the Holy Spirit “to you.” Furthermore, the Holy Spirit was not yet in
existence, because Jesus was not glorified yet; and after Jesus was glorified
he breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The
Lord also said “Whatever you ask in my name, I myself will do it”; and
said that the Comforter was going to take “from what is mine” that
which he was to make known. (For evidence that the Comforter is the
same as the Holy Spirit, see John 14 : 26 .)
It is not that God the Father carries out those processes on his own
initiative through the Son, but rather that the Son carries them out on
his own initiative on behalf of the Father, as the following passages clearly
show: “No one has ever seen God. The only begotten Son, who is close
to the Father’s heart, has made him visible” (John 1 : 18 and elsewhere).
“You have never heard the voice of the Father or seen what he looks like”
(John 5 : 37 ). [ 3 ] From these passages it follows that God the Father works
onand inthe Son but not throughhim. Instead, the Lord works on his
own initiative on behalf of his Father. For he says, “Everything the Father
has is mine” (John 16 : 15 ). “The Father has given all things into the hand
of the Son” (John 3 : 35 ). Also, “as the Father has life in himself, so he has
given the Son to have life in himself ” (John 5 : 26 ). And “the words that I
speak are spirit and are life” (John 6 : 63 ).
Admittedly, the Lord does say that the Spirit of Truth goes out from
the Father (John 15 : 26 ). The reason he says this, however, is that the
Spirit of Truth