The Source of Life

The Holy Spirit is the source of life. [1] The Holy Spirit cultivates a culture of life. He brings things to new creation.

The Holy Spirit is God’s presence. He comes to us through Christ. His mission is to renew people in the image of God. He is the source of rebirth. The Spirit instills a supernatural hope in the future that helps us live successfully through hard circumstances now.

The Spirit bestows grace gifts and energizes the body of Christ. He keeps us living the new life. He is the link of fellowship between God and humanity, and humanity towards one another. He is the source of community sharing. He makes fellowship possible among diverse people. American individualism is hard to break down, but God, the Holy Spirit can do it.

A chaplain at a prisoner of war camp in England gave captured German soldier Jürgen Moltmann a Bible. He read of the suffering servant in Psalm 22 and 39. He experienced fellowship and brotherhood of Jesus while suffering. Jesus redeemed him from guilt. Moltmann compared his conversion to Jacob’s wrestling. At the conclusion of his suffering he experienced the favor of God’s face. The Holy Spirit brought life to him in a place of death.

The Spirit is God’s presence. He is the well springs up in desolate places. He is the shine from God’s face. He is the conceiver, baptizer, miracle performer and raiser of Jesus Christ. He is the source of community that Jesus Christ sent to us from heaven. He is the comforter and truth. “Where the Holy Spirit is present there is life.” He helps those who receive Him to distinguish between a culture of death and a culture of life. The culture of death includes denominational pride, prejudice against youth and women, and caste distinctions. The Spirit replaces stony hearts with hearts of flesh. [2]

The Holy Spirit is comparable to a mother because we are born of the Spirit. The Hebrew term for Spirit is feminine. Rebirth by the Spirit gives joy and peace.

The Holy Spirit brings us into “harmony with every living thing which God has created and in which His Spirit is present.” “Life is sanctified when we encounter living things with reverence before God.”

The Holy Spirit gives to each of His recipients a gift for the common good. He awakens in us new energies. He forces demons to flee. He replaces illness with healing. Weakness with strength! Life in the Spirit contrasts with life in the flesh.

The Spirit helps us to know ourselves. This knowing is vital to better relations with others. The Spirit shares in our sufferings. He does not treat us in a domineering way. The Holy Spirit is the common Spirit of Christians. He gathers Christians to the Church. He the sends Christians out of the Church in families, vocations, jobs, and social groups. The Holy Spirit fellowship is free and equal among generations and genders.

The Spirit brings God’s people into one heart and soul. Divisions between people are overcome in Him. He stops people from oppressing other people. He halts people from humiliating people. He sweeps estrangement away. Masters and slaves become brothers. Men and women become friends. Discrimination disappears! We become of one heart and soul. This is nothing less than God in our midst. Our fears of one another and our aggressions towards one another simply become ludicrous because there is enough blessing for everyone.

Our economy is based on wants. Hunger for pleasure, for possessions, for power, for recognition, for success and for admiration stems from spiritual poverty. The opposite of poverty isn’t property. The opposite of poverty is community.

The Holy Spirit helps the Church to exhibit a Christ-like inclusion of people. He makes community possible. A community where everyone shares is definitely a miracle. The Spirit’s charity contrasts with the strife of selfish people.

The vibrant energies of God’s Spirit preceded creation. He wants to deliver living things from death. Sinners want to dominate and exploit God’s creation. “When God sends forth His breath [Spirit] life is created. He renews the face of the earth.” [3]

The Spirit is the source of our prayer life. Early Christians, filled with the Spirit, prayed with heads up, hands lifted, eyes open and backs straight. They didn’t pray bowed-over or handcuffed as though in bondage to God, but in a posture of freedom. The Spirit leads us to pray for God’s will for others and for ourselves.

The Holy Spirit is the source of life in a world filled with death. The Spirit makes of us grace-gifted people in a graceless world. Jürgen Moltmann experienced the life-giving Spirit in a camp full of death.

[1] Jürgen Moltmann wrote a book entitled, “The of Source Life”
[2] Ezekiel 11:19
[3] Psalm 104:29