Recently, I was thinking of things that are self-explanatory. By definition, that shouldn't take too long, right? Surely you have heard of "one liners," haven't you? By definition, they are pretty self-explanatory, as well. For example, what do you call a boomerang that doesn't work? A stick! Or how about this—why are there so many Smiths in the phone book? They all have phones! Or this—how do crazy people go through the forest? They take the psycho path. Or this one—what do you call cheese that isn't yours? Nacho Cheese. Well, that one may take a little explanation! "Not-chor" cheese—get it?
Oh, I can't let this one go by—what has four legs, is big, green, fuzzy, and if it fell out of a tree, it would kill you? A pool table! OK, maybe I should have let it go, but I think they tell a story—a very short story—one that is self-explanatory. I have often thought of writing a book or two, but much of my time is consumed in writing these messages—short stories, of sorts—almost 200 of them. Recently, I ran across a book entitled, "The Art of Story Writing," with a chapter devoted to the short story. The author, Nathaniel C. Fowler, Jr., writes, "It has been said that it is more difficult to write a short story than it is to compose a novel. The short story, to be successful, must cover its ground, not only by the words it contains, but by inference. It must pass quickly from one scene to another; the dialogue must be bright and snappy; and, as in a play, the author must make his characters self-explanatory to a large extent."
Praise God—in the short story that follows, we will see how it works. First, the subject—the Holy Spirit, and the Scripture's reference to His "eternalness." Hebrews 9, in discussing the inadequacies of the old sacrifices to pay the price for sin, declares, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Rotherham, the theologian, translates this phrase, "Who through an age-abiding Spirit." Concerning this, Herbert Lockyer, once wrote, "In this arresting title, the eternalness of the Spirit's being is emphasized, who never was any other than He is, and cannot be any other than He is, nor who can ever be any other than He was. It was through, or by, the grace and strength of the Eternal Spirit that Christ, the Eternal Son, offered Himself up to the Eternal God as a ransom for sin." Yes, the Holy Spirit is surely the active Agent and Witness at Calvary, taking away your sin and mine!
This thought quickly led me to the next—the "omniness" of God. In the dictionary, there are over 60 compound words that begin with "omni," referring to "all." Many of them are pretty self-explanatory—omniactive, omniproductive, and omnipatient, just to name a few. There are three, however, that describe the Holy Spirit very well. Mr. Fowler gives a warning with regards to this issue—"Many short story writers make a great mistake in attempting to handle too many characters and situations. It is better to have not more than two or three prominent characters..." And that is what we have here, namely three. The first being the description "Omnipresent,"—the ability to be present everywhere at the same time. One way in which this is true is in how He dwells within His people. If He is actually residing in His born-again Christians—and He is—then, He is everywhere they are, and that is all over the world—at the same time!
Praise God—it is even grander than that! David, in Psalm 139, declares, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." (vss.7-10) The child of God can never move beyond His care, guidance, and supporting strength. Glory to God—He is with us in all situations—in whatever the present and the future brings. As we face troublesome times, this is often a huge comfort, but there is a flip-side to every coin. Sometimes we think we can get by with sin if we just do it in secret. But remember—God sees all; He is omnipresent. Mr Fowler also said, "The characters should show diverse characteristics. There should be no two of them alike—each one should appear to be sort of a specialist of his kind." And that we see as we move to our second focus—the Holy Spirit is also omniscient. Omni is "all," and science is "knowledge." Therefore, omniscience is all-knowing, all-wise, and implies a knowledge of things past, present, and future.
Yes, everything that pertains to God, Christ, Satan, man, heaven, earth, and even Hell, is known to the Spirit, for He has searched all things. Paul tells us, "...as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." (1 Cor.2:9,10) Paul goes on to say that only God can know the things of God. In our own strength, we can't really understand the things of eternity—many think they can, but not really! Since it is the Spirit that alone can, do you see why the Church today is in such need to be filled and baptized with the Holy Spirit? In many places, He has been replaced by entertainment, hype, and worldly ways, and the people don't even seem to care!
Part and parcel with omniscience is the fore-knowledge of God—the ability to know the end from the beginning, and the knowledge of things before they come to pass. I must admit that I got pretty hung up on this aspect of omniscience and fore-knowledge back when I was in seminary. I couldn't, in my own mind, reconcile the free-will we obviously have, and the sovereignty of God. I bought into a very popular line of thought at the time—Process Theology. It took away the problem by bringing down God to the level of my Spirit-less professors and myself. It basically said that God, too, was in process, only able to know the past as past and the future as future. That is, it is not until the future becomes present that God can know it as such—prior to that, He only knows the possibilities, not what is actually going to happen. Baloney! If that were true, then King David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, couldn't have prophesied some 1,000 years before Judas lived that the latter would be the one to betray Jesus. (Acts1:16). And don't forget how Agabus, "signified by the Spirit that there should be a great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar." (Acts 11:28) Praise God—His Spirit is NOT in process; He is the all-knowing, ever-knowing God of the Universe—yes, truly omniscient!
Now, having before us these two "very diverse char-acteristics," as Mr. Fowler suggests, we turn briefly to the third. The Holy Spirit is also omnipotent! From the first reference to Him in the Bible, to the very last—He is pictured as the embodiment of power and the personification of omnipotence—indeed, totally powerful. Remember? In Genesis 1:2, "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," totally changing chaos into order. And at the end of the Bible, Revelation 22:17 tells us, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." All-powerful, from one end to the other! The unlimited power that God has is pretty self-explanatory, making itself obvious in virtually every story in the Bible. When Mary was informed about her upcoming pregnancy, she was told that the Holy Spirit was the "power of the Highest," and that He was going to overshadow her, influencing her with unlimited divine favor. The result of which was Jesus, the Messiah. Later, during the ministry of Jesus, He was ridiculed and defamed by the religious leaders of the day. The source of His miracles was pretty self-explanatory, but they still accused Him of doing everything by the power of Satan, a.k.a. Beelzebub.
While they were accusing Him of the epitome of blasphemy, it was actually just the opposite—they were the blasphemers. Jesus explained, even though it was pretty self-explanatory—"...if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the Kingdom of God is come upon you." (Luke 11:19-20) Yes, the finger of God! In the Greek, the word, "finger," is "daktulos," referring to a literal finger. It comes from the number ten, obviously insinuating the fullness of both hands—all ten fingers reaching out to accomplish the will of the Spirit in a very powerful way. Always present, fully knowing, and totally powerful—why do we so often let other people and other things take control? What should we do about it? Well, that's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it???
