:27,28)
The gift of the Holy Spirit, although from both the Father and the Son, gives us the character of the Son, rather than the Father, except where the two are identical. We: have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father (Rom 8:15,) to God the Father. But we do not think of Jesus as our son. (He is our brother.) Neither does the Spirit make us omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent like the Father.
Paul writes: My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. (Gal 4:19) Our ultimate destiny in the next life is: to be conformed to the image of his Son. (Rom 8:29) But this means a practical sanctification beginning now on earth, or we have no hope of heaven. John writes: He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. (1 John 2:6)
This life is only possible by the Holy Spirit replacing the influence of Satan's influence. Sin’s dominion can be cancelled according to Paul who writes: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Rom 8:2)
But although it is the character of Christ which is formed within us, much of the power is from the Spirit of the Father. The apostles were told to: wait for the promise of the Father. (Acts 1:4) Paul writes: if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Rom 8:11) Quickening results in life, and this life is in the likeness of Christ’s life: like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Rom 6:4) And again, of the Spirit of the Father it is written: and you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him. (Col 2:13)
At new birth a Christian always gains victory over sin, and from then there is a process of perfection from faults as the Father answers the prayer of His Son: Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17) But it is possible, through ignorance or disobedience to the truth of God’s word, to lose the power of God’s Spirit, and to slide into sin again. Jesus promise: if the Son therefore shall make you free (from committing sin V 34) ye shall be free indeed (John 8:36) was qualified by the words: if ye continue in my word. (John 8:31)
So we must be like Paul who said: Not as though I . . . were already perfect: but I follow after . . . Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. (Phil 3:12-15) Serving God, looking into His word, and praying enable us to be: with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord . . . changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Cor 3:18)
But for the full power of Jesus to shine through us, God must not only work within our hearts with His word: He must also chisel us from without by sufferings and trials. The effect of this work of the cross in our lives is spoken of in 2 Cor 4:10: Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Suffering causes us to rely, not on our own strength but on God’s power. Paul writes: we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God. (2 Cor 13:4)
When we are thus trained we shall know: the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead. (Eph 1:19,20) And it is then that we shall know the effectual power of the Father’s Spirit to make us Christ-like, even as it is written: the Father . . . that he would grant you , according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith . . . Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. (Eph 3:14-20)
Although Christ may now have a greater anointing of the Father’s spirit than when on earth, the anointing which we now receive of the Son’s and the Father’s Spirit, has, I believe, the same effect as the Father’s anointing of His Son with the Holy Ghost when He was on earth. Peter said: God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. (Acts 10:38)
Jesus lived by the power of His Father’s Spirit. We live by both His and His Father’s Spirits, given to us through Christ. Jesus said: as the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. (John 6:57) We live by Christ, not by trying to be spiritual, but by obeying the bible. Jesus said: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)