The Nature and Gift of the Holy Spirit

In the courtyard - The Cloisters New York City

Sophia

Wisdom as the Divine Spark

While the belief component of Mormonism isn’t quite as ridged as some may think in terms of gospel speculation, it does have its limits.  This is where I will be making an especially radical departure from my inherited tradition.

Given my allegorical view of all knowledge and belief, I make even less of a distinction between philosophy and religion than most.  Although, for clarity, I will concede religion is always a philosophy but philosophy is not always always a religion.

Philosophy or philo-sophia quite literally means the “love of wisdom.”  Early gnostic Christians used the term sophia or “wisdom” to refer to the Holy Spirit.  I espouse this use since it clarifies the Holy Spirit’s function as testifier, revealer, and comforter.    

Instead of being an actual personage of spirit and member of a Godhead or trinity, I believe the Holy Spirit to be a force; much like the other identifiable forces in the universe, like gravity.  It is the human recognition of the Light of God.  That is to say, it is the portion of God’s presence we are capable of perceiving.    

The Holy Spirit is the manifestation of God’s power and quite literally birthed the physical multiverse.  Every quantum point of creation is permeated with it, resonates to it, and is defined by it.  If the Priesthood was the energy source, the Sophia would be the shock wave that ripped the material realm from the spiritual at the moment of creation.  Intentional God given fluctuations and perturbations in its energy gave structure and form to everything we see today.

To differentiate this view of the Holy Spirit as creative force, while still acknowledging the roles of testifier, revealer, and comforter from the traditional Godhead concept, I also adopt the gnostic custom of using the feminine pronoun... which also reads better when using the term sophia... but there is no intention of applying gender to this force.

As part of the physical universe, we too resonate to the Sophia.  She is the omnipresent aftermath to creation.  She is woven into the very fabric of creation itself and can not be gifted, bestowed or denied.  She just is... waiting to have her presence felt in those quiet moments of contemplation.   In short, she is the divine spark of life itself... now and for eternity.

The Truer Manifestation of the Holy Spirit

Christmas Morning - South Jordan Utah

The Holy Spirit

As Luminous Epinoia

Many early Christian writers wrote in Greek and used the uniquely Greek term “epinoia” when describing the divine testifier, revealer of truth, and comforter modern Christians call The Holy Spirit.  There is no word to word translation into English.  It means creative insight or inventive wisdom coming from the higher connections of spirit.  This definition adds a layer of understanding often overlooked.

Pondering the roles of testifier, revealer, and comforter, the Holy Spirit as luminous Epinoia adds context to the Mormon term “burning bosom.”   Instead of being merely some etherial switching on of an emotional response, the Holy Spirit enlightens our mind to provide a moment of clarity where we can briefly transcend, in some small measure, this plane of limited human understanding and sense the bigger picture.  It is in those moments of enhanced awareness that we, as thoughtful feeling beings, experience a natural emotional response.  The burning bosom alone is not enough to identify the Spirit in any of its active roles.

Instinctively, most of us understand this expanded definition to be true.  I only bring it up here because it seems to have fallen out of use in modern Mormon culture and that’s a real shame.  Now, that’s not to say those experiences involving just an emotional response aren’t meaningful.  It’s just worth noting that the “meaning” may be more illusive than we may think.  I like to consider these as margin notes from God saying an experience is important and then it is our job to figure out why.  Sometimes, the answers are surprising.

This understanding helped me reconcile a lifetime of seemingly conflicting “spiritual” messages.  It’s important to take personal ownership of your spiritual journey... and not allow others to define it for you.  As well meaning as others may be, their interpretation and their vision is theirs alone.  Yours must be yours and yours alone for it to have any real and lasting meaning and effect.