Trinity Concepts (1.08) Power

Purpose

Sacrifice          

Unity

There are three things that carry power.  Purpose is in the Father category.  The Father had a purpose to redeem humanity, bringing us into relationship and fellowship with Him.  With this purpose there had to be sacrifice, in order to achieve the purpose.  Sending His Son to die a human death brought about the Father’s desired result of unifying the spirits of human beings with His Spirit.  This unity flows through the rest of those who embrace this truth and relationship, otherwise known as the Church.

There can be no unity without sacrifice.  No one can or will sacrifice without a purpose, a reason for that sacrifice.

In leadership, one finds many people who desire unity and agreement.  'Politics' rises and falls based on the desire to bring people together with unifying ideas or purposes.  But there will be no unity without the willingness of the people to sacrifice in meaningful ways to obtain those goals.  If the goals are not compelling enough to warrant the sacrifice that is being required, people will withdraw their resources and there will be no unity.  When, however, the goal is compelling indeed, being clearly understood and embraced by the hearers, sacrifice is increased and unity results.  As Dr. E.L. Cole stated, “Agreement is the place of power.”

Jesus said that the world would know us by the love we have for one another in the Church.  The greatest witnessing tool we have to a lost and self-destructing world is our ability to live in harmony and agreement, producing an atmosphere of power and restoration for their healing.  Without it, we become a mere political community, driven by human ideologies or ‘peer-pressure’. 

As Christians, our purpose on the earth is made clear.  We must expand the Kingdom of God in the realm of the souls of people throughout the world.  This purpose requires sacrifice.  It is, in essence the same sacrifice God made for us.  He did not have to forgive us and free us.  He did not have to sacrifice for our salvation, our freedom, but He chose to do it, in spite of our waywardness, rebellion, selfishness and pride.  When we did not agree with Him, He forgave us anyway.  Our purpose requires us to live in the same way, making the same decision He did, and that is to forgive others, give love that is undeserved even in the midst of gross misunderstandings, failures and sin. 

The only way the Church can truly be effective in its purpose is to enter into the sacrifice of our Example, which creates true unity (not just a show of unity) but unity that allows power through the agreement of those who are willing to walk in it.  Without people who are willing to be wronged, and to release the wrong against them, there can be no power, and hence, no true Church.

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)

Trinity Concepts (1.04) Kingdom Attributes (Time)

Love / Present

Faith / Past

Hope / Future

Love is present tense.  God is love. (I John 4:16)  He told Moses, “I Am that I Am.” (Ex. 3:14)  God, Himself encompasses the fullness of time, past and future, the same way He manifests Himself through both Word and Spirit, articulation and breath.

Love exists in the present tense and stands as the highest of all three Kingdom attributes, as the Apostle Paul states, “but now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (I Cor. 13:13)  The will of the human soul stands as the highest point between the mind and the emotions, choosing which thoughts to accept and meditate upon, while at the same time choosing the response of the emotions to these thoughts.  The will makes choices in the present, based upon the knowledge of the past.  It could be knowledge as old as the most ancient Scriptures, or as new as the last God-inspired revelation only a moment ago; but faith still draws upon the understanding of the past.  For example, the testimonies in Scripture, being of the past, build our faith to receive God’s manifested blessings in the present. 

Faith, however, works by love.  It is the action of love that brings faith to life.  “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26)  Faith (past) united to Love (present) is the most powerful motivational force that causes the future, or realm of hope, to open wide with possibility.  Hope is the realm of the emotion (speaking of the soul), and as emotion is affected by choices (will) and thoughts (mind), the future responds to those choices and thoughts (past and present seeds, which have been and are being sown). 

Both the past and the future are subject to the choices of the present.  The present filters what it wants of the past, allowing it to pass into the future.  Of the past and future, however, the past holds authority over the future, just as seeds sown in the past must manifest in the future.  One would say, “But the future must be greater, because the possibilities are positive and full of wonder, whereas the past is fraught with both failures and successes, but truthfully, mostly failures.  The past speaks of death, the future of natural life.  How can the past be authoritative over the future?” 

The only way to sever the authority of the death and decay the past holds over the future lies in the power of the present (Love) to choose to overlook the failures of the past, draw upon the successes of the past, reject the destructive seeds of the past and to protectively nurture the good seeds sown. 

Love alone can take the past and metamorphosize it into a powerful future.  This is the power of forgiveness.  It is the power of Jesus (the Word) Who was made flesh, living in the death and decay of this realm, but risen in the power of God’s choice, anointed with victory for the future, to reign as King in the fullness of this hope…our “Blessed Hope.”  

