The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit
by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

"And in the Holy Spirit.”Here, as in the first part of the Creed, Divinity is the subject. Having considered the Father and the Son, we are now ready to complete the picture of Godhead with the inclusion of the Holy Spirit, the Agia Pneuma.

"Holy" (agia) tells us that we are speaking of God, Who alone is holy. The word pneuma means"breath," which to the ancients of both the Near and Far East was always equated with spirit.

Literally the expression Agia Pneuma means"Holy Breath"or"Holy Out-breathing.”Why? Because breath is not independent but comes from a source. By using this symbolic expression the framers of the Creed convey to us that, just as the Only-begotten Son is an emanation from the transcendent Godhead, the Father, so also is the Holy Spirit. This is borne out by Jesus' saying that the Holy Spirit"proceedeth from the Father.”1 Thereby we come to understand that the Father is the transcendent God, whereas the Son and the Holy Spirit together are the immanent God.

"The Lady"

The next term set forth to describe the Holy Spirit is"Lady," not"Lord," as was later used to designate the Holy Spirit. In both Hebrew and Aramaic the word translated"Spirit"Is always feminine. In the fifth century the Aramaic text of the Bible (the Peshitta) was falsified to make the Holy Spirit into a male to suit the Byzantine Emperors who had appointed themselves theologians for their state church. (Some of them were even called"Vicar of Christ"!)

As we have already stated, the Father is the transcendent Unity, beyond all polarization. For that very reason He in no way interacts with the realm of relative existence which is based on duality. Therefore, whenever God wishes to produce and interact with an objective creation, He first emanates, from His Transcendent Being, His own Self as the Immanent Godhead, Which by its very nature must be dual: eternal Male and Female. The Male aspect of the Immanent Godhead we call"The Son"And"The Lord.”We call the Feminine aspect"The Holy Spirit"And"The Lady.”These Two are the Father and Mother of all creation. From this polarized Divinity emanates the polarized creation, from the worlds of the Seraphim and Cherubim to the worlds of the physically-embodied beings.

Divine Duality

The Immanent Godhead is also divided into the moving and the unmoving, the dynamic and the static. The Son is unmoving Consciousness, and the Holy Spirit, the"Holy Breathing," is dynamic, conscious divine Energy. The Son is unchanging, but the Holy Spirit, as cosmic"breath," is ever modifying and cycling Herself as energy. Actually, the Holy Spirit, The Mother, is the creation, the infinite sea of light-power manifesting as the relative universes, subtle and gross.

Eternity of the Holy Spirit

In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit Herself speaks, saying: "Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength. By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.”2

This is reminiscent of the verses relating to the Son, when He Himself says through the Psalmist: "The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.”3 Also," The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”4

In both instances we are speaking of Divinity, but a Divinity"shaped"by the Father in Their emanating from Him. The first part of the verses just quoted show that the Holy Spirit existed in eternity before all time or relative existence, a quality possible only to God.

If we analyze matter, we shall find that all things, from specks of dust to planets, are in their fundamental existence simply light. The entire universe itself is a single wave of light within which there are infinite variations. And that Light is the Holy Spirit. Although God the Son, Who is also being described in these verses, alone is Creator in the sense of directing the creation, it is the Holy Spirit Who"Was with Him, forming all things"out of Her infinite Light.

In Eastern philosophy it is common to speak of"The dance of creation.”The same idea is conveyed in the Holy Spirit's statement that She was"playing before Him at all times, playing in the world.”5 This verse also shows that She never acts independently of the Creator-Son, but that together They accomplish all things. These verses have been attributed to the Virgin Mary by the Fathers of the Church, since She is the Incarnation of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus is the Incarnation of the Only-begotten Son.

True Nature Of Creation

Just as a sculptor takes clay and gives it form according to his inspired idea, so God, according to the divine pattern, forms the creation out of the ever-existing Light of the Holy Spirit, implanting therein, as in a womb, the sparks of divine consciousness, the spirits. The ever-existing God alone IS, and no other entity can come into existence besides Him. Just as a spider spins its web from its own body, so God weaves the universe from the fabric of His own Self. All creation is but an eternal dance of God with Himself, by Himself, and for Himself.”By Him, with Him, and in Him"says the ancient prayer attributed to Saint Peter the Apostle.

The Holy Breath

"Breath"Is an excellent symbol of the Holy Spirit, for when we breathe out we produce sound. She is Herself the primal Sound, the Word, which shapes Her formless primal Light into the semblance of relative creation. Just as when we breathe on water it is shaped into waves, so the Son, the Word, causes the Holy Spirit to manifest all names and forms that exist momentarily in the great dance of creation. The universe emerges from Her Light and melts back into It at the end of the creation cycles, which are perpetual.

