The Elephant in the Room

REAL CHANGE // TRADEMARK CHURCH

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Most every family has at least one awkward relative—the one you might avoid making eye contact with at big family gatherings. Maybe you haven’t seen them in awhile, and your relationship with them was awkward to begin with. Now you feel stuck in a conversation with someone you’re related to, but you honestly barely know. On top of that, you’ve heard nothing but disconcerting things about their character from your other relatives: He’s kind of weird. You never know what she’s going to do or say. He comes and goes—sometimes he’s here, yet other times we expect him to come but he doesn’t show up. It’s not that she lives outside the box; I’m just not sure she even knows what a box is!

This relative can be unpredictable, so you really might not know how to handle that relationship.

Similarly, many people feel that way about Holy Spirit, or The Holy Spirit. Think about it! What God has a name that isn’t really a name? his name—“the Holy Spirit”—begins with an article (“the”), then a strongly descriptive adjective that seems eternally unattainable (“Holy”), then a noun that seems much more descriptive than definitive (“Spirit”). There’s nothing concrete in his name.

To make matters worse, there are a lot of stereotypes and bad definitions floating around about the Holy Spirit, and very little of it—or maybe even none of it—seems like normal, everyday life to you. Let’s face it! If you open your Bible and read through the Book of Acts, there’s some pretty crazy things in there, right? We may feel like it’s okay that Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, and set the captives free, but that was Jesus! He’s the Son of God! You may be thinking, “Of course he can do that, but don’t ask me to do any of that stuff. That’s just beyond me. That’s supernatural. That’s not normal. Besides, people will think I’m weird.”

But what feels normal to you is based on how you were raised—whether that was some type of Protestant, Catholic, some version or Pentecostal or Charismatic, or you just weren’t raised in any kind of Christian home. Whatever your background is, that’s what feels normal to you. However, we don’t want to grow stronger in our normalcy, right? We don’t want to strengthen a bias towards any particular tradition or upbringing; we simply want to find out what the Bible says.

So what does the Bible say?

Paul asked the disciples at Ephesus if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed, and they replied, “No! We haven’t even heard that there was such thing!” It’s common today for people to reject the packaging that the Holy Spirit is brought to them in. “Holy Spirit” is the best attempt for translators to introduce people to him. The first mention of the Holy Spirit—Spirit of God—is in Genesis 1:2, which says this:

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.—Genesis 1:2

The Hebrew phrase for “Spirit of God” in this verse is ruach Elohim. This name, Elohim, is complicated and Bible scholars aren’t quick to box in a definition, as it points to a singular God with three distinct persons, and implications of power and strength. This is where we get the concept of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The term, ruach, means “breath” or “wind,” so when we put these two terms together, ruach Elohim—“Spirit of God”—roughly means something like “the breath or wind of powerful, strong, almighty Three-in-One.” Breath of God. This powerful wind was just hovering over the waters. That’s probably enough to think about for today.

Check this verse out, and invite the Holy Spirit to bring understanding to your mind and heart about who he is, versus who you grew up thinking he is:

But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin. —Micah 3:8