Chapter 24
THE HOLY SPIRIT
Charles Fillmore
Dynamics For Living
THE GOSPEL is now universally identified with Jesus’ mission and the doctrine that has grown out of it. When we speak of the gospel we refer to that system of religious beliefs that has centered about the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
As to what that gospel is in detail, there are many opinions. Many believe that it is the plan of salvation for men outlined in the dogmas and creeds of the churches. But those doctrines, creeds, and dogmas were formulated three hundred years after Jesus taught and demonstrated.
There is no authority from Him or from His immediate disciples attesting the genuineness of many of these later enunciations interpreting the original teachings. They are the work of men. These teachings are not the pure Christianity of Jesus Christ.
It is safe to assert that no one can know the doctrine of Jesus Christ without going direct to Him for information. The writings of the New Testament known in the four Gospels are the most reliable external guide. When these are studied with unbiased mind, it is perceived that Jesus delegated no ecclesiastical power to anybody. He did not formulate His doctrine or authorize any other human being to do so.
The Counselor
Jesus appointed one teacher: “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
The Holy Spirit is the only authorized interpreter of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No man can know what His doctrine is unless he gets it direct from this one and only custodian. It is not to come secondhand. Each for himself must receive it from the Holy Spirit, who is sent by the Father in the name of the Son.
Holy Spirit
The question is frequently asked, “Who is the Holy Spirit, and what relation does He bear to God and to Christ?”
The early disciples knew the Holy Spirit as the third person in the Trinity. The Father is always first, the Son second, and the Spirit third. The terms Father and Son express an eternal, reciprocal relation. The Spirit is the infinite “breath” of God as the Son is His infinite “Word.”
We may understand the relation and office of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit by analyzing our own mind and its apparent subdivisions during thought action, because each one of us is a perfect copy in miniature of the great universal first cause–Being.
The Holy Spirit is the executive power of both Father and Son, carrying out the creative plan. It is the personality of Being. It is the personality of God. It is neither the all of Being nor the fullness of Christ, but is an emanation, or breath, sent forth to do a definite work. Thus circumscribed, He may be said to take on, in a sense, the characteristics of personality, a personality transcending in its capacity the concept of the intellectual man.
The Holy Spirit is described in Scripture as personality and as not always existing for the consciousness of humanity in uniform degree. The mission of Jesus was to open the way for the Holy Spirit to enter into the minds of men.
Function
The function of the Holy Spirit, or Spirit of truth, implies distinct personal subsistence: He speaks, searches, selects, reveals, reproves, testifies, leads, comforts, distributes to every man.
The Holy Spirit is the law of God in action; in that action He appears as having individuality.
The normal condition of man is one of inner communion. It is the mission of the Holy Spirit to bring all men and all women into this inner communion. He who is buried in sense limitations must find the way out of them into the place where the light shines. It is the mission of the Holy Spirit to guide man in order that he will not mistake the way and wander into the darkness of many delusive bypaths.
The Holy Spirit comes to men in this day, as in the past, and reveals to them in various ways how to overcome the erroneous states of consciousness that they have evolved, or in which they are cast through association. A higher and more farseeing guide than mere intellect is necessary. That guide has been provided in the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the one factor that Jesus’ disciples and immediate followers counted absolutely necessary to their success in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. They looked to Him for power and guidance in all their work. They announced Him as the special gift promised by Jesus, an endowment that could be given by them to those who believed on His name.
By the laying on of hands they transferred Holy Spirit power to others, who upon receiving it went about preaching, teaching, prophesying, and healing.
Availability
The Holy Spirit is in the world today with great power and wisdom, ready to be poured out upon all those who look to Him for guidance. The Holy Spirit is authority on the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the only authority ever recognized by Jesus Christ, and whoever attempts to set forth the Christ gospel from any other standpoint is in the letter and not in the Spirit.
Jesus gave His words into the keeping of this universal receptive agency, the Spirit of truth, whose mission it is to carry those words directly into the understanding of everyone who accepts the Christ way into the kingdom of heaven.
The Holy Spirit gave His words to the writers of the New Testament, and they wrote them out for the comprehension of the intellectual man. This does not signify that the mission of the Holy Spirit ended there–that after giving this message He then withdrew from the world. On the contrary, it was just the beginning, the primary step of that larger, more comprehensive teaching that Spirit is ever ready to impart to every soul.