The Two Words

As has been said, there are two"Words"that are divine, just as in human speech there are also two forms of the word. First, there is the silent word in the mind which arises before we produce the second word, the spoken word. The first, inner word is the silent concept- pattern. The second word is the outer word, the sound"clothing"of the inner word. So also the Only-begotten Son is the silent Word, the directing, inner, universal Consciousness. And the Holy Spirit is the"spoken"Word, the projected, moving power which is characterized in the Scriptures as"A mighty rushing wind," "The sound of many waters," "The sound of harpers harping on their harps," "The voice of a great trumpet," "The Amen.”In the Odes of Solomon we find the words: "Open unto me the harp of Thine Holy Spirit.”

Light and Sound, the dual aspects of the Holy Spirit, are the basis for all relative existence. All forms are but patterns of light, and sound is the force which produces the patterns. In Hindu scriptures we read of Aum," the Word that is God.”

The Masculine And Feminine In God

As we have already said, the Holy Spirit is the Great Mother, the Feminine Power, the great Womb of light-energy into which the seeds of the individual consciousnesses are cast by the Only-begotten Son. He, in a sense, impregnates Her. We find in ancient mythology the idea of the divine brother and sister who are married and have divine children. Such symbology usually does not please society because on the physical level that would be incest. But what we are speaking of is far beyond the human plane or any tinge of sexuality. The inexpressible mystery of this divine Duality is well portrayed by the Taoist symbol of Yin-Yang, which has already been described and discussed.

Dual Light

Another reference to this divine dualism is given in the New Testament where two"Lights"Are spoken of: (1) the Light that"shineth in the darkness," 6 Which is the Only-begotten, the unspoken Word, and (2) the Light that"shine[s] out of darkness," 7 Which is the Holy Spirit, the communicating medium between us and the Only-begotten, Who"hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”8 It is this deifying uniting of Christ to us that is referred to by the Celebrant in some of the Eastern Christian liturgies when he uses the expression: "The communication of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Iconography

In Eastern Christian iconography The Mother is nearly always shown carrying the Child Christ. The original depictions, such as those found in the Catacombs, show The Mother with Her arms uplifted in prayer ("The Spirit itself [Herself] maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered"9). within the circle of Her heart in the midst of Her chest there appears the divine Son as a child. The idea conveyed by such icons is that the potential Christ, in the form of every spirit, is to be found in the womb of the Great Mother, which is this creation of vibratory energy. Because the vehicles through which we evolve are formed of Her divine energy, it is also appropriate to depict Her as carrying the Christ Child in Her arms. It is the power and grace of the Holy Spirit that carries us upward through the entire scale of evolution to the final attainment of perfect union with Christ the Son, Who in turn will unite us with the Father.

Evolution

Although we use the term"spiritual evolution"to speak of our unfolding spiritual awareness as we pass from stage to stage, evolution does not really take place on the level of the spirit; for the spirit, like God, is ever perfect and never changes. What, then, does evolve? The vehicles of our spirits: our bodies, minds, intellects, and wills, all of which are grosser or subtler forms of energy. They are actually what we experience as"evolving"As they become more and more refined and receptive to the light of our pure Self. These"layers"In which our spirit is wrapped are themselves formed of divine power.

Except for the physical body and its grosser magnetic fields, we retain these layers from life to life. In each incarnation we bring them back with us and form around them the type of body which reflects their state and destiny. If nothing hinders, in each life they increase in their capacity to more perfectly reflect and act as vehicles for our consciousness. They become more sensitive instruments through which our spirit can function, rather than blocks to higher consciousness, which they are in the earlier stages of incarnation.

"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul," wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes in his poem, The Chambered Nautilus. As the nautilus in the sea outgrows its shell, it extrudes a substance which hardens and forms another"chamber"larger than the one in which it presently lives. Then it moves outward into that larger area and seals off the old living quarters. It carries on its back, in the form of its curved shell, all of its former abodes. If the shell is sawn in half, we find a spiral of ever-larger chambers, each of them having been at one time the house of the nautilus until it was outgrown.

This is exactly what we are doing. In our subconscious mind we retain all the lives and experiences that lie behind us. From life to life we make a new body-shell in which to manifest, and it is the shells that grow and evolve. It is the dance of The Mother around us, the"sons of God," just as She dances the dance of universal evolution before the Only-begotten Son.

