He Was Much the Man

Posted: November 14, 2024 in Life and Memories, My view of the world, Parents
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Recently I started thinking back on some of the many good times I had with my Daddy and I started looking over some notes I had written about different conversations I had with him over the years and the memory of this visit with him came flooding back so I decided to compile the notes of the wonderful conversation we had on this fall day a few years ago.

My Daddy called yesterday (October 7, 2009) and asked that if I were in the area could I come down to the farm and help him with a little problem with the truck. I told him I would be happy to come help and after arriving a short time later he told me about his truck not shifting correctly, and how it didn’t want to go into park. He continued to say about how he had crawled under it and found a shift rod that had slipped out of place and how he had to put it back into the slot in the lever so he could shift it into park. As I listened to him talk I was amazed that at eighty-eight he is still able to get down and crawl under his vehicles.

I crawled under the truck and replaced the rod’s retainer clip from Daddy’s parts stash that would ensure the rod would stay in place and after we fixed it he asked if I could go with him around behind his house to do a couple of things to the tractor, so I hopped into the passenger seat and he drove around to the back. As Daddy and I were sitting in his truck behind the house he suddenly said, “I can feel myself getting older…I’m slower, I ache more, and I don’t feel as good as I used to. Hell, I’m not suppose to I guess for in two and a half months I’ll be eighty-nine.” I just listened and nodded in agreement as he continued. “I have a little something for you if you want it. I’m too old to hold on to all this stuff.” He handed me a bicentennial Eisenhower silver dollar and said, “I don’t how much it’s worth but I want you to have it.” I thanked him as I took it from him while he looked at me and said, “There is something else I want you to have as he held his hand out.” I reached out and Daddy placed a small, recognizable shiny brown leather pouch in my hand. As he continued to talk, I noticed the patina of the leather and the smooth polish on the metal edges of the coin purse that only comes from years of use. As I ran my thumb over the lines in its metal edge, a flood of memories came pouring over me as Daddy continued to talk, memories of Papaw, my paternal grandfather, smiling down at me as he reached into his left front trouser pocket, pulling out the brown leather coin purse as he says, “I have a little something for you here Dick (his nickname for me of unknown origin),” as he reaches in with his right hand to extract a nickel from its recesses to drop into my small palm as he closed the coin purse and placed it back into his pocket. Memories of him reaching into his pocket and counting out change to pay for something at a store, memories of him allowing me hold this wonderful coin purse and to count the change that it held within. Memories of feeling the uneven leather surface when it was almost full of coins. “I don’t know whether you remember my old daddy having this change purse,” Daddy continued, “but this is one I remember him using.” I told him this was the one I also remembered Papaw using, as I thanked him and promised to take care of it, I gratefully slid it into the front left pocket of my trousers, as I remembered Papaw doing, somehow hoping that the act itself might bestow some sort of familial aura around me that might make me worthy of the memories that came with it.

We got out of the truck to grease the tractor, a ritual that I remember sharing with my Daddy multiple times throughout my life. After getting the grease gun out of the shed, we begin the familiar rite at the back of the Massey Ferguson tractor…Daddy holding the body of the grease gun with one hand, as I snugly hold the tip of the hose to the grease fitting to make sure the pressure of the grease going into the joints of the tractor doesn’t pop the hose loose from the fittings as it often tended to do, while he pumped grease out of the gun with the other one. We always greased the joints starting at the back, and then on to the left side as we work our way toward the front where we grease both front axles and then work our way down the right side greasing the pedal joints there. It was a time-honored dance that we performed together from the time I was old enough to snugly hold the hose to the grease fittings. Even as an adult, as I saw my father slowly getting older, I would happily hold the hose to the fitting while he worked the gun knowing if he ever wanted to swap roles he would tell me, but even at eighty-eight years old I was thankful that he was still healthy and strong enough to take the lead with this, as well as most of the farm maintenance. When we finished I offered to put the grease gun up and after I returned the grease gun to the shed and walked back to the tractor, Daddy reached across the gas tank with his cane, asking me to hold it while he parked the tractor. I smiled and complied and as I watched him climb aboard, start and maneuver the tractor into its parking spot, I wondered to myself if I will still be alive at eighty-eight, much less crawling under cars and driving tractors.

