THE

 "The," is the most use word in the English language. When we read or talk we use 'the' at least two to three times in a sentence. In the English speaking world we use "the" to specify a specific person, place, or thing. In grammatical parlance, 'the' is a considered a definitive article, and is used to identify specific nouns, of which a sentence would not be a sentence without a noun (the subject). It is a small 3 letter word assigned a huge task.  By now, if you've read this paragraph you've already noted how many times I've used the word 'the.'  In many other languages, the noun itself speaks to its specificity. This is largely due to most ancient languages being pictographic in origin. To put it in simple terms; we got tired of drawing a bird whenever we wanted to say 'bird'.  Laziness is often the main driver in the streamlining of language. I could spend hours disecting our use of double consonants, archaic placements of extra letters. It would be fun, but won't serve the purpose for which I'm writing this, but it goes to the modern use of emojis.  We all like them when we're texting or writing emails, but they would really be useless as a tool of Shakespeare even though I would not be surprised if someone tried it.

As we move on into our book, I want to clarify some quirky usages by me. As I've told you before, I was given a Hebrew and Greek Interlinear early on in my formative years. For a period of almost four years, I read scriptures with the interlinear rather than a traditional translation. When I would stumble upon phrases (why don't we spell it 'frazes'?) that obviously had far fewer words than the original, or when the original had more words than the translation, I would take a concordance and research the phrase word by word. It didn't take me long to realize that Hebrew and Greek didn't rely on the definitive article "The".  So, why is this important to you?  Because throughout our study, you're going to notice that I don't say "The Holy Spirit."  On the other hand, you will probably see me use "The Spirit."  This arises because the Greek language we've translated the New Testament from uses a 'gender' neutral word for 'spirit'. However, my problem with this translation solution is that it reduces Holy Spirit to a thing instead of a person. It assigns the third person of the Trinity to being a thing without personhood.  This is insulting, and I believe it is why so many passages relating to Holy Spirit are reduced to concepts instead of truths. How can you blaspheme a 'thing'? How can you grieve a 'thing'?  When we say 'The Holy Spirit' we talk about Him as if he were in the third person. Our conversations about Him imply that He isn't an active part of our experience, but simply a 'force' like magnetism, gravity, or inertia.  This allows Holy Spirit to be ignored, or disregarded.  Yet, when Jesus promised the indwelling of Holy Spirit, He gave Holy Spirit the job of being 'Jesus' (Him, His presence, His being) until Jesus returns.  

I could carry this exercise out to craziness in the extreme, but that would defeat my purpose. Even I found myself while writing a lesson out using 'the Holy Spirit' out of habit. I quickly backspaced and gave Holy Spirit His rightful place in the Godhead. He is not an it, He is a person, and has emotions like we do. A matter of fact, our emotional center is more in line with Holy Spirit than we even know.  Our minds have to be renewed constantly, but it is Holy Spirit who informs our minds. We are just as complex as our creator because we are created in His image. His Spirit leads and guides us into all truth, which implies a physical presence, and a hearable voice. Do I need to speak to Jesus saying that 'His sheep know His voice'?   

Now, even in the Greek, when Paul, Peter, James, and John speak about "The Spirit of God", they use the Greek 'to' which is not the same as our 'to' but it's the way it looks or something close to.  In other words they will say; The Spirit, The Spirit of Christ' or  "The Spirit of God." THE is actually "to".  Which is why you have to have infinite patience when reading in Greek.  And I don't know how to go from Greek text to English text on my word processor.  I'm sure it can be done because I see Google do it all the time when I query it for scriptures in Greek.  I'm going to have to buy me a new interlinear.  

So, I hope you'll understand if I don't get slap happy when someone makes a big issue of when 'the' is used and when it isn't. I figure the first big translation gap came from when they translated Aramaic and Hebrew to Greek. Then to add to the fun, we then move it from Greek to English. Some things I leave be, because they don't change the intent of the scripture in question, but I've grown to hate using "The Holy Spirit."  I hope you will show me grace, (In this instance I'm using the word to mean 'latitude') in how I address the personhood of Holy Spirit.  He is so much dearer to me than 'it'.