The Finger of God – The Outpouring of Love

The Finger of God – The Outpouring of Love. 

“Our hope will not let us down, because He has given us the Holy Spirit who continues to pour out the agape love of God into our hearts, completely filling our lives with God’s agape love.” (Romans 5:5).

God leaves His fingerprints everywhere, because that finger of His is always working. God has a finger? Yes, it is now time to bring the Holy Spirit into the conversation. Scripture and Christian thinking ever since the early church supports the idea that the finger of God is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. God’s finger represents the power of the Holy Spirit, and in fact is the working member of the Godhead that demonstrates God’s power and accomplishes His will.

It’s easy to think about the Holy Spirit as like the wind or a breath, since spirit, wind and breath are the same word in Hebrew, “ruach.” God’s Spirit is often thought of as Divine Energy or Life Force as well, since He serves in that capacity in the world. But it stretches the imagination a bit to think of the Holy Spirit as the finger of God’s right hand. A finger is tactile, an actual physical object that we can imagine. The wind, breath and energy, though, are formless, without shape. We can hold onto a finger, but of course we can’t grasp the wind or a breath. To feel the wind in our hair or a breath on our face is a completely different experience than being tangibly touched by a finger. But as we will see, we can be inspired by, or literally inspirited by, the finger of God as well as a divine wind or life force. Don’t we all have a desire to be “touched” by the Spirit?

Can we not clearly imagine the fingers of God picking up a silver pitcher of love that was just filled by the Father and the Son. The Trinity always has more love to offer, they never run out. We can see the hand of Christ guiding those fingers of God as the pitcher of love is tipped and pours out that love into the heart of every believer. We can then envision God’s love gushing out extravagantly from the heavenly container into our hearts of flesh. It has been said that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love shared by the Father and the Son, that the love between the Father and the Son is literally the Holy Spirit. So we can see the Godhead joyfully pour this living Spirit of Love, God’s love, into the pitcher till it is full to overflowing, then the hand of Christ splashing that love into our hearts, the Spirit in a sense pouring Himself into our lives.

“For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love; God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us; We can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!” (Romans 5:5, various versions).

The particular kind of love in Romans 5:5 is agape love. It is the same love that the Father and the Son share. It is the highest form of love, and can only come from above, from God Himself. Agape love is the ultimate expression of God’s nature, the essence of His character (refer to Exodus 34). The most virtuous person on the planet cannot manufacture agape love as if it’s merely a highly esteemed trait. We don’t have it in us. We aren’t born with the ability to show agape love. It is impossible for us to demonstrate agape love on our own, because it can only derive from God, and not from human nature. Agape love is the supreme fruit of the Spirit, and can only be produced in us through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This divine love being poured into our hearts is meant to be demonstrated to others through acts of kindness and compassion. This love, this affectionate regard of others, is deliberate and intentional. Agape love spills over from our hearts only after being poured into our hearts. Through the Holy Spirit, agape love can realistically become second nature to us and in us, by displacing the old loves in a Christian’s life, the love of money and things, of pleasure and self, of power and attention. In some beautifully mysterious way, the loyal, unconditional love from above in us is somehow completed when Christians love others. Agape love is the means by which God’s love may reach the world. Agape love is an eternal virtue, and it lasts forever (1 Cor. 13:8). Agape love is the primary fruit of the Spirit, the divine love offered to us to spread God’s love to others. Love poured into us, love splashed out to others.

Pour Forth – “ekkechytai” = to pour out in abundance; a lavish outpouring to the point of super abundance; a pouring out that began at some point earlier (the Cross, or perhaps one’s conversion), and continues to the present time; a continuous pouring out that floods the heart and is immeasurable; an ongoing soaking stream that is never withdrawn.

Just as Jesus was anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit at His baptism, believers are likewise anointed at their baptism. Two sanctified materials are needed at a baptism to complete the anointing, water and oil. The Holy Spirit comes to the baptized, alights on them and remains as He was with Jesus Christ. Only, just because the baptized become little Christs, doesn’t mean the baptized receive a little anointing. The Holy Spirit doesn’t come in dribs and drabs. The Holy Spirit isn’t dribbled, drop by drop, but instead is poured till overflowing on the newly baptized. Whenever we see the Holy Spirit being applied, He is poured:

• “...till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high.” (Isaiah 32:15);
• “Exalted to the right hand of God He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.‘ (Acts 2:33);
• “They were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.” (Acts 10:45);
• “God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” (Romans 5:5);
• “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.” (Titus 3:5-6);
• “Then, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophecy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants – men and women alike.” (Joel 2:28-29).

Heart. “Kardia” = the center of a person’s knowledge, wisdom and understanding; the wellspring of a person’s mental and moral activity; that aspect of a person’s personality that controls the intellect, the emotion, and the will; the center of a person’s God-consciousness and spiritual life; the ‘control tower’ of a person’s whole being; the core in a person of what it means to be a human being.

Divine Extravagance. This is the term often used for the overflowing love, grace and blessing offered in Christ. The wedding in Cana provides a wonderful example of this. Jesus’ turning water into wine in all those stone jars is a powerful picture of the superabundance of love and truth in Jesus through His Holy Spirit. Providing this much wine went far beyond more than enough. It was extravagant. It was abundantly generous. All the pots were reportedly full to the brim with water, which means 120-180 gallons of wine was produced by Jesus. That amount is equivalent to 600-900 standard-sized bottles of wine today! This was insanely more than was needed. God is not economical when it comes to love and grace. It is immeasurable, it surpasses all forms of measurement. God is not stingy with His blessings and His love. He has an endless supply of love and joy and forgiveness. Cana wine is like crucifixion blood… more than enough. Enough for the whole world. Beyond measurement. A flood of love in our hearts, a flood of wine in Cana, a flood of blood at Golgotha. Overflowing love in our hearts through the Spirit is like the showers of blessing coming from the hand of a merciful God. He provides more grace and love than we need, He seems to almost waste precious blessings in His generosity, providing spiritual riches without measure.

“I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stubborn, hard heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my teachings and be careful to obey my Word.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Heart of Flesh. It would be easy for us to imagine this picture: the finger of God, the Holy Spirit, working with the hand of Jesus as they together hold a bottomless container of God’s love, pouring that love into our hearts of flesh. This heart of flesh was once a heart of stone. God’s love can soak into the soft flesh of the new heart and be absorbed and become a receptacle of His agape love, ready to spill out onto other’s lives with compassion and kindness.

“The secret of our victorious hope is that the love of God has been poured out into our hearts. He fills us with His love by the Holy Spirit, so that we love what He loves, and as He loves. That self-emptying sacrificial love becomes the inspiration of all our thinking, of all our doing.” (G. Campbell Morgan).

We are filled with God’s love through the Spirit, so we can learn to love as God loves.