Our consciousness being drawn outward from our spirit, we"fall"Into awareness of the dance alone and identify with our"clothing," forgetting completely who we really are. In this deluded condition we believe that we have been born and are destined to die, although it is the body alone that undergoes the changes of birth and death. We see ourselves as constantly changing, never coming to any true rest or stability, when in reality it is the energies surrounding us that are ever changing while we, as pure consciousness, never change. This great folly is the root of"sin" (amartano), the great"falling short.”On the other hand, true righteousness is knowing who we really are, not in theory but in actual experience.

Mother And Child

Returning to the symbology of the icon of the Virgin and Child, the Virgin represents the Holy Spirit as creation, and the Christ Child represents the spirit of each being evolving within creation. Just as a child that cannot walk is carried wherever The Mother wishes, in the same way the spirit, though divine, is carried about by the tides and currents of material life, usually against its conscious will. As the infant depends totally upon The Mother for the support of its life, so the spirit experiences apparent helplessness and total dependency upon material forces.

In most icons, the Child is looking with complete absorption at the face of The Mother. This symbolizes the self-forgetfulness of the spirit as it becomes fascinated, even hypnotized, by the ever- changing face of creation. Yet, as the babe grows all the time toward maturity and independence, so does the spirit progress at all times toward self-realization.

Suffering

Another aspect of The Mother's care for us is suffering and discontent, though many do not know it.

When the female eagle makes her nest, she first puts in thorns and sharp stones and then lines it with down so it is very soft and comfortable. After the little ones have grown large enough to fly, The Mother discards the down and stirs up all the sharp objects, forcing the little eaglets to hop up on to the edge of the nest. She then pushes them off into the air...and they fly! This is one of the reasons evolving spirits are often spoken of in the Bible as"eagles.”

Suffering and discontent with this world is The Mother's prodding to get us out of the nest and into our true element of divinity. With us, too, there comes a time when Mother stirs the nest to unsettle us and get us to move up higher. Eventually we come to understand that real or lasting happiness, peace, and security are not possible in this world, nor can we draw them from individuals, however close to us they might be. With that awakening, we are pushed off into the realm of spirit and there must learn to"fly," no longer seeking for peace or solace in this world, but setting about our real work of transcending this relative sphere of time and space.

"Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts," 10 that is, at the voice of The Mother, the"sound of many waters," we are drawn upward, homeward. Those who are wise answer Her right away while it is relatively easy. Foolish ones, thinking they are being"Independent"And"exploring life," ignore and even despise Her call. Some even deny it is there. Then, when they have drifted far into the negative current and decide to turn toward the call, it is often no longer there. An entire lifetime is simply gone. To hear Her call again, many must wait for dozens of lives, and some for hundreds.

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”11 Those who sow deafness and indifference to God will, when they finally do begin their spiritual searching, at first reap nothing but silence and spiritual void to the exact measure that they have ignored Her. She is not punishing them; they are simply reaping what they have sown. Having wanted God to be quiet and leave them alone, to an equal degree they must now yearn for Her to speak and come to them.

Sometimes such people are given a glimpse of spiritual realities and for a brief period of time seem to soar into the heights of spiritual experience. Then suddenly"The honeymoon is over"And they experience emptiness and spiritual dryness until they reap the force of their former indifference. Many fail that test. For some it is delayed for quite a while, and after years of spiritual contact they must undergo"The dark night of the soul.”All is meted out to us mercifully by The Mother, who will never"suffer you to be tempted [tested] above that ye are able;...that ye may be able to bear it.”12

Those who fail, do so by choice, being shallow of heart, as Jesus indicated in the Parable of the Sower.13 When we begin the long path back homeward, it is as laborious as the sliding away from spiritual consciousness was effortless. But Mother never stops calling, and eventually we are"born"from Her womb back into the eternal Bosom of God.

Divine Light

The Son is the"lightless light," the Light that can only be seen by the one eye of spirit in divine union, whereas The Mother in Her objective manifestation is the light that is seen by the two eyes of duality. Her creation is like two opposing mirrors in which we see an endless chain of mirrors. By identifying with that illusion, we fall into the infinite labyrinth of the creation, the countless chain of worlds that each mirror the one above and below it. The Hermetic principle," As above, so below," is both wisdom and illusion, for if we but take away one mirror, that is, attain the vision of the"single eye," it all vanishes in a moment. But until then we are subject to the law of duality. In all the worlds, from the highest to the lowest, all objects consist of a positive and a negative pole around which their constituent elements revolve. In the same way, the separated consciousnesses circle around the Son and the Holy Spirit, the positive and negative polarizations of the divine consciousness. From there we must ascend back into the"unapproachable Light"14 of Unity, from the divine Immanence into the divine Transcendence.

