Finding Jesus and the Holy Spirit with God in the Bible is a process of discovery and opens up the opportunity for greater understanding of the connection between the Old and New Testament – and to us.
What if I told you all three could be found in the Old Testament? What if I told you all three were together on day one?
Simple introduction to the Holy Spirit
In a previous post I gave a simple introduction to the Holy Spirit and indicated where I first noticed God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in the Bible.
As I continued reading, keeping an eye out for this trio, the more I saw them throughout the Bible.
Expecting to see
Before we go further, let’s consider we don’t have to figure everything out or understand it on the first pass, the second, or the fiftieth. This process is about discovery, looking, expecting to see something.
Now that we have an introduction to where to find God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, we can discover additional places where they were already present.
Once I was aware of the Holy Spirit in the Bible, I noticed the Holy Spirit in more places, saw the Spirit turn up in locations I had never noticed before. Like the beginning of the Bible.
Spirit in the Old Testament
I was surprised when I first noticed the Spirit in the Old Testament. In fact, when I looked closely, I saw the Spirit in the first verses of the first book of the Bible.
“The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Genesis 1:2b NIV
The Spirit was hovering in verse two of the Bible?
How had I not seen that before?
It doesn’t actually matter.
When you first see it
That’s the cool thing about reading the Bible. It’s not about who saw it first, it’s about when you first see it. Diving into the Bible is a personal journey of discovery.
Discovery is the gift
The personal discovery is the gift, not whether or not you’ve caught up to whatever measure of general knowledge you think you should have.
Look further
Now that we’ve cut ourselves some slack, given ourselves a bit of grace in the matter, let’s look a little further for a few instances of members of this trio being present.
A little farther into the first chapter of Genesis and the story of creation, we find this verse:
“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” Genesis 1:26 NIV
Did you notice “Let us”?
I think I read right past it the first time I looked at that verse.
What I’m reminded of now when I see that verse is our God is a relational God and was already speaking relationally in the beginning.
Jesus in the Old Testament
Another book of the Bible starts with the first words of Genesis, “In the beginning.” If we jump to the New Testament Gospel of John, we’ll find this verse:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” John 1:1 NIV
This verse initially confused me. As I look closely, I see the relational element here too.
“The Word was with God.”
We receive insight into the Word in verse 14:
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 NIV
Jesus is the Word. Jesus was with God.
Jesus was with God in the beginning.
The Holy Spirit was with God in the beginning.
With us too
Finding Jesus and the Holy Spirit with God in the beginning of the Bible helps connect the Old and New Testament together. Observing this relationship present on day one reminds us that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are present with us too.
Here’s the introduction to the Holy Spirit: