Theophanies of the Holy Spirit
Theophanies of the Holy Spirit.
Theophany: From the Greek words “Theo” (God) and “phaino” (to appear). So a theophany is when God makes a temporary appearance on earth for reasons of His own. A theophany is God’s temporary visible manifestation to remind us of His permanent presence in the world. A theophany is when God stoops to us in gracious self-revelation in a form that we can experience through our senses. Theophanies, though, are preliminary, because they anticipate the ultimate theophany in the incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Theophanies in the Hebrew Bible were God’s temporary appearances, but in Jesus we see the fulfillment of theophany, a permanent appearance of God on earth.
God’s Drama. So it’s inevitable that an appearance of God, a theophany, would be accompanied by various natural phenomenon. When God makes an appearance, He seems to enjoy announcing it dramatically with natural effects that capture our attention. God loves variety, so a theophany involved everything from a whirlwind and hurricane to a soft whisper; from heavenly trumpet sounds to earthquakes; from lightning and gale-force winds to thunder and voices; from fire and smoke to blinding lights and a burning bush. One particular time, a theophany of the Holy Spirit included many things all at once… a violent rushing wind, tongues of fire on people’s heads, and foreign languages.
When the theophany of God in the form of Jesus returned to heaven, He was replaced on earth by the theophany of the Holy Spirit.
THE HOLY SPIRIT: The Spirit of Glory; the Presence of God appearing in Shekinah glory through light, fire, and luminous cloud; God’s divine Presence on earth; the eternal life-giving Third Person of the Holy Trinity; the intimate bond of divine love and truth shared by God the Father and God the Son; the dynamic power of God offered to every human being on earth; the supernatural Presence in the Community of God who is personal without being material; the invisible creative force with divine intelligence who truly knows the mind of God from the inside; the Spirit of God who thus has all knowledge and is present everywhere in the universe; the sacred energy streaming forth from the Father and the Son, pouring love into our hearts (Romans 5:5), producing virtuous qualities in us (Galatians 5:22-23), and gradually transforming each believer into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).
GLORY: the biblical meaning of God’s glory tends to emphasize the weighty splendor of God’s personal presence; God’s supreme worthiness to be honored and praised; the overwhelming greatness of God’s beauty and power; the eternal weight of God’s substance; the heaviness of God’s inherent majesty. The weight of God’s presence outweighs the world; His presence is more substantive and heavier than the universe. God’s profound glory is independent of His Shekinah glory on earth. His eternal glory remains constant, whether or not He decides to reveal Himself to us. God’s essential glory is forever Real in the heavens, whether or not we experience Him here with our senses on earth.
SHEKINAH: The Divine Presence, the appearance of God’s glory that dwells on earth, and implies God’s nearness, closeness, God’s with-ness to us. Shekinah is understood in Judaism, and then adopted by Christianity, to be the “uncreated light, fire and luminous cloud” that became visible when God made an appearance on the earth. God’s Shekinah glory announced His presence. Shekinah glory is not the full inner essence of God’s Being, since God is an invisible Spirit who “dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16). But instead, God’s Shekinah is the “out-raying” of that source of Light, like the sunbeams coming directly from the sun. We can’t even look directly at the sun, but we can see and feel and get the benefits of the sun though its rays. The Shekinah is the sunbeam from the “Father of Lights.” Isn’t it wonderful that the palmist exclaims that “Yahweh God is the sun!” (Ps. 84:11). Shekinah has been described as when the Omnipresent One becomes localized, when the Invisible One becomes visible. Shekinah is God’s visible glory pulsating outwards from the spiritual energy of God’s Being, the flowing out of light from the “consuming fire” of God’s essence. (Ex. 24;17).
DOXA (Greek word for ‘glory’ in the New Testament): Splendor, brilliance, the awesome light that radiates from God’s presence and flows forth from God’s character; is associated with his acts of power that are worthy to be honored, praised, revered; is often seen as a synonym to Shekinah glory; the magnificent excellence and dazzling greatness of God in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
God’s Word is basically the story of God’s glory. Holy Scripture is the glorious story of God’s Presence on earth, His Shekinah glory dwelling with humanity. In fact, rabbinic authorities have long taught that the Shekinah is present whenever two or three believers are gathered to study Torah. And the Christian have expanded that to say that “wherever two or three are gathered in God’s Name, He is in their midst.” Many biblical scholars have said, then, that the Shekinah glory is the nearest Jewish equivalent to the Holy Spirit of God.
“To the extent that you share the fellowship of the Messiah’s sufferings, rejoice; so that you will rejoice even more when His Shekinah is revealed. If you are being insulted because you bear the Name of the Messiah, how blessed you are! For the Spirit of Shekinah glory, that is, the Spirit of God, is resting on you! (1 Peter 4:13-14, from the Complete Jewish Bible, translated by Dr. David Stern).
The Spirit of Glory. Let us tiptoe into deep waters, into a tremendous mystery within this particular title of the Holy Spirit, the “Spirit of Glory.” There are so many inspiring aspects to this title, the Spirit of Glory, that we might as well take our time wading in. God’s glory can be described as the weighty, majestic, and fiery presence of God on the earth when He wants to localize Himself. God’s glory is what He looks like when He chooses to make an appearance. God is indeed everywhere, but apparently there are those times when He wants to appear on earth. The Jewish scholars between the Testament periods developed a wonderful word, for “dwells”, Shekinah, which sums up for them, and us, God’s personal, divine presence on earth. So these two terms, Shekinah and glory, have come to mean much the same thing, and the two terms are often spoken as Shekinah glory, both terms together. And now the Holy Spirit comes to mind. When we see Shekinah glory, the fire of the Holy Spirit inevitably appears as well, in the midst of the glory, as a part of the glory. Since God is a “consuming fire,” (Deut. 4:24), it is not surprising that fire usually demonstrates God’s presence. All three of these spiritual realities, God’s glory, Shekinah glory, and the fiery Spirit, seem more or less indivisible. I’m not sure how one would separate one from the other, even if we wanted to do so. All three have to do with God’s localized presence, with God settling in and making a dwelling place.