The Word without the resurrection of Love remains a dead letter, for the “letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (II Cor. 3:6), but as faith is united to love, it is simultaneously broken from the past and brought into the present, creating victory for the future.  Without being united to love, however, faith’s future is non-existent, just as “faith without works is dead.” (Js. 2:26)  “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” (Js. 1:22) 

Inactivity with the Word is disobedience.    It is rebellion to the possibilities of its future.  Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. (I Sam. 15:23)  Leaving the Word unacted upon in the choices of the present is demonic and will be judged by God.  The rejection of God’s Word (Jesus) results in damnation, because the future is left empty and therefore hope is destroyed.  “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17)  The Word must be acted upon and that action is Love.

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)

Trinity Concepts (1.06) Christian Activity

Prayer

 Study of Word

 Worship

The balance of Christian activity flows from the Trinity of God, as well.  Needlessly, we often see imbalances in Christian’s lives, churches and entire denominations, even when we have been shown the proper function and relationship between the three aspects of the Trinity very clearly (John 14-17).

Worship relates to the Holy Spirit.  In this ‘category’ we also find emotion in the human soul.  How often have believers been emotionally caught up in worship, only to realize that they weren’t anchored in reality.  As glorious as the experience of worship was the day before, there are still bills to pay and nagging life circumstances that just won’t go away, no matter how much time we yield our passions in worship.  Emotion is good, when it is in proper priority to the other parts of our human existence.  Emotionalism in worship, unbalanced, ultimately leads to a vacuum of conclusive life-solutions.

Worship, however, that has its foundation and roots in the revealed Word and timed by the obedience of a relationship through prayer with the Father, is infused with power into the physical realm that releases the miraculous.  Healings, deliverances and a tangible sense of His Presence is overwhelming.  Many believers then seek ‘worship’ again, to bring them this manifestation of God’s blessing, not realizing that it was an outflow from the prayer that went forth behind the scenes and the revelation of the Word giving fuel to the flames of the Holy Spirit’s movement.  Without prayer and the revealed Word, worship is consumed and cannot exist, for it has nothing to empower it.  When believers turn to worship over and over again to try to fill their spiritual hunger, it becomes dry and they wonder why this is.  It’s because they have lost their memory of why they are rejoicing.  Without the obedience of the Cross, and the revelation of the Resurrection, there can be no exaltation of the Ascension.   The joy of worship comes from knowing why we are worshiping.  Without this, we’re just worshiping worship.

The revealed Word is known as Rhema.  It is different than the historical word, Logos.  Jesus is the Word made flesh.  He came into a fleshly body subject to decay.  The letter kills but the Spirit gives life.  Jesus, the Word died.  The logos will die, but the resurrected Rhema lives forever.  Our relationship with the Word is a two-edged sword, killing our flesh and breathing life into our renewing soul.  “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Rom. 12:2)  The mind of the soul and the Word are linked together categorically.  Too often, however, the un-renewed mind of carnal Christians will turn what was intentionally Rhema from the Scriptures into law (Logos).  Again, without the balance of the areas of prayer and worship, the Scriptures become dry and legal.  Indeed we cannot even come to Jesus (the Word) unless the Father (prayer/obedience) draws us to Him.  Our relationship with the Father, through a hunger for and obedience to His will and purpose, is critical in order for our eyes to be opened with new revelation.  God will only give us the Revealed Rhema when our hearts are fully toward Him.

Worship and Prayer are often mistaken for each other.  They are quite different, however.  Worship is a manifestation on the outside of a conviction on the inside.  It’s the amplified signal shouting on the rooftops.  In essence, it is evangelical.  Prayer, however, is on the inside.  Jesus told us to go into our inner rooms and shut the doors when we pray.  This is not just a physical command, but also, and perhaps mostly, a metaphoric command, for we are spirit, soul and body.  He dwells in our spirit.  That is where we are to go, our spirit, in communion with His Spirit in us, our ‘Holy of holies’.  This can be when we are walking down the street, or in the midst of an intense battle pressuring us on every side.  He still dwells in that secret place in our spirit. 

Prayer relates to our soul in the area of the will.  Jesus said for us to pray, “May Your Kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” (Matt. 6:10) When He himself was in the garden before His arrest, He prayed, “Father...not my will, but Yours be done.” (Lk. 22:42) Prayer is about submission to His will. 