Consciousness And Evolution

Because our spiritual eye is undeveloped, we see the Light of the Holy Spirit as matter, though in reality it is Her Presence, enfolding and directing our growth from life to life.

It is not matter that is our spirit's prison, but our deluded consciousness which sees the divine Light as matter. Once our consciousness is changed, we are free. And that freedom is effected by The Mother Herself. Through our involvement with Her as matter, we are impelled to transcend matter and become awakened children of God.

Saint Paul wrote about this, saying: "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God....For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”15 Here Saint Paul reveals that the creation is a conscious entity, not dead matter. Not only is it conscious, its entire purpose is to travail and give birth to sons of God. Impelling us upward along the ladder of evolution, which is creation, the power of The Mother ultimately brings us to the final birth of perfect freedom and union with the Son, as Saint Paul further confirms: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. ...shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”16

What a different, dynamic understanding of life we have when these things are known!

Our Choice

There is also an important point implied here. If we relate to the Mother as though She were lifeless matter for us to seize and exploit, to claim as"me"And"mine," we are drawn deeper and deeper into bondage under Her dream-power of spiritual hypnosis, the cosmic illusion called maya in Indian philosophy. But if we understand that this creation, including our own gross and subtle bodies, is really the Light of the Holy Spirit, the energy of our divine Mother, and we revere everything as Her manifestation, the whole situation changes. That which heretofore bound us and weighed us down is seen to be the very force which uplifts us to the Highest. How is this?

As we have already considered at some length, in the ocean of power which is The Mother's manifestation, there are two distinct currents, sometimes called in the scriptures the right and left"hands"of God. One current impels the entities therein downward and outward to the utmost regions of relative existence, to the grossest materiality and (spiritual) unconsciousness. The other current draws the entities therein inexorably upward and inward to the subtlest and highest levels of awareness, impelling them to transcend that current and merge into pure Consciousness Itself.

Everything depends on how we relate to The Mother. If we are not in the right current of Her life, then all the prayers, repentances, and religious actions will mean nothing. As Jesus said: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”17 That is, if we are not"born"from and enlivened by the Holy Spirit, we cannot enter the kingdom of God because we are still in the downward current of relative existence. It is through Her only that we are switched from the left-hand to the right-hand path of spiritual evolution. All the sincerity and"faith"In the world means nothing of itself. It is our relation to The Mother," the Holy Spirit, the Lady," that tells the true story.

The Giver Of Life

The next phrase of the Creed, still speaking of the Holy Spirit, is: "The Giver of Life.”There are two kinds of life, the higher and the lower, and Mother gives both kinds. She wraps us in the swaddling clothes of the will, the intellect, the senses, the biomagnetic energies, and the physical body. Through these means we function in the external world, which is really Her. Through Her and in Her we live, sowing and reaping through many bodies. We call that life, which it is, but of the lesser type.

When we"ripen"And are ready for the higher life, we honor and worship The Mother, calling on Her personally as our Mother. Then She gives us that higher life, opening the passage to spiritual realization. Finally, She brings us to the gate of freedom and we step out from Her realm into the realm of the Only-begotten, the realm of pure spirit.

All life, the life of bondage as well as the life of freedom, comes from Her, indeed is Her. It is pointless to ask the Father or the Son to deliver us from bondage or to give us freedom, for She alone has the franchise from the Father to bind or free us. She alone must we seek. When we find Her, nothing shall be lacking to us.

The Great Illusionist

It is not amiss to say that The Mother is the Great Illusionist. She produces this vast drama of creation by Her Light alone, and all the spirits within Her cosmic theatre are swept up into identification with it although it is nothing but an appearance, a dream. As the audience is distracted by the magician when he works his sleight of hand, so the spirits with their attentions drawn from inner reality to the outer dance of The Mother are utterly engulfed in the drama, suffering, rejoicing, laughing, crying, being born, and dying—and none of it is real. Those who do not love and worship The Mother are deluded. Those who see through Her play, who end the game of spiritual Hide and Seek by touching the home base within and recognizing themselves as Her children, have nothing to fear.

