Thinking Out Loud
I have been thinking about the Holy Spirit quite a lot lately. I find Him/Her/It the most difficult part of the Trinity and I am sure I am not the only one. He is much more difficult to visualise that God in Heaven or Jesus as a human man on earth but He is both of them. The Trinity is not a cloverleaf, three segments held together by a stem, but a whole of Three-in-One and One-in-Three.
As a child I was shown a picture of a white dove, wings spread, beak up, tail down, shaped like a cross, and told this was the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete or Advocate, but it does not really work when you think about it. Like Father Christmas delivering presents, one bird is expected to be all over the world doling out gifts. I think not. My adult image is more like the original advertisement for the National Lottery where a huge, sparkling hand came out of the sky and enveloped the winner.
I believe the Holy Spirit is (to use the posh words) omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, all powerful, all knowing and always there. I cannot avoid Him if He wants me, He will, like that sparkling hand just take me up and shake me. I may try to go my own way but strangely I will always end up back where He wanted me and by coincidence (!) the things I have learned and experiences I have had along the way are of use in the present situation. The gifts of the Spirit can be quite mundane – the ability to read aloud, the chance to meet people and to talk to them, even the ability to cook and cater and thus facilitate fellowship are from Him
Mark (my husband) and I have always disputed where to worship – Established Church or Free Church? For years Mark said I would end up coming to church with him and look what has happened. I had to go through a very bad place to get here, but here I am. Nobody has put pressure on me to do anything, but I am writing this, using typing and computer skills I did not need to learn to be a nurse, but did learn anyway. I will be only the third person whose biography is on the website. I would never have believed I would not only be attending but actually advertising a Free Church.
There is a song, I cannot remember all the words, but this week the chorus has been running through my head, over and over – Beautiful Saviour, Wonderful Counsellor. I consider the Holy Spirit to be my Wonderful Counsellor or Paraclete. I have learned the hard way not to fight against Him. I just do whatever is comes along (as long as it is legal) and I wait with excitement to see where I am led next.
Diana Elsdon 2007. Read Diana's Bio on the testimonies page.