Our will is sovereign.  It chooses what to think, what to feel.  God, in His Sovereignty, chose to give us a portion of Himself.  If our will is sovereign, and He is the only Sovereign, we must admit that He is not divided between Himself and us.  He gives us, in love, a perfect balance to choose.  “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  So choose life in order that you may live." (Deut. 30:19)  If we still choose death, however, He takes responsibility for it.  It was not Him Who made us choose it, but because our will is part of His Sovereignty, he still takes responsibility for it.  In this is the death of Jesus, and in this is the death of our flesh, our carnality.  Jesus died as God’s response to our failure, with His responsibility of payment for it.  He is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Rev. 13:8)  As we live in Him, our fleshly nature, our carnality, is challenged and cut away from us in the likeness of His death. Obedience to His will and disobedience to our own, is the process of our inward renewal. How our will responds to His will happens in prayer.  Our covenant with Him is forged by our relationship with Him.  “How much do I do in this situation (empowered by His Spirit), and to what extent do I remain trustingly uninvolved?”  The answer lies within our relationship with Him through prayer, as He reveals it to us in our ‘Holy of holies’. 

He reveals Himself through His Word and His Spirit, as analogized earlier by speech: articulation and breath, respectively.  (See, Trinity Concepts 1.02 God)  Without His revelation, even our prayer goes awry.  “He who turns his ear away from listening to the law (Word of God), even his prayer is an abomination.” (Prov. 28:9)  God, in His fullness, must be allowed to flow though us, in priority and in balance, in order for each aspect of our Christian growth to be complete.  As the wise saying goes, “All Word and no Spirit, you dry up.  All Spirit and no Word, you blow up.  The Word and the Spirit together, and you grow up.”

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)



Trinity Concepts (2.06) Man's Flesh, Temptations

Glory- pride of life

Gold- lust of the eyes

Girls- lust of the flesh

The Scripture outlines the evil animal tendencies in the human flesh, categorizing them as: the ‘lust of the flesh’, the ‘lust of the eyes’ and the ‘pride of life’. (I Jn. 2:16)  These relate to the three main animal instincts to procreate, to eat (or have sustenance), and to fight/survive, respectively. 

Relating to the human soul, the pride of life is centered in the fleshly will.  It is the ‘ego’ of man.  “I will do it my way”- trusting in self.  The lust of the eyes deals with the fleshly mind.  Coveting and greed are manifested in this category.  Metaphorically, the Bible speaks of the ‘eyes’ as the mind: "If therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light." (Matt. 6:22)  The lust of the flesh correlates to the fleshly emotion, the flesh’s lust for pleasure and self-gratification. “If it feels good, do it” is the characteristic here.

The cure, or solution, to these evils can be found in the acceptance of the influence of God’s Kingdom attributes: righteousness (dealing with the pride of life); peace (dealing with the lust of the eyes) and joy (countering the lust of the flesh).

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)



Trinity Concepts (1.03) Kingdom Attributes

Righteousness

Peace

Joy

Will

Mind

Emotions

The Apostle Paul states, “for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”. (Rom. 14:17)   Again, a pattern of the triune nature of God is seen, relating to the three divine categories of our existence.  Righteousness, being made right, being forgiven, being accepted, being loved by the Creator, allows one to submit his or her life to the Creator’s will.  Righteousness inspires submission with a willing and grateful heart. Through being made ‘right with God’, or ‘righteous’, we now can make the right choices in life. 

Peace relates to the human mind.  Peace deals with the lust of the eyes, for the eyes of man are never satisfied (Prov. 27:20), but the “peace of God which surpasses all comprehension shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:7)  The peace of God satisfies our minds and keeps our thoughts from racing about.  The imaginations of the human mind run rampant, but God’s peace brings clarity as an un-rippled pond. Here is yet another verse, “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace.” (Is. 26:3)  Peace calms the tumultuous waves of the mind, much like Jesus commanded the sea, “Peace! Be still!” and it was so. 

Joy correlates to the human emotions.  The joy of the Holy Spirit is released into our lives to drive out the lust of the flesh.  (See, devil's attributes and Man's Flesh/ Temptations)  There is no ’high’ that can satisfy the human soul (or body) like that of God’s joy.  ‘Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:17)  “Let him who is merry sing songs.”(James 5:13)  God intends for us to allow His joy to flow through our lives to satisfy our inner need for satisfaction.  More clothes, more food, more entertainment, materialism, narcissism are all counterfeits to God’s joy.  His joy will quell every ungodly lust and desire.  His joy will fill up the deepest yearning of the human soul.  Nothing can satisfy the longings of the human emotions like the joy of the Lord.  He satisfies our deepest desires, and this in turn becomes our strength.  