As we see and seek Her, so will She respond. If we see Her as blinding materiality and seek for that, then we shall have only that. But if we seek Her as our Mother, longing to be taken by Her back to our eternal home, She will be our deliverer, unerringly taking us to the Only-begotten. When Ivan the Terrible made a silver cover for an icon of the Virgin Mary painted by Saint Luke, he had engraved at the top: "O Lady, hear our prayers and bring us to Thy Son.”

Whatever we want Her to be, that She will be. Mother will cooperate with our bondage, and Mother will cooperate with our freedom. The choice is ours. We make many excuses for our lack of spiritual life and progress, but it is really a matter of our choice. By choice, I mean a desire that is acted upon. A lot of people would be willing or would like to be spiritually perfect if it took no effort on their part, and if it could be done without their having to undergo any significant change. So when they play religious and spiritual, it is just that: a play. Mother is not fooled, and She leaves them alone. The real desire to find God is an active striving for that attainment, not the mere"no objection"Attitude that many people have toward spiritual life.

So long as we want Her delusion and materiality, just so long will we have it. We need not blame others or"The devil.”The decision is ours. She is not keeping us bound. We are. It is our will that She does at all times. According to the Law of Sowing and Reaping we set the universe in motion to effect certain things we want. And Who responds? The Mother. Every time we come back again into the earth plane, She has the stage already set according to our prior demands. We alone have written the script, yet we wail and cry: "Oh, how could God do this to me?”When She is only carrying out our directions to the letter. When we change the script, She will set things up accordingly.

The Supreme Life

In the highest sense, She is the Giver of the Life that is God. She is the great Power that operates throughout incarnations without number all to unite us with God. She is the one Who reshapes and empowers all the bodies in which we evolve. She then brings God unto us in a mode which we can receive—She gives birth to Him in us and gives birth to us in Him. This is the great Mystery of Godliness.

The Cosmos is the domain of the Holy Spirit, Her effectual, spiritual"Womb"through which She gives us birth.

The Source Of The Holy Spirit

Next, the Creed tells us the origin of the Holy Spirit: "Who proceedeth from the Father.”She and the Son have the same origin, being equal in all things. And, just as there is no"second God," anything which has its origin in the Father must in the final analysis be the Father. The Holy Spirit is just as much the Father as is the Son. When all is said and done, there can remain but the One. The Father is the origin and the essence of the Son and the Holy Spirit, for He is the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is a great mystery.

The Holy Spirit is in truth the one God that has no parts and yet is Triune. She proceeds from the Father as the Son is begotten from the Father, showing that there is a difference in manner of manifestation between the Son and the Holy Spirit as the Father and Mother, the positive and negative poles of creation. This was imaged in Adam and Eve. First there was Adam, and out of his side came forth Eve. One became two. So the Father emanated His own unitary Life, and it polarized, separated, and became the Two that together are required to accomplish anything outside the transcendental Being of the Father.

One Of The Trinity

"Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified.”This statement not only affirms Her identity with the Father and the Son as God, it makes it clear that we do not worship the true God if we do not worship a God that is both transcendent and incommunicable and at the same time immanent and communicable in the dual form of Father and Mother (or Son and Mother). They must be worshipped together, equally. That alone is Catholic—kata holos, all- embracing—worship. We worship Three, realizing that they are at all times really One.

Prophetic Power

"Who spoke by the prophets.”It was The Mother Who rested upon the prophets and inspired them. For that reason also is She called"breath.”For as we vibrate our breath to form our voice in communicating with one another, so She is the vibrating medium through which the divine message is communicated from the transcendental to the human level. All spiritual powers which were manifested through the prophets are called"gifts of the Spirit," not gifts of the Father or the Son. Where the authentic exercise of those gifts are found, it is the working of The Mother. She is the source of the oracles of God, for She is the Wisdom of God, as the prophets named Her. She is the language in the mouth of the illumined. The"just men made perfect"Are made perfect in Her, The Mother. By their mouths She speaks Her truth. It should be evident, then, that the only way to spiritual knowledge and illumination is the way of the Holy Spirit Mother.

The Holy Spirit - by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

Notes:
1) John 15:26
2) Proverbs 8:4-36
3) Psalm 2:7
4) Psalm 110:1
5) Septuagint reading.
6) John 1:5
7) II Corinthians 4:6
8) ibid.
9) Romans 8:26
10) Psalm 42:7
11) Galatians 6:7
12) I Corinthians 10:13
13)"And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while.” (Matthew 13:3- 6,19-21)
14)"Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.” (I Timothy 6:16)
15) Romans 8:19,22
16) Romans 8:29,32
17) John 3:5