What do we have when we have the Spirit? We have everything.
All the treasures of God, hidden away in the depths of God from before the foundation of the world, become ours through the Spirit of Pentecost. He is the Gift from the Father and the Son, the Gift above all gifts, the Gift containing all gifts. At Pentecost, God gives God: What more could we ask?
He’s the sevenfold Spirit who works through the seven days of creation and throughout the week of history. The Spirit hovers over the waters to form the formless emptiness into the ordered beauty of the cosmos. When Israel is a dry and thirsty land with no water, Yahweh pours out his Spirit to make the wilderness a fruitful field and the fruitful field a forest. The Spirit hovers over the womb of Mary and recreates humanity, and the Father breathes the Spirit onto the corpse of Jesus to raise him to resurrected life.
The Creator Spirit descends on Bezalel and Oholiab so that, using gold and bronze, linen and wood, they can shape a microcosm of the Spirit’s creation. The Creator Spirit makes each member of the Church—each Bezalel, each Oholiab—a creative builder to edify the new humanity that is the Church.
The Spirit is the Warrior Spirit who clothes Othniel and Gideon, Jephthah and Samson and Saul, and trains their hands to fight. He descends on Jesus like a dove and drives him to the wilderness to battle Satan. By the Spirit, Jesus heals. By the Spirit, he casts out demons. By the Spirit, he cleanses lepers. By the Spirit, he topples Satan’s kingdom. By the Spirit, he binds the strong man and plunders his house.
The Spirit is the Spirit of tongues. He reverses the confusion of Babel and gathers the nations to confess one Lord with one mouth. He is the Spirit of prophecy, who goes from Moses to fill others, who catches up Saul among the prophets, who comes at Pentecost so that old men will see visions and young men dream dreams. Filled with the Spirit, David speaks in rhyme, for he is the Spirit of poetry, the Muse of the Triune God. Relying on the Spirit, the apostles testify to kings and governors; he is the rhetoric of God. Through the Spirit, Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon break into song, for the Spirit is the music of God.
The Spirit is the breath that gives life, the fiery blast of God’s nostrils that melts mountains and consumes the earth like brimstone; he is the breath of the Bridegroom, fragrant as apples to his bride.
The Spirit is the wind that blows away the waters of the flood and that brings famine to Egypt. He is the wind that opens dry land in the midst of the sea. He is the wind that breaks the rocks of Horeb, the wind that brings dry bones to life, and the wind that drives chaff away. God’s Pentecostal wind blows where he wills. You hear its sound but can’t tell where it comes from or where it goes: So are all who are born of the Spirit.
The Spirit is rain from heaven to make the desert bloom like a rose. He is the water of Meribah that bursts out when Moses strikes the Rock that is Christ. Moses’s words drop as rain and distil as dew, and the king who walks by the Spirit is like rain upon the mown grass. The Spirit rains from the throne of God and becomes a river that turns the Dead Sea fresh.
The Spirit is the oil flowing from the head of the new Aaron, down his beard, down to the skirts of his garments, anointing us as priests and kings in the greater Melchizedek. He is the oil that burns in the lampstand set on a hill to shine in the darkness, and he is the flame of that oil. The Spirit is the fragrant oil mixed with frankincense that makes us an aroma of life unto life and death unto death.
So: Follow the Spirit. Walk in the rhythm of the Spirit. Sing in the Spirit. Pray with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. Sow to the Spirit. Reap from the Spirit. Preserve the unity of the Spirit. Be borne by the Spirit. Cling to the Spirit. Breathe in the Spirit, and breathe him out. Drench yourself in the Spirit. Drink the Spirit, and be drunk by him.
In all your getting, get the Spirit. Keep the Spirit, and trust him to keep you.
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author most recently of Traces of the Trinity. His previous articles can be found here.
Become a fan of First Things on Facebook, subscribe to First Things via RSS, and follow First Things on Twitter.