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)

Trinity Concepts (2.01) Man's Spirit

Man’s spirit

Conscience

Intuition

Communion

Most people would agree that we as humans have a body and a soul.  But we also have what the Scriptures continually refer to as a spirit.  This is the part of us least detected by the common observer.  One author* characterized the human spirit as our Conscience, Intuition and our Communion with God.  Again, each of these corresponds categorically to the triune nature of God.   Our conscience (or sense of right and wrong) corresponds to the Father, Who will judge the world one day.  Our intuition (or revealed knowledge) corresponds to the Word of God.  Our Communion with God corresponds to the Holy Spirit, as He is here with us on the earth, in Jesus’ absence.  One of His names is Comforter.  (It is easy to see why many young believers mistake the movings of the Holy Spirit with their emotions, since the emotions of the soul are in the same category of [Holy Spirit, Communion with God, Emotions, Endoderm].

*Watchman Nee

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)

Trinity Concepts (2.00) Man

Man 

Spirit

Soul

Body

Man, created in God’s image, was made to have three main elements to his being.  This is outlined in the Scriptures as “spirit, soul and body”. (I Thess. 5:23) These three areas of our existence each have three parts, reflecting the Trinity ‘dimensions’ within themselves.

The spirit of man is the part of man that touches the supernatural realm, or the spiritual realm.  To one who has not yet received the new birth, which comes through faith in Jesus Christ, his spirit is separated from God.  This produces within him a sensation of a ‘vacuum’, an insatiable hunger driving him to try to fill it with anything that will give some relief.  Just a moment of ‘inspiration’ from a movie or a walk in the park, or wherever he has tasted just a hint of God’s goodness (which is evident all around us), keeps him constantly searching for the next high, or 'fix', that will quell this aching pain within himself.  What he is not aware of is the fact that God is actually leading him to Himself by His goodness. (Rom.2:4)

Some people are lured into the negative power of the spirit realm through the occult, not realizing that spiritual forces can be destructive.  The misconception is that just because something is spiritual, and thus higher and more powerful than the natural realm, that this makes it automatically good.  Falling into this trap produces nothing but failure and destruction.

To the Christian, however, our spirits are joined to the Holy Spirit, united with Him.  We are “blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3)

Our soul is formed by the ‘merging together’ of our spirit and our body.  It is the ‘middle’ part of our being, characterized by our mind (or reasoning capabilities), emotions (or affections) and volition, or will (decision making ability).  Every person has unique strengths and ‘giftings’, based upon how these three areas of their soul function.  One person will have a very quick mind.  Someone else will be the ‘life of the party’ with emotional effectiveness, and yet others can make quick decisions that, more often than not, are correct and good.  These are known as the personality temperaments of our lives.  We each have varied combinations of these three elements, producing within us our own uniqueness. The body also affects our soul and the kind of personalities we have.    According to the field of embryology, the three main aspects of our bodies, formed within the womb, are the Mesoderm, Ectoderm and Endoderm.  In broad terminology, this is the Structural system (bones, muscles, tendons, etc.), the Nervous system (or communication system) and the Fueling System (turning food into energy for the body).  Each of these three parts of our body relate to the Trinity ‘dimensions’ as well.

Following is a discussion of the attributes of man: spirit, soul and body, in more detail.



(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)

Trinity Concepts (1.02) God

God

Father

Son

Holy Spirit

God, at least to us, in this realm as human beings, is revealed in a triune manner.  This triune nature is seen in a ‘hierarchy’ if you will.  Jesus said, “If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.” (Jn. 14:28)   “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.  He shall glorify Me (Jesus); for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.” (Jn. 16:13-1)  By these passages, it becomes evident that the ‘order’ of God is: Father, Son (the Word), Holy Spirit. 

Though there is order and priority, there is also balance.  This balance can be illustrated by simple human speech.  If I begin talking and run out of air, but my mouth keeps moving, I have all word and no spirit (breath).  However, if I am speaking with plenty of air-flow, yet my articulate speech becomes slurred and finally non-articulate, I have all spirit and no word.  Both scenarios are imbalanced, both fail to convey the message I desire to communicate.  Similarly, the Father has a message He wants to convey, through the balance of articulation and breath: the Word (Jesus) and the Spirit, respectively.

Everything that will be set forth is based upon this pattern.  The attributes of the Father flow down through every part of creation.  Even though He is seen throughout the other realms of Word and Spirit, there is still a specific influence that comes from the Father ‘dimension’.  The same holds true for the Son (or Word).  There are specific attributes that flow down from Him through every level of existence that uniquely reflect His dimension.  The Holy Spirit’s attributes of existence also fall under the patterns only observable in the dimension He holds. 

