And don’t allow yourself to become intellectually tangled or spiritually confused by the mystery of the three Persons of the Trinity. If you do, it may misdirect or overly complicate your faith and prayer life—and, therefore, your search for deeper relationship with God. The Trinity is impossible for most of us to intellectually understand; so don’t make the understanding of God a prerequisite to moving forward with Him. You can always trust Him to reveal what you need to understand for deeper relationship with Him.
It is sufficient to acknowledge and embrace the working understanding that somehow, as the New Testament makes clear, God is Spirit and God is Love. And when Biblical accounts speak about the separate "persons", roles and works of God as Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it is unnecessary and often confusing to try to separate whether it is God a Spirit or God as Holy Spirit or God as the Spirit of Christ that calls or speaks to us, abides in us, leads us or teaches us. It is sufficient to know that God is not severable in this way in these functions; it is all the same Spirit and Love of the one God.
Here it is more useful to place in abeyance the paradox of the Trinity, and encounter and experience God as that Spirit and Love, as the One who calls us. But it is also important that we have a clear knowledge of Jesus and a singular, abiding-in relationship with Him as Lord and Spiritual Master, as the human revelation of the divine nature and teachings of God, and as the human example of how to live according to those teachings.
First written: November 2006 – January 2007, updated November 2007 - March 2008
© Gregory E. Hudson 2007