The soul needs instruction. The Father has provided a perfect way for us to get it. That way is the Jesus Christ way. Whoever follows the steps outlined in the gospel, now brought to each of us by the Holy Spirit, will finally reach the same place that Jesus reached.
Shortcoming of Language
Everyone has a soul to save, not from the hypothetical hell after death, but from the sin and the delusions of the sense consciousness that make hell here and now. There is a way to bring that salvation about. It is the mission of the Holy Spirit to reveal that way to every one of us.
The revelation begins the moment we turn from the letter of the gospel and seek for its spirit. To know that every word and sentence of Scripture veils a spiritual truth is the first step in unraveling the gospel. Spiritual truths cannot be expressed in language that will carry correct concepts to the mind. No attempt to describe the Holy Spirit is made in Scripture, because language might be expanded indefinitely, description and illustration fill volumes. The Holy Spirit would not be compassed or apprehended on the intellectual plane where human language passes current. The Holy Spirit is the whole Spirit of God. He can be known by man only through his spiritual nature. When he tries to bring Spirit down to the plane of things, he always falls short.
So those who attempt to learn of the Holy Spirit by reading about Him, or from the teachings of others, will fail. The Holy Spirit comes only to those who earnestly seek Him. If you are depending for spiritual enlightenment on some book or on church ritual and doctrine or on some teacher or leader, you need not expect to have the Holy Spirit fall upon you. It is the prayer of the soul alone in its upper room that brings the Holy Spirit.
The Interpreter
The doctrine of Jesus Christ is so intimately associated with the Holy Spirit that they are inseparable. The Holy Spirit is the interpreter of the Christ, and the Christ is the thing interpreted. They are omnipresent and cannot be separated in spirit or in works. Hence, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ is to set forth that the Holy Spirit of God is ready and willing to bring all men and all women into the kingdom.
All down the ages it was assumed that the requirements are met when men have been persuaded to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of their souls, and to keep believing this until they pass out of their bodies; then, the teaching runs, believers are received into the arms of the Lord. But the Holy Spirit does not endorse this assumption, neither does the letter of the Scriptures.
Open Door
Jesus opened the door of unity with the Father to all who believe on Him. It is thought by nearly everybody that Jesus was the only Son of God. Jesus wants companions in power, dominion, and glory, that it may be demonstrated to the world, this world, that what He claimed about his relation to God is true.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is that all men shall become God incarnate. It is not alone a gospel of right living. It shows the way into dominion and power equal to and surpassing that of Jesus of Nazareth. If we have a sense of inferiority, if we believe that He has greater wisdom, or power, or love, then we are not fulfilling the requirements. So long as we feel any difference between ourself in the Father and Jesus in the Father, we have fallen short of that “mind. . . which you have in Christ Jesus.”
The cry goes up: “This is foolish, sacrilegious, to put man beside Jesus Christ and claim that they are equals.” The claim is not that humans, in their present consciousness, are equal with Jesus, but that they must be equal with Him before they will emerge from the sense of delusion in which they now wander.
Health Is Normal
We know that health is the normal condition of man and that it is a condition true to his real being. We claim and declare this truth right in the face of appearances to the contrary. We have proved by experience many times repeated that our words in this way reveal that health is potential in Being.
If man is the son of God, he must be that son right now. Sonship must be just as real, just as omnipresent, as the health that God has revealed through His Word. How shall man reveal his sonship to himself and to others except by claiming it? He does so by declaring that he is not a son of mortality, but a son of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in him and is now shining through him.
Your word is the power through which you make your belief manifest. Simple belief in or assent to the truth of a proposition never gave understanding to anyone. There must be mental action. Organic changes in the mind are necessary before the new state of consciousness takes up its abode in you.
If you can convince yourself that you are a son of God, your next step is to declare it in word and to carry it out in the acts of your daily life. After declaring this, if you fall short in demonstrating yourself to be a son of God, you are to find out why. You have neglected some of your spiritual powers. You may be dissipating the energy given you by the Father.
Mission
Here is the mission of the Holy Spirit. When you ask in the silence of Spirit to be shown why you do not manifest the power that Jesus of Nazareth manifested, the Holy Spirit will in some way reveal to you the lack. How that revealment will come about no one can tell you. But if you are patient and trustful you will be guided and directed so that all the links in the chain of your being will be brought together and harmoniously joined, and the Son of God will be revealed in you.
* * * * *
Dynamics For Living by Charles Fillmore
Table of Contents