In scripture we see the Lord is clear that he is to be the only God of our lives and we see him state in scriptures “apart from me there is no God”. We also know from the New Testament that Jesus is also God, see scriptures John 10:30 and Colossians 2:9. We see at Jesus’ baptism that as he came out of the water, he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. A voice from heaven then says “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. We see many passages where each are distinguished from one another like the passage regarding Jesus’ baptism.
I have struggled, maybe like you have, with separating the three but also knowing they co-exist. One pastor recently described the Trinity as an egg. The egg has three parts, the shell, the yolk, and the egg white. All three parts are still an egg as a whole, but can be separated into different parts as well.
This got me thinking, how have I personally separated the three?
When something terrible happens in my life, because in this life we all will have troubles, who do I blame? Have you ever found yourself blaming someone for your troubles? Maybe it’s not blame, but who do we put our anger towards in times of despair? If I am being honest, I tend to get angry with God the Father. Who do we turn to for comfort? I tend to turn to God, the son and call on Jesus to sit with me in my times of despair. Who or what do we look too for answers? I tend to ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and revelation in these moments.
When going through a tough season earlier this year, I found myself chatting with friends and asking them the same questions. I wasn’t angry with Jesus. How could I be when I felt his presence every step of the way. I knew he was weeping with me in my anger. I envisioned God, not weeping, not happy about the situation but not weeping. In my head God is all knowing and therefore he already knew and allowed this tough season to occur, and boy was I angry with him. Maybe you’ve had a situation too where you we’re angry with God for allowing something to happen.
I felt as if Jesus, just like a best friend, would have a righteous anger with me in those moments because the Bible tells us he intercedes for us.
Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”
1 John 2:1 also states Jesus is our advocate in times of sin.
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”
The Holy Spirit is also said to intercede for us in Romans 8:26-27
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
When in despair, I am not always able to form prayers or even words, but I know the Holy Spirit can intercede for me on my behalf without any of that. I just want to also point out, if the Holy Spirit can help us in our weakness without literal words, that means the Spirit can also intercede for our children who don’t speak words either. The Holy Spirit will advocate for them in their weakness. Go read that scripture again, it’s powerful.
I started to wonder where this distinction came from and why my anger was only placed towards God. I think it is very much in our human nature to have somewhere to direct our anger towards. God, the Father, knew this all along. He is a loving God and so he sent us the Holy Spirit and Jesus to intercede for us, to change our hearts, to sanctify our minds. We see many instances of confusion and despair in the Bible. Perhaps one of the best examples of this is when God, the Father, allows the devil to wage warfare on Job.
When I was going through that tough time, I studied Job A LOT. Job was upset, rightfully so.
Job 1:22 – “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong”
That verse stopped me in my tracks and made me truly contemplate how I was handling my despair. We need to have faith in God the Father, that he works all things for his good.
Romans 8:28 (ESV)
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Jesus wants us to come to him when we are weary.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
— Matthew 11:28
The Holy Spirit comforts us in times of despair. The word helper in Greek is Parakletos which means comforter, advocate, or counselor. The Holy Spirit reminds us of God’s promises.
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever”
— John 14:16 (ESV)
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
— John 14:26
We often hear all three parts of the trinity described as a person. Now my logical brain could not comprehend how a spiritual being could be stated as a person. Digging deeper into, person was actually translated from the Greek word proponos which means to mask or self-manifestation. In Latin, the word is actually persona. So if, like me, you are a very literal person (meaning human being), I always encourage to go back to what the current words were translated from.
To hear more on this discussion, be sure to go take a listen to our podcast episode where we dive into our personal experiences and viewpoints of the Trinity.