After he parked the tractor, I handed him his cane back and as we started walking back to the truck he said, “I’m almost eighty-nine years old and I can’t live forever. When they bury me in the family plot, there is a spot at my Daddy’s feet where they’ll plant me and that is where I want to be, at his feet. He was much the man and I have spent my life trying to be deserving of him.” He paused for a few seconds and then continued;
“There was one time I stole a nickel box of pencil lead and it bothers me to this day. Me and Buddy Cox were at Kuhn’s and…”
“Where was Kuhn’s?” I asked as I interrupted him.
“Kuhn’s store was on Broad St,” he said.
“On the West End?” I asked. “Yes, it was on the West End.” he replied and then continued, “Buddy had this new mechanical pencil where you replaced the lead in it. We went to Kuhn’s and he found a nickel box of pencil leads and we were standing at the counter waiting to pay for it. There were several people in there and we were kids and they just weren’t paying any attention to us or waiting on us. We got tired of waiting and I took the box of lead and gave it to him and said, “Here, I’ll give it to you!” and handed him the leads and then we left. I have felt bad about that ever since, and I don’t think I ever took anything again.”

After visiting for a little bit I left, and as I was driving home I thought of the things he said and I thought of how Daddy stood in awe of Papaw and I smiled to myself because I felt exactly the same way about him. As I continued home, I hoped that some day in the future after my father has been laid to rest at the feet of his father, that he would look down on me with favorably as I attempt to be a son that is proud of.

(My father died peacefully at home in his sleep four years later on November 9, 2013 at the age of ninety-two)

Jim Bussell

Seven Lesser Known Prophecies about Jesus’ Death

Posted: September 28, 2024 in Bible, Christ, Christian, GOD, Isaiah, religion, Satan, Sin
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I was thinking about prophecies of Jesus’ death and I wanted to choose a few that aren’t the better known ones and see where the Spirit leads.

  1. Deuteronomy 21:23 and Galatians 3:13 is the first prophecy we’ll look at. I probably wouldn’t have included this ruling about stoning someone who has committed a sin punishable by death and then hanging him on a tree that was handed down to the Jews as a prophecy of Christ’s death except for the fact that the Apostle Paul identified it for us as such in his letter to the Galatians where he said Christ became our curse that we could never be free of otherwise and wore it as His own, therefore taking and displaying our curse as His own before His Father. Deuteronomy 21:23 “his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you [as] an inheritance; for he who is hanged [is] accursed of God. (NKJV) Galatians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed [is] everyone who hangs on a tree”), (NKJV)
  2. Psalm 2:1 and 12 In my opinion, Psalm 2 is this cool, oddball prophecy about the Trinity discussing the folly of man. In verse one they are wondering why we as humans plot against God vainly, or plot without a hope of winning. The subsequent verses go on to talk about kings and rulers taking up arms against the rule of God in a prophecy of the near future, but verse one can be taken as a double entendre because the Jewish leadership, as the unwitting pawns of Satan, intended to quash and quieten this heretic called Jesus of Nazareth once and for all by having him put to death, but their plot was in vain, because they only were fulfilling prophecy that they should have seen was unfolding before their eyes, being the experts on the law that they professed to be. Instead of quieting Him they did the one thing that would carry His voice to the world. Verse twelve continues the pattern of the foolishness of humanity and it’s leaders for even thinking that they could defeat God, ending in a not so subtle warning to them to “shape up”. Psalm 2:1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?…12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (ESV)
  3. Psalm 16:10 and Psalm 49:15 are Psalms about achieving power over the grave, which Our Lord, Jesus Christ did (Psalm 16). By his death and resurrection, He created a pathway for our souls to achieve a similar power over the grave (Psalm 49) when we are snatched up to be with Our Lord. Psalm16:10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. Psalm 49:15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah. (NKJV)
  4. Psalm 118:22-23 talks about the stone which the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. These verses speak volumes about what is pleasing in the eyes of man usually isn’t what is pleasing in the eye of God. Even though Jesus was predicted and prophesied hundreds of year earlier to be our Messiah and to become the king of the Jews and the prophecies were specific to the very day that He would present Himself as the king in Jerusalem. The leadership was caught off guard and rejected Him. Even though we were told through prophecy that he wouldn’t be an eye catcher, people still look toward outward appearances for we are told in the book of I Samuel that was one of the qualities of Saul that attracted the Jews. This prophecy was quoted by Christ about Himself in Matthew 21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?
    Psalm 118:22-23 The stone [which] the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing; It [is] marvelous in our eyes. (NKJV)
  5. Isaiah 53:6 This verse in this very prophetic chapter in Isaiah wraps the whole purpose of Christ’s death into a very tidy, succinct bundle as to why He had to die for our iniquities and sins. Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (NKJV)
  6. Matthew 26:2 is a prophecy of Christ, by Christ to His disciples in a straight forward matter-of-fact way as a wrap up on His lesson at the Mount of Olives that in a couple of days He is to be crucified. Matthew 26:2 “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” (NKJV)
  7. Luke 18:31-34 Here is another prophecy where Christ outlines the events that are about to take place that will culminate with His death and resurrection to fulfill one major portion of the plan of Our Lord that has been in place ever since sin was first introduced into the world back in Eden.
    Luke 18:31-33 Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. “For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. “They will scourge [Him] and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.” (NKJV)

