Rabbi’s Reflections – Saturday, September 21, 2024
Shabbat Shalom,
Love Of Spirit
(Continued 2)
By David Harwood
I’d like us to briefly examine the relationship of the Holy Spirit to our Father.
Paul wrote:
But as it is written, “Things no eye has seen and no ear has heard, that have not entered the heart of mankind— these things God has prepared for those who love Him.”
But God revealed these things to us through the Ruach. For the Ruach searches all things—even the depths of God.
For who among men knows the things of a man, except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the things of God except the Ruach Elohim. (1 Corinthians 2:9–11)
Paul made an analogy between the Ruach of God within God, and the human spirit within a human being. It is a startling comparison. Paul challenged the Corinthian believers:
For who among men knows the things of a man, except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the things of God except the Ruach Elohim. (1 Corinthians 2:11)
What a correlation! It is very bold. According to Paul, God’s Spirit within Himself is functioning (again, according to Paul) in a manner which corresponds to the way our spirit functions within us.
Consider this:
The most love anyone could desire to communicate would be to completely impart the totality of their love, for the beloved, directly to the beloved one. God is the only One Who can do that. Nobody else can commit, or communicate, the fullness of their spirit to another. We can share our thoughts, convey our emotions, share our time, give our property, encouragement, etc., but nobody can impart their essence to those they love.
Yet, Father has done this through the Messiah. God, in giving us His Ruach, is reaching into the depths of Himself and giving to us the ultimate self-disclosure, the ultimate commitment, and the ultimate invitation to intimacy.
This same Spirit is the One through Whom we relate to the Father and Son. The Spirit of the Lord Yeshua and the Spirit of the Father is the same Person. The Ruach ha-Kodesh is a very important Person to us, and He’s been given to us.
We’ve been sealed by Him, He lives within us. As a matter of fact, if anybody is not regenerated by the presence of the Spirit of God they don’t belong to the Lord.
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Ruach—if indeed the Ruach Elohim dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Ruach of Messiah, he does not belong to Him. (Romans 8:9)
Who is this Ruach that Father promised us?
He shall forever be the Spirit of His unique Son.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall again into fear; rather, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15)
Now because you are sons, God sent the Ruach of His Son into our hearts, who cries out, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son—and if a son, also an heir through God. (Galatians 4:6–7)
It is the Son’s own Spirit who gives us the experience of sonship. It is because we are sons that God is able to give us the Ruach of His Son. This is not a hand-me-down type of relationship. This is not a second-hand experience. This relationship is the real thing. It is Yeshua’s Spirit bringing us into Yeshua’s relationship with Yeshua’s Father.
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
18 Elul Shabbat 21-Sep-24 Parashat Ki Tavo
Deuteronomy 29:2-9[1-8] Isaiah 60:1-22