about the essence of God...

So I've been thinking about that Holy Spirit thing a lot :) I quite like that part of the trinity. Not really sure whether to call 'it' a Him or a Her, cause the Hebrew form is feminine, but I tend to default to to masculine when it comes to God.

Anyways, when watching 'Furious Love' the other week (which I highly recommend, cause it blew my mind), one of the guys said something about 'Holy' being God's first name - the name for every day use, the one people call you by. Your surname is for formal things, but is also the part that belongs to you (the speaker put it much more elegantly, but that will suffice). We call Him 'Holy', because that is who He is.

I then got to thinking about the Spirit part... It seems kinda abstract, which it is, but then I remembered that we also use that term to describe the essence of something. 'There was such a spirit of love in that place' or 'they have a gentle spirit' - it describes the essence of a thing. So the Spirit of God is the essence of who God is: Holy Spirit.

God is holy. It's that word that is used to describe the other-ness of God. We can't really describe it with our little words and vocabulary, but it's what sums it all up, once all our words are gone. God is love, just, gentle, caring, comforting, powerful, mighty etc etc... and holy. In Revelation 4:8, those who are in His presence day and night continually cry out 'holy holy holy is the LORD God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come'. If you were in the presence of GOD... woah! I'm not even sure I'd find the words to say anything at all! But once that had passed, to try and express and praise who God is - that's when 'Holy' is the only word that you can repeat, because it sums up God's God-ness, His other-ness. His essence.

Then it hit me that we have this Holy Spirit living inside of us! Flip that sent me on a mini tailspin just thinking about the enormity of that! We - sinful, miniature, scummish, little humans - have the Spirit of the living God in us. The essence of who God is, rests upon us, dwells within us, fills and empowers us... FLIP!! Now if that doesn't shake something inside of you, I don't know what will. I am so ridiculously humbled, awed, blessed and relieved all at once. I have the essence of God - His holiness, His Holy Spirit - dwelling in me, helping, empowering, teaching, guiding, counselling, comforting me... So Jesus is God made visible - God with us, and the Holy Spirit is God in us. Yeah, I think that's pretty cool, to say the very least :)

I'm not sure how to end this post, since it's one of those stare-into-the-humungousness-of-God-and-realise-how-freaking-small-I-am-and-how-great-He-is moments. Honestly, the only thing I can think to do is try to express my gratitude to this immense, Holy God. He is making me into His likeness - making me like Him, and He has placed the essence of who He is in me, to help me to do the seemingly impossible - change.