God Bless, Jim

Some of GOD’s Crazy Antics

Posted: September 28, 2024 in Bible, GOD, Israel, religion
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The foolishness of God has been something I have been thinking about the last few weeks. The foolishness of God sounds silly at first, but if you look at the whacky things that God has used throughout human history to get His message across, it tells me that God loves a good drama. Of course it’s more than that. I believe God has used oddball methods to make an impact. If you were the divine creator and you chose to create a people to call your own, you might want to make them the mightiest nation and empire to kick everyone’s butt…but Our Lord chose to do just the opposite. He created a people to form as His children and His nation that never has, and never will be (that is, until we are out of here) a mighty empire or nation that could dominate the region, much less the world, using their own influence or strength. Israel for most of their history proverbially, has been the ninety-eight pound weakling on the beach that constantly gets sand kicked into their faces. Why keep them weak? Isn’t that foolish? In our thinking as humans it is because humanity is eaten up with self elevation and self worth and self might, etc. The Lord uses foolishness to His advantage to prove His points; any success that Israel has ever had can only be attributed to The Lord and one place He drives that point home is in Isaiah where, while talking about how He will never abandon them, the Holy Spirit makes this point through Isaiah:

Isaiah 44:24-25 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: “I [am] the LORD, who makes all [things], Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself; Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, And drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, And makes their knowledge foolishness; (NKJV)

How about the victory over a stronghold of Canaan called Jericho that we read in Joshua chapter 61. The Israeli military under the leadership of Joshua did everything they weren’t suppose to including allowing the Levites to participate in the military processions around the city, as they silently circled the walls for six days…the soldiers watching from the walls of Jericho must have thought they were insane…until the walls came crashing down. That whole military strategy was just crazy…but it worked and it made an impact then on the whole world and it still makes an impact on those that read the accounts in the Torah.

Let’s just take look at what most would consider a really stupid thing to do; to go up against a thousand Philistines unarmed except for some bone you found lying on the ground, instead of doing the sane thing and running like a rabbit. That’s what Sampson did in Judges 152 when the Holy Spirit temporarily indwelled in him and gave him the advantage. Why did Our Lord choose to do it this way? You take 700 men coming up against 1000 men and slaying them, that is not an act that would get more than local attention and one that history would attribute the victory to the might and training of the smaller army…but you take one man using the jawbone of a donkey, encountering and slaying 1000 men…that gets attention. That makes headlines and it is something that not only would get passed down from generation to generation but the victory cannot be attributed to anything other than divine, supernatural influence and guidance.