“You believe God is One.  You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.” (James 2:19)  My purpose in these statements is not to ‘dissect’, if you will, God Himself, but rather to show His attributes as He reveals Himself to us throughout all of our existence.  The patterns of creation reflect the Creator.  The Trinity can be seen throughout all of life, not simply in a theological or philosophical textbook.  He has revealed Himself to us in so many different ways throughout our life experiences, it would be impossible to enumerate every example.  As the Apostle Paul states, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made…” (Rom. 1:20) 

It would, at this point, be fitting to remember that the Triune God has never been made, as the creation has been made.  He has always existed, and always will exist.  He stands uniquely separate from anyone or anything else that has ever existed, due to the fact that everything else has, or had, a definite beginning and ending.  Jesus, the man in the flesh, obviously had a finite beginning.  However, the seed of the Word, Who lived through the flesh has always been: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn. 1:1) 

In attempting to ‘paint a picture’ of the nature of the Trinity, I have spaced the categories across the page for each subject in a semi-triangular way with the Father dimension being top-most and in the center, the Son (or Word) dimension being to the left and the Holy Spirit dimension being to the right.  In doing this, I am trying to depict that the Father is the One from whom the balance of the Word and the Spirit emanate.  He is the One sending the message of His love.  This message is communicated by the articulation of the Word and the empowerment of the breath of the Spirit.  The Word and the Spirit balance each other, with the Word still holding priority.  (Again, the reference of John, chapters 14 and 16 reveal this.) 

The Apostle Paul also shows us this same principle, “Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or the harp?  For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?  So also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken?  For you will be speaking into the air.  There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of languages in the world, and no kind is without meaning.  If then I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be to the one who speaks a barbarian (foreigner), and the one who speaks will be a barbarian (foreigner) to me.” (I Cor. 14:7-11) 

He is showing us in these passages that all spirit, with no articulation, produces an indistinct sound.  The same is true in the balance of the Trinity.  As the Father communicates to us, He places emphasis on our understanding what He is saying (through the Word), yet He conveys this message by the breath of His Spirit.  If He were to emphasize the Spirit over the Word, He would become inarticulate and the message would be lost.  His perfect balance of priorities, however, carries total power. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn. 1:1)  “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light.” (Gen. 1:3)  There is a popular proverb among church-goers: “All Word and you dry up.  All Spirit and you blow up.  The Word and the Spirit together and you grow up.”  Through this delicate balance, however, the articulation of the Word still holds priority.

The pattern of the Trinity, with the priority and balance I have just described, again, is seen throughout all of our existence.  The inter-relationship of these three areas (or, dimensions, as I have been calling them) is also seen throughout every part of creation.  All of the following will be derived from these simple fundamental concepts.

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)

Trinity Concepts (1.01) Introduction

“Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.  For we all stumble in many ways.  If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man…” (James 3:1-2)

This Scriptural admonition is one I take seriously.  There is only One who is perfect, who spoke perfectly, and had complete purity in His understanding of life.  “For now I see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I have been fully known.  But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (I Cor. 13:12-13)

That which I am attempting to bring forth does not come from my own human wisdom or understanding, but rather has been given to me from countless influences: teachers, pastors, family, books and friends, through prayer and the meditation of God's Word.  Through the years I have seen patterns in my heart that I believe are indisputable.  Whatever difficulty there may be in transferring these thoughts in written form, the veracity of the thoughts themselves, if studied and meditated, I am convinced, will produce for the reader a favorable result. 

Lastly, although I believe wholeheartedly in this work, and its spiritual integrity, I will be the first to admit, since I am human and have a limited perception, that I may be wrong in one point or the other.  However, I encourage the reader to take the material, align it with Scripture and living, to test it and prove it.  I am bringing this forth with boldness, yet care, as I realize there will be some philosophical and doctrinal challenges to the reader.  I am in God’s hands.  He will judge me.

‘Trinity’, the word, has never been found in the Bible, however, its presence is felt through all of Scripture.  It is from the basis of revelation knowledge (heart knowledge) I am bringing forth this teaching.  The scientific (head knowledge) will surround the spiritual core of the body of this material. 

There are three areas I would like to address: 1) God Himself, 2) Creation, and 3) Man.

God created man in His image, much like what man creates is in his image.  As a songwriter, when I create a song, written from my heart, it’s a carbon copy of who I am, the struggles I am facing and my frame of mind at the moment I am writing.  The song is a reflection of my heart.  We are a carbon copy of our Creator.  To find out more about God, we can look at ourselves.  “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” (I John 4:20-21)

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)