Heavenly Fires of the Spirit. There were a number of dramatic moments in the Hebrew Bible when heavenly fires came down and kindled the sacrificial altar. The first time, in Genesis 15, was when Yahweh and Abram ratified the momentous covenant between them. Abram cut a number of animals in half, and God provided a smoking firepot and a flaming torch to pass between the pieces of animals. Abram provided the blood and the meat, and the Lord provided the fire of His presence to represent the sacred occasion and His holiness. God’s fire was the visible assurance to Abram that God’s covenant was true and trustworthy. The next altar fire from heaven was with Moses and Aaron in Leviticus 9. After receiving precise orders from Yahweh, Moses instructed Aaron to offer priestly sacrifices so that “the glory of the Lord will appear.” (Lev. 9:6). So Aaron presented the sin offering, the burnt offering, the cereal offering, the peace offering, and finally the wave offering before the Lord. After lifting his hands to bless the people, Aaron witnessed the cloud of God’s glory as it appeared to all the people. Immediately a fire comes down from the sky and consumed the remnants of Aaron’s sacrifices. Yahweh kindled a divine altar to demonstrate His power and formally accept the earlier sacrifices, confirming Moses’ sacrificial system.
“I myself, Yahweh the Lord, will be a wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem, and will be a source of glory within her.” (Zechariah 2:5).
The Theophany of the Spiritual Wall of Fire. It is not surprising that the presence of God is signified as a wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem. The visible splendor of the heavenly fire signals the Lord’s presence and power throughout Scripture. Yes, God is spirit, but He often seems to announce His presence on earth in the midst of fire. In His holiness, God is described as a “consuming fire” by Moses in Deuteronomy 4:24, and it is repeated in the New Testament by the writer of Hebrews in 12:29. God has certainly proven Himself to be a fiery spirit, a fire that illuminates, warms, consumes, judges, and beautifies. Fire leaves people in awe, just the way God wants it. In the Holy Spirit, we are surrounded by a wall of Shekinah Fire.
“And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all assembled together in one place, when suddenly there came a sound from heaven like the rushing of a violent tempest blast, a mighty wind that filled the whole house in which they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were separated and distributed, and that settled on each one of them.” (Acts 2:1-3, AMP).
Pentecost. We see heavenly fire in spectacular fashion ten days after the ascension of Jesus, fifty days after His death on the Cross. The disciples were all together to pray during Pentecost, also known as Feast of Weeks or Feast of First Harvest. This is one of the three major Jewish feast days as instructed by Yahweh in Deuteronomy 16:16, and this particular Feast was always to be held fifty days after Passover. Pentecost was a time set apart to celebrate the first crops, the first harvests. In later Jewish tradition, Pentecost was also a time to celebrate the giving of Torah to Moses. While praying together, there came into their room a completely unexpected whirlwind, filling the whole house in which they were praying. Along with the powerful blast of wind, tongues of fire settled on each of the disciples. Luke mentions that these little fires were separated, which seems to imply there could have been one pillar of fire that broke off into separate pieces. These individual flames of fire revealed that the mighty God was present upon them in the form of the Holy Spirit. This was a display of God’s real presence, a tangible manifestation, not a mere symbol. This was a fulfillment of John the Baptist’s prophecy in Luke 3:16 when he told the people, “He who is mightier than I will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” This Pentecost fire is a redeeming fire, not a destructive one. It signaled God’s purifying presence on the disciples’ lives. The Pentecost fire does not burn or consume, instead it illuminates and enlightens, it fills, it kindles the heart and sets it aflame. These Pentecost fires are divine and reveal the holiness of God. Could it be these tongues of fire are flames that split off from the very same, in substance, pillar of fire that guided the Israelites throughout the wilderness?
The Same Fire. Dare we suggest that these heavenly fires in the Old Testament are one and same as the fire of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost? Was the weapon wielded by the cherubim in the Garden actually a sword of the Holy Spirit? Was that the Holy Spirit burning Moses’ thorn bush? Was that the Holy Spirit’s presence in the form of the guiding pillar all those forty years of wandering? Who’s to say it wasn’t the Holy Spirit that ignited the altars of Moses and Aaron, of David and Solomon, of Gideon and Elijah? Perhaps the overwhelming fire of Mount Sinai was actually a revelation of the Holy Spirit? Heavenly fire, divine fire, holy fire, all coming from the One Source, the almighty God.
The Theophany of the Shekinah Presence of God. Because the Triune God is united and inseparable, the Father and the Son is everywhere the Spirit us. If the Spirit dwells in us and alongside us, so does the Father and the Son. If the Father and the Son have promised to make a home in us, the Spirit of Shekinah glory is right there as well, arm-in-arm in their Trinitarian Presence, establishing a dwelling place in us. Since we are welcomed inside the relationship of the Trinity, the Spirit helps make that happen. Since we are adopted into God’s family as His children, we can be sure the Spirit was a part of that process. We can be assured the Spirit of God’s glory will work to sustain us in the Trinitarian circle and fellowship.