The Lord also uses foolish moves to keep Satan off balance. Satan, all through history has tried to out-think and out-maneuver The Lord only to be confused and thwarted by some of these kooky things The Lord does such as: pronouncing a curse on the royal line of David that seems stupid on the face of it….until we learn that He had created an ‘out’ by the exception to the inheritance rule we covered earlier. By allowing Satan to believe he has defeated God with the destruction of all Jewish male babies in Egypt by Pharaoh…except for one tiny child named Moses, by killing all the male line of Judah by Athaliah…except for baby Joash,3 by the destruction of all the copies of the Torah by Manasseh…except for one copy hidden in the Temple Treasury…on and on God allows these dramas to play out like an action movie where the fuse gets to the last inch before the hero snuffs it out.

The most foolish thing though, is recorded in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians4 where Paul states that the most foolish act of all is the preaching of the cross. He says there are those who will not accept it, they will deny it straight out. There are those that take humanity to a level that if they can’t prove it, they won’t accept it and Paul, in verse 22 uses the Jews (I read Pharisees…remember the Pharisees from Matthew 12 that wanted a sign after they accused Christ of being of Satan?) and he uses the Greeks (who sat around expounding the philosophies of Herodotus and Socrates, etc…what we would call not seeing the forest for the trees) as examples of those who consider the gospel as a quaint unprovable myth while example of all this foolishness has been recorded from the beginning and is there in plain sight for all to see. This is what Paul is getting at in I Corinthians 1:27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; (NKJV)

God Bless, Jim

1 Joshua 6:20 So the people shouted when [the priests] blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. (NKJV)

2 Judges 15:14-16 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that [were] on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it. Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!” (NKJV)

3 II Chronicles 22:10-12 10When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she began to kill off the whole royal family of the house of Judah.
11But Jehosheba, a daughter of the king, took Joash, Ahaziah’s son, and spirited him away from among the king’s sons who were about to be slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. In this way Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram, a sister of Ahaziah and wife of Jehoiada the priest, concealed the child from Athaliah, so that she did not put him to death.
12For six years he remained hidden with them in the house of God, while Athaliah ruled as queen over the land.

4 1 Corinthians 1:18 on…For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 22…For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; (NKJV)

Empty space and galaxy near and far, or how long did it take for our universe to form?

Posted: September 26, 2024 in Christian
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Is space empty? When I went to school many decades ago we were taught that for the most part, space was empty. However in the last few decades the concept of the universe being full of dark matter has been bandied about. Why? There is simply too much stuff going on, energy-wise, in our universe for the viewable and/or measurable amount of matter to have enough mass to be the cause of it all, mathematics and physics have shown.

In fact when they crunch the numbers, it seems they are missing a little matter…more than a little? OK, they are missing some matter…no…even more? Actually, calculations determine they are missing almost 90% of the matter of the universe and they can’t find it, it seems…it apparently is hiding somewhere, so they came up with the tag of ‘dark matter’. One popular example of this concept is something called ‘zero point energy‘ and the consternation the discrepancies in the math cause scientist has been labeled the cosmological constant problem.

We learned all about thermodynamics in school (whether we actually realize it or not). Thermodynamics is the concept that matter gives off heat to the background creating energy in exchange. If there is no potential difference in temperature between an object and the background, there is no heat transference in the form of energy and no work can be performed…in other words, all work results in heat being dissipated, or given off to the surrounding, or background.

The ambient temperature of space is very, very cold while matter that resides within the universe has different levels of heat that they give off to the ’empty’ space background. That cold background temperature is called ‘absolute zero’, somewhere around -460of. That is as measurably cold as you can get…you can’t get any colder. When matter gives off all its heat and it gets as cold as the background, that is called heat death. At this point science tells us that there is no exchange of energy…matter is as dead as it can get…everything we know stops…everything ceases being. Kind of sad to think about, isn’t it?

However, that isn’t the end to the story…remember the dark matter, as they call it? Science has found out that even when the background of space is at absolute zero, there is an unexplainable massive amount of energy stored within that ’empty space’. Science can’t explain where it comes from or even what it is, but they have realized that this zero point energy is a constant source of energy at the sub-atomic level that keeps the electron in their orbits. It appears that this energy somehow keeps replenishing it’s self from outside the universe1. Is it some creepy mojo happening…or does it simply means that the Creator is still at work? I’ll take the latter explanation.

If it weren’t for the zero-point energy replenishment, we or nothing else would be here, for there would be no energy to keep the electrons spinning in their orbits around the nucleus and the atomic structure of life would destroy itself. Empty space?…I don’t think so. It certainly seems to me someone is still holding it all together. Let us look and see if we can get any insights from the scriptures…Colossians 1:16-17 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. (NKJV)

The current theories on the beginning of the universe named “The Big Bang” by the scientific religionists speculate that matter sprang into existence and grew and developed over a few billion years, with matter morphing in to stars and galaxies that grew from infancy to maturity.

I read an article recently that mentioned the Hubble telescope, and it got me thinking about this. There are a few deep space telescopes that can look at very distant objects in our universe, including thousands upon thousands of galaxies of all different sorts. If you look at mature spiral galaxies you notice that despite how far away they are, the arms seem to be extended about the same because of the gravitational and centrifugal effects. What is intriguing about that is because of the limitation of the speed of light, the ones we see far away are snapshots of the galaxy long ago in the past, where the ones relatively close are glimpses of only a few years past. In other words, the light we see from a galaxy far, far away left the galaxy millions of years ago, meaning what we are seeing is a millions of year old snapshot of that particular galaxy. While the photo of the Andromeda galaxy is only a few years old. When you compare the photos of the near and the far galaxies you notice that the spiral arms are extended about the same regardless of distance away from us which means that they also demonstrate about the same amount of maturity as the near galaxies. This intrigues me because using the current theory of the age of the universe according to modern science’s theories, that should not be so…the far distant ones are pictures of spiral galaxies taken eons ago and the arms should be less well developed that the closer ones. In fact there should be many, many examples of infant galaxies and galaxies in various stages of maturity in these photos from the long range telescopes, but there aren’t…so…what does it mean?

What it means to me, is that every single one of the uncountable galaxies all appeared at the same time…It means that they were all created at the same time and the photographic evidence is before us.

God Bless

Jim

1 Quantum Physics experiments by Bohr and others show that we exist in what is referred to as ‘local reality’ and that below a certain ‘smallness’ (time, size, etc) things, as we perceive them, no longer exists. (There have been experiments at the subatomic level that appear to prove this where protons seem to ‘sense’ what is happening to other proton, regardless of location on the earth).

 

The Sevenfold Description of the Holy Spirit

Posted: February 26, 2022 in Bible, Christ, Christian, Church, GOD, Holy Spirit, Isaiah, Israel, religion
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When I started writing this, I had no idea why the Holy Spirit directed me to write on this subject, but the book of Jonah has taught me not to argue with one of the three most powerful sentient beings ever. Once I got into it, however I quickly discovered the potential hidden gems of this scripture from Isaiah.

Isaiah 11:1-5 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. (NKJV)

Spirit of the Lord is the supernatural power source that creates God’s Thoughts in our hearts.

Spirit of Wisdom is all of God’s supernatural Thoughts themselves.

Spirit of Understanding is God’s personal illumination of those thoughts.

Spirit of Counsel is God’s personal instructions for Godly choices.

Spirit of Strength is God’s supernatural ability to perform those Thoughts in our lives.

Spirit of Knowledge is seeing God’s Thoughts manifested in our life actions.

Fear of the Lord is walking in God’s Love and Truth, fleeing anything that would quench His Spirit.1

What little facts and jewels jump out at me from these verses? Throughout the Old Covenant we find examples of the Holy Spirit working within people, but it seems to always be on a temporary basis. Here in Isaiah though, we find an example, possibly maybe the first mention, of the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit upon a man, which I see as a typological example of an act of the Holy Spirit that began on the Day of Pentecost and which heralded in the future dispensation that we all enjoy called the Church Age. Of course in this example the man happens to be Jesus Christ. We know this is a prophecy of Christ because of several clues, the first of which is one of the known Old Testament titles of Christ in verse one. If we look at verses three through five of Isaiah chapter eleven we have even more insights why this can only be Christ;

Isaiah 11:3-5 His delight [is] in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist. (NKJV)

Jesus is the only human that ever has lived and ever will live that can be called righteous….then we read He will be striking the earth with another characteristic of Christ; the rod of his mouth, which is basically what John saw in Revelation 1: 16 and again in Revelation 19:15. I, of course, wonder when this took place and I believe it was when Christ arose from the water after He was baptized by John. 2

I am sort of a mystic I suppose, for I automatically look for clues and patterns and types in the scriptures and a couple of other things that popped out at me in this passage relate to numerology which many are somewhat familiar with. For an example, many people think seven means something akin to holiness…but it seems to be more along the line of completeness. The number six seems to be a number relating to man and humanity. There are seven Spirits listed here which denotes complete and total spiritualness. If you notice the first Spirit, the Spirit of The Lord, it is a singular Spirit by itself and the other six Spirits are listed in pairs (the number two is considered union or witnessing). If you look at the three pairs you can see Spirits that can be considered qualities of people and are qualities that have been noted as characteristics of individuals throughout the bible. These three pairs added together total six, which is the number of man. The singular Spirit, the one at the top of the list, the Spirit of The Lord, can only be obtained by giving you life to Jesus and allowing Him to come into your life, for the Spirit of The Lord can only come through Christ. If you add the Spirit of The Lord to the other six Spirits you have seven complete Spiritual characteristics of the Holy Spirit that were imparted onto Christ.

If you do allow Christ into your life and allow Him to rule over you, then when you add the singular but most important Spirit of The Lord, which can only come from Him, to the other Spirits that can possibly be obtained by good living and by trying to following the statutes of The Lord, you end up with seven Spirits encompassing you within your life. Which, with Christ in the middle of your life, adds up to the completeness you can only obtain through salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I was going to end it there and call it a day, but I think I need to continue.

Let’s see if we can link this passage in Isaiah with Revelation…primarily, Revelation chapter one verses four and five.

Revelation 1:4 John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, (NKJV).

What we have here, I believe, is a peek behind the curtain of obscurity to the basic characteristics of the Holy Spirit. The fact that Isaiah mentioned that the Holy Spirit endows these seven Spirits upon Christ and we read in Revelation that there are seven distinct Spirits before the Throne of God tells me that the Holy Spirit is a multifaceted sentient being with seven separate individual Spirits, which, in my mind, reminds me of the description of the multi-faced Cherubim listed in several places within the scriptures. Not only that, but when we read the list of ‘Spirits’ we find the qualities that God fearing (seventh spirit) prophets and men of God throughout the scriptures were said to possess or requested from God, all rolled up into one neat package. When Solomon asked God to give him Wisdom, I didn’t realize the Spirit of Wisdom was one of the descriptions of the Holy Spirit before the Throne of Our Lord and was sent to Solomon…I kind of figured God just flipped a switch in Solomon’s psyche to give him the ability instead of the Holy Spirit sent to indwell him. That being said, when we read of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives…now we know (I should say, now I postulate) that it is the actual Spirits of The Lord, the Holy Spirit in sevenfold that can indwell in us.

God Bless, Jim

1 http://www.khouse.org/articles/1996/281/

2 Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22 John 1:32

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