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Images of the Holy Spirit 1
Wednesday 7 May 2008
Next Sunday is Pentecost Sunday and I have been thinking about images of the Holy Spirit used in the Bible. The vivid description of wind is often used. There’s Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones being given new life. There are Christ’s words to Nicodemus in John 3, ‘The wind blows where it chooses and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit’. Jesus was speaking of something with which we are very familiar but do not fully understand – cannot even begin to understand. And so the idea conveyed by wind is of mystery, sovereignty and energy.
And then there is the image of water. The chief reference to the Spirit as water comes from the words of Jesus. Standing in a prominent place on the last day of the Jewish Festival of Booths (Tabernacles), he cried out: ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” ’ And the gospel writer John adds ‘Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.’ (John 7:37-39) The verbs are in the present tense and I think we are to keep coming, to keep believing and to keep drinking if we are to be refreshed. More tomorrow.
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