A Spiritual Guide

The doctrine of the Trinity, that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are each equally and eternally the one true God is admittedly difficult to comprehend, and yet is the very foundation of Christian truth. Although skeptics may ridicule it as a mathematical impossibility, it is nevertheless a basic doctrine of Scripture as well as profoundly realistic in both universal experience and in the scientific understanding of the cosmos. Both Old and New Testaments teach the Unity and the Trinity of the Godhead.

The idea that there is only one God, who created all things, is repeatedly emphasized in such Scriptures as Isaiah 45:18, "For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else."

A New Testament example is James 2:18-19, "Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble."

Here I will try to explain to you through Scripture and teachings how the three are different and one in the same.

What is The Trinity?
Tri-Unity (God The Father)
Jesus (God the Son)
Holy Spirit (God the Holy Spirit)

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The word "trinity" is a term used to denote the Christian doctrine that God exists as a unity of three distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  Each of the persons is distinct from the other, yet identical in essence.  In other words, each is fully divine in nature, but each is not the completeness of the other.

Each is divine, yet they are not three gods, but one God.  There are three individual subsistences, or persons. The word subsistence means something that has a real existence where the word person denotes individuality and self awareness. Support of the doctrine of the Trinity is known as Trinitarianism.

The Trinity is a concept that is impossible for any human being to fully understand, let alone explain. God is infinitely greater than we are, therefore we should not expect to be able to fully understand Him. The Bible teaches that the Father is God, that Jesus is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God. The Bible also teaches that there is only one God. Though we can understand some facts about the relationship of the different persons of the Trinity to one another, ultimately, it is incomprehensible to the human mind. However, this does not mean it is not true or not based on the teachings of the Bible.

Keep in mind that the word "Trinity" is not used in Scripture. This is a term that is used to attempt to describe the triune God, the fact that there are 3 coexistent, co-eternal persons that make up God. Understand that this is NOT in any way suggesting 3 Gods. The Trinity is 1 God made up of 3 persons

The most simplest form I have ever heard to explain the Trinity is by describing an egg. An egg has three different parts, the shell, the white, and the yolk. Each part is different, yet is a complete egg.

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We believe in one God the Father Almighty, creator of Heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. These are the first words of our Creed.

This great gift of believing in God without seeing Him is the gift of our Faith, it has been given by God Himself because all gifts come from Him. God is the source of all things, in fact in Him we move, we live and we have our being.  "For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." (Acts 17:28)

God is One, but He is also three persons. God the Father is the uncreated Spirit, infinite source of existence, eternal being with no beginning or end, the causeless cause. He lives in Heaven surrounded by His Majesty and perfections, He is clothed with unreachable light. He is the Almighty, all knowing and all loving God. He is Father of all, the Omnipotent (all powerful).

God has spoken through the person of His Son, Who is the Word of God, emanated or eternally generated from the Father and yet united to Him in such intimate Love that they are always One and they are always together.

God is not separated or divided because He is One, He merely appears as different persons in order to express His infinite fullness which is incomprehensible by finite creatures. Just as a man can not divide his body from his mind, soul and spirit; God is not divided. His works are perfect, His thoughts and ways are above those of all His creatures, His Majesty and power is unequalled, His infinite merciful Love is unfathomable and it is the gift by which we are saved.

God is omnipresent, because God is Spirit; God the Father has loved the world so much that He has given it His only begotten Son, so that anyone who believes in Him can be saved. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

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God in His Infinite Love seeing the misery of His creatures, has condescended to redeem us from this curse and in the Person of His Son has taken upon Himself the punishment due for our sins. In order to save us, He has offered His works, His body, His sufferings and His life as a sacrifice in atonement for our sins so that in Him we can find eternal Life. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." (Galatians 3:13-14)

God spoke through the prophets and foretold a liberation for all His people, He promised a new way of life, something similar to the first liberation of the Israelites from the slavery of the Egyptians. When the time had arrived according to the Divine Providence the awaited Messiah came into the world, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary and conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus, God the Son has come to save the humble, the poor, those who accept His Wisdom and not that of the world. He has come to those who accept that they are sick and need his healing, He has come silently to those who reject the world and decide to come to Him, He has come to those who accept His humanity as well as His Divinity. He came proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven, asking everyone to repent, to turn away from evil and to come to God through Him. He said: no one can come the Father except through me. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. As a great teacher, He taught us how to live for Him and how to love God by loving others.

Jesus is our Lord, our God, our Saviour, The Messiah, the Redeemer, The King of Kings, The Alpha and the Omega, the Good Shepherd and much more. Jesus is God, Jesus reigns, Jesus is Alive.

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The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, it is God, it is His powerful action that permeates creation with Love and Life. It is existence itself. We know Him also as the third person of the Holy Trinity.

As we look at the attributes of God, who is One,  we may say that God the Father is the Absolute Power and Will, God the Son is His Word and command, God the Holy Spirit is the action of God which is Love.

The Holy Spirit is a fire of Divine Love that comes to touch us and refine us in an ardent desire to possess God. It gives us a passion for God, it destroys all the earthly affections because it opens our spiritual eyes to see how precious God is.

The Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost) is the Spirit of God the Father and of God the Son, so it moves us to cry Abba which means "daddy" and as children of God we come to trust God more than we have known to trust Him before, it also moves us to accept Christ in our lives as our model, way, truth and life.

The fire of the Holy Spirit enkindles the little flame of Love that is in every heart, it raises the soul to soar in the freedom of God, it feeds the soul with food from Heaven, it gives courage to overcome all human weaknesses, it grants complete trust in God so that we can say with St. Paul, it is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.

The Holy Spirit is not visible to our eyes, but we can feel His Presence within us, He grants Peace, Love and Joy to our hearts and by His action we learn to recognise Him.

No one can say that Jesus is Lord unless He is moved by the Holy Spirit [1 Corinthians 12:3]. So this Spirit abides in every one who acknowledges that Jesus is Lord, but this doesn't guarantee that that person is holy, it merely activates his faith by that conviction, so we still need a continuous guidance of the Holy Spirit to attain holiness. We must be born of the Spirit to become spirit, and we must let Him come like a gentle breeze and bend our wills to His holy inspirations [John 3:8].

What is born of the flesh is flesh, but what is born of the Spirit is Spirit [John 3:6], so in baptism we are born of the Spirit and we are challenged to prove that we are Spirit.

The Holy Spirit will teach us what we need to say, He reveals the Wisdom of God,  because He reveals the teachings of the Word of God into our hearts, He is also described as the Consoler and Advocate or The Paraclete [John 14:26]

No one can become holy on his own so he needs the influence of the Holy Spirit, He is like a gentle dove that gets scared at the least movement of sin. So we must be very gentle in the Presence of God who has vouchsafed to come to dwell in us.

We have to deny ourselves the influence of our own human spirit in order to allow the Spirit of God to take control of our lives, this is only achieved by a life of prayer and detachment. We must yield humbly to the powerful Holy Spirit in order to correspond to His Grace, we must make a decision to lead an interior life where we give up our private judgement, the light of reason in exchange for the Light of God which comes only through faith. Only through this complete annihilation of the self can we allow the Spirit of God to possess us; to think otherwise is only presumptuous, because our pride will always desire praise for our works, but God's work in our souls is the only way to make us holy.

The spiritual man is also called a man of God, because he truly belongs to Him, He doesn't look for personal rewards, He doesn't resist God's Will wether that may bring him trials, temptations, contradictions or humiliations. God knows best, so the man of God yields completely to Him just like Job. Any temporal gifts are for the Praise and Glory of God not for his own, when any gifts material or spiritual are taken away from him, He will gladly accept God's will [Job 1:21]. He will live his life in imitation of Christ who always yielded to the Will His Heavenly Father [Luke 22:42].

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