By John A. Huffman Jr.
Does this help you to understand, at least to some extent, the divine Trinity — how God is Three in One and One in Three?
The closest we come in the Bible to an actual statement of the divine Trinity is in the words of commission Jesus gave to His disciples not long before He ascended into heaven, as recorded by Matthew, when He said, "'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age'" (Matthew 28:18-20).
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Second, remember that the Holy Spirit has always been here.
I wish we had more time to develop this concept. Let me just sketch it for you briefly.
We tend to divide "holy history" into three eras of time. We see that first era as being that of God the Father and all that is involved in creation and bringing His creation in the fullness of time to the next era. That era we call the era of God the Son, the Redeemer, which begins with the incarnation and carries its way through to the final words of Jesus before His ascent, giving the commission and instructing them to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The third era begins at Pentecost. Read about it in Acts 2, when God the Holy Spirit comes in all of His fullness to carry out His work throughout the rest of human history until "that day" when Jesus Christ shall come again, this time not in humility, but in triumph.
Remember that even as God in the person of Jesus Christ was present at creation, and even before that, so was the Holy Spirit present even before the beginning of time.
You and I can trace His ministry throughout all history up until the day of Pentecost, carrying out specific functions. Although we would not label those eras of time, the era of the Holy Spirit, as early as Genesis 1:2, we read that Holy Spirit, in the form of the "wind from God," swept over the face of the waters.
You can give numerous biblical texts to confirm how the Holy Spirit helped in the creation of the universe and humankind. Frequent references are made to how the Holy Spirit came, temporarily, to individuals, equipping them for service. We see the Holy Spirit inspiring the prophets. We see the Holy Spirit being the enabler of moral living. We read about prophets and kings who pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. One, Elijah, even requested a double portion of the Holy Spirit. And David, groveling in the shame and guilt of his lust, adultery, murder and dishonest cover-up, cried out for the restoration of the Spirit of God.
