he emotions that exist within us follow the pattern of the emotions of God. But God is more than emotions: God is the infinitely deep love and relationships shared among the Three in One. In a number of ways, the process of living a godly life is designed to make the believing heart aware of the Trinity. We are called to relate to God as a Father; the Son is the one who saves and protects us. The Father sent Jesus Christ from Heaven to earth. After the departure of Jesus Christ to Heaven, He sent another comforter who would live in believers. Those first two persons, in a real sense, are external to the life and consciousness of the believer. The third member of the Trinity is the one who emphasizes God’s ministry to our inner life. Far more so than any other member of the Trinity, the ministry of the Spirit of God is uniquely connected to the emotional life of the believer.It is the Spirit who directly influences our inner life. Jesus outside a believer is not as effective as the Spirit of God inside a believer. This one conforms those who have trusted Christ to the character of Christ. Such character has a richly emotional component.
It is fascinating that not only does the Spirit of God address our inner life with its never ending stream of emotions, but the Holy Spirit’s experience within us is deeply emotional. Not only is the work of the Spirit emotional; the New Testament emphasizes His emotions. One can see by various portions in the New Testament that His existence among us involves deep responses. This is indicated by His personal reactions:
- Deep Pain. Ephesians 4:25-32 contains Paul’s admonitions about effective and godly communication, and the abandonment of poor patterns of communication. As he gave his advice, he taught how to deal with strong and powerful emotions. He gave a long list of things that should not be done and one of those is “paining the Holy Spirit. . . .” The Holy Spirit is pained by when Christians negatively communicate to each other and when they refuse to forgive each other. Lupeo is the Greek term for deep pain that the Spirit experiences. It occurs in the description of Christ’s suffering in the Garden (Matthew 26:37), “ . . . He began to be pained (lupeo) and grieved.” In a sense, we can say that Jesus the Messiah had His passion in the Garden and the Cross, but the Holy Spirit has His continual Passion within us.
- Desire. In James 4, the author is contrasting the life lived for the flesh and the life that needs to be lived for God. In verse 4, James forcefully tells believers that friendship with the world is a form of adultery. I would understand the next verse as a question and an observation: “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks for no purpose? The Spirit that He has made to dwell within us jealously desires us (James 4:5).” The Holy Spirit has a strong longing (epipotheo) to control the believer’s life. The term is used often for the longing of one person for a person who is absent (Romans 1:11; Philippians 1:8; 2 Timothy 1:4). Even though the Holy Spirit is present in our lives, we sometimes go into the dark world of the flesh far from His fellowship.
- Jealousy. In James 4:5, the Holy Spirit experiences jealousy pros pthonon as He sees how the believer is caught up with the world. This is striking because that is the same word occurring in the list of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:21. Jealousy is an intensely painful and powerful emotion that the conduct of the believer elicits from the Spirit of God.
- Unutterable Groaning. Chapter eight of Romans is the peak of Paul’s development of the Trinity’s ministry within a believer. In this fascinating chapter, spiritual life is described as that which bears the believers through the weakness and sorrow of a fallen world. Romans 8:14 describes what it means to be a Spirit-led individual: the mature believer in Christ is identified by her or his ability to respond to the prompting of the Spirit. This prompting might be emotional inclinations and insights. Over time the believer learns the ability to surrender calmly and expectantly to these promptings. After describing that aspect of maturity, Paul goes on to describe how believers will have to endure sufferings in this life. A large part of maturity will be the challenge of going on in the face of the hurts, harms, and damage caused by others. In doing this, Paul points out that a vast symphony of affliction is going on and the Spirit of God also is involved in this symphony of expectant pain.
Romans 8 8:23 “we ourselves groan . . .” as we expectantly await the glorification of our bodies so that we indeed are liberated from the limitations and weaknesses of this life.
Romans 8 8:26 “the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words” One of our weaknesses is that we do not know how to pray.
So, to help us out, the Spirit of God intercedes for us. This intercession is unspoken because the Holy Spirit is in deep pain. The same term is used in Acts 7:34 for the children of Israel groaning under the oppression of the Egyptians. The word is the noun form of the verb found in verses 22 and 23. These groanings of the Spirit are voiceless so that the one who continually searches the hearts (God) has to know what is the perspective of the Spirit. Verse 8:28 gives the result of this process that all things are worked together for the benefit of the child of God who loves His Father.
As He listens to our prayers the pain is so intense for the Spirit of God that He is reduced to voiceless pain. This again is the Passion of the Spirit of God. With great emotion, He who is among us suffers because of us.
These biblical realities remind us of two great truths: (1) God is richly emotional, and (2) God is among us in the Person of the Spirit. This should be a source of rich comfort.
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