Creator Spirit

Creator Spirit, by Whose Aid

Creator Spirit, by whose aid The world’s foundations first were laid, Come visit every humble mind; Come, pour Your joys on humankind; From sin and sorrow set us free; May we Your living temples be.

O Source of uncreated light, The bearer of God’s gracious might, Thrice holy fount, thrice holy fire, Our hearts with heavenly love inspire; Your sacred, healing message bring To sanctify us as we sing.

Giver of grace, descend from high; Your sevenfold gifts to us supply; Help us eternal truths receive And practice all that we believe; Give us Yourself that we may see The glory of the Trinity.

Immortal honor, endless fame Attend the almighty Father’s name; The Savior Son be glorified, Who for all humankind has died; To you, O Paraclete, we raise Unending songs of thanks and praise.

Today I invite you to join me in learning about the Spirit of God, using the above hymn as our guide.

Verse one starts out with these words: Creator Spirit, by whose aid the world’s foundations first were laid.  This is a reference to Genesis chapter one verse two where we read, the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  On the first day of creation, this world was like a wet lump of clay—shapeless and ugly.  But the Holy Spirit saw potential in that dark, chaotic mass.  He saw the beginning of a beautiful world filled with people who would find delight in the love of God.  On that first day of creation, God the Father ordered construction to begin; the Holy Spirit offered His advice on design, and the Son of God built the universe according to heaven’s plan.

Verse one continues with an invitation and a request: Come visit every humble mind; Come, pour Your joys on humankind. We want the Spirit to be part of our lives; we need the joy that comes from being connected to God.  Sin has damaged our Lord’s beautiful design for earth. Sin has brought the darkness of war, disease and death.  Sin has delivered fear, hatred and loneliness.  In order to find joy despite the darkness, we need the Spirit who inspired the beauty that has been lost. 

But notice the importance of humility.  Without humility, no heart can welcome the Spirit of God.  Pride puts up barriers.  Pride keeps us from admitting to our weaknesses; pride won’t let us ask for assistance.  We need to be humble; the Spirit won’t bless us with His presence until we admit that we need God’s help.

From sin and sorrow set us free; May we Your living temples be.  These words reference what Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians chapter three: Don't you know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?  A temple is a place where God makes His presence known.  When God’s Spirit lives in you, you become a temple.  But God is holy; He expects and deserves a temple that is perfect and fully dedicated to Him.  In 1 Corinthians 6:20 Paul writes, honor God with your body.  Is it right that God should live in a heart that is covered with the mildew of sin?  Is it right that God should have to share His temple with lust, greed, or hatred?  Certainly not!  So we ask the Spirit to rescue us from sin.  We want to be free from the sorrow caused by guilt.  When we are forgiven, the stain of evil is washed away and our hearts become fit places for God to live.

Verse two begins, O Source of uncreated light, The bearer of God’s gracious might.  God created the light of the sun and moon and stars.  He enables us to create light through fire and electricity. But these all pale in comparison to the true light of heaven.  John writes, God is light; in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).  The light of God is holiness, a pure radiance that destroys the darkness of evil.  God shares this light with us; the Holy Spirit caused all of Scripture to be written, and it is through the Word of God that He shares the light with us.  In Psalm 119 David wrote, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. 

Thrice holy fount, thrice holy fire, Our hearts with heavenly love inspire.  When you hear the word ‘fountain’, you think of a monument that is always filled with splashing, sparkling water.  God’s Spirit is an inexhaustible fountain of life-giving water.  Because of sin, our world is like a hot, parched desert—everywhere you turn, people are dying from spiritual thirst.  They don’t understand why they keep falling prey to temptation.  They crave peace but don’t know how to forgive.  They would love to know the truth but don’t believe that it exists.  Their souls are thirsty, but without the water of life they are shriveled up inside.

Jesus compares the Spirit to a source of life-giving water.  In John 7:37-39 our Lord says, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.  The Holy Spirit invigorates us with heavenly love. This is a love that is not weakened or contaminated by sin; this is a love that has complete trust in God, respects Him in all ways and at all times, and seeks to honor His love with grateful acts of service.  This heavenly love binds us to God now and for eternity, giving us confidence to face any challenges that come our way.

Your sacred, healing message bring To sanctify us as we sing.  The love of God is only made known to us through the Bible.  We cannot grow in the love of God if we don’t read or listen to His Word.  That message of grace is a powerful thing; through it the Spirit sanctifies us.  Sanctification is a process that continues as long as God’s Spirit lives within us; every day He works on us like gem cutter, chiseling and polishing our rough edges to make us better reflectors of God’s marvelous light. 

Giver of grace, descend from high; Your sevenfold gifts to us supply.  The sevenfold gifts refer to Isaiah chapter eleven where the prophet speaks of the blessings God’s Spirit will bestow on Jesus when He comes to save mankind: The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him--the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of strength, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD--and he will delight in obeying the LORD. 

As friends and followers of Christ, we have access to these same gifts from God’s Holy Spirit.  We can have the gift of wisdom, which helps us to understand the people around us.  We can have the gift of understanding, which enables us to see how God is at work in our lives.  The gift of counsel is important when we make decisions; the Spirit helps us to see which path pleases God and which path angers Him.  The gift of strength gives us backbone to resist the devil’s temptations.  The gift of knowledge enables us to hear God’s Word and apply it to our everyday affairs.  It is important that we fear God because He is holy and does not tolerate evil; this leads us to repent our sins instead of acting like they’re no big deal.  And we should take delight in obeying God.  If we only serve Him out of fear, our relationship with the Almighty is empty of joy; our obedience to God’s law should be motivated by love and gratitude for His undeserved mercy. 

Help us eternal truths receive And practice all that we believe.  We need the Spirit’s help to accept God’s Word as true.  In Romans chapter 8 Paul tells us, The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.  The sinful mind is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.  Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.  The Holy Spirit breaks down the wall of sin that isolates our hearts from God; because of Him, we have faith and joy.

Give us Yourself that we may see The glory of the Trinity.  One of the hardest things for us to believe is the three-in-one nature of our God.  The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, yet there is one God, not three.  Through Isaiah God has said, there is none besides me. I AM the LORD, and there is no other. Yet the Father, Son, and Spirit are each unique; all three made themselves known at Jesus’ baptism: As he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased" (Luke 3:21-22). How God can be one and three at the same time is a mystery to us: God is greater and more complex than any human mind can understand.  Thankfully the Spirit helps us believe in things that are beyond our limited comprehension.

The last verse of the hymn addresses each person of the Trinity individually. Immortal honor, endless fame Attend the almighty Father’s name.  Although the Son of God and the Spirit of God share all of the Father’s mighty power, they are both respectful of His authority, as we should be.  Jesus did not seek praise for Himself; He said let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). Nor did Jesus take credit for His teaching; He said These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me (John 14:24).  In the same way the Spirit does not call attention to Himself; He remains invisible so as not to capture glory that should be the Father's.  The Son of God and the Spirit of God both kneel in respect to the Father, and they urge us to do likewise.

The Savior Son be glorified, Who for all humankind has died.  God the Father is holy; no sinner can look on Him and live.  No sinner dare approach His magnificent throne.  So God reached out to us through His Son, born from a woman by the power of God’s Spirit.  Jesus is holy like His Father, yet He submitted to life on a sin-filled earth out of love for us.  Jesus suffered the punishment we had earned from God for breaking His laws.  On the cross, God’s Son gave His life to win our forgiveness.  Because Jesus’ love was so deep as to hold nothing back, not even His own life, God the Father raised Him from the dead and shares His glory with the Savior of mankind.

To you, O Paraclete, we raise Unending songs of thanks and praise.  ‘Paraclete’ is an old Greek word; it means Counselor.  Jesus uses this word to describe the role of God’s Spirit in our lives.  When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father…he will testify about me…he will convict the world with regard of sin, righteousness and judgment: of sin, because they don’t believe in me; of righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you won’t see me anymore, of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged (John chapter 16).  The Spirit of God puts all of mankind on trial.  We stand accused on three counts: we have broken God’s laws, we don’t understand how His legal system works, and we act as if there is no punishment coming.  The Spirit acts as legal counsel; it is His job to convince us that we are sinners who need to throw ourselves on the mercy of the court.  So He convicts us of sin; through the written law of holy Scripture, He shows us how much we anger God with evil thoughts, careless words and harmful deeds.  Then He dismantles our puny defense; when we claim to be pretty good people who deserve some consideration for our efforts, He reveals how God’s righteousness works—we are only forgiven through the work of Jesus, who is at the Father’s side pleading our case.  Finally, He warns us of judgment—eternal misery in hell, bereft of anything that makes life even remotely tolerable. 

The Spirit works hard to convince us to admit our guilt.  When we finally own up to our failures, we are ready to hear the wonderful news that Jesus has served our sentence for us.  Although the truth hurts, we praise the Spirit for making us face reality so we can be saved by Jesus’ loving sacrifice. 

The Holy Spirit—we need His presence in our lives just as much as we do the Father and the Son.  Give thanks to God that He has sent the Spirit to live in us and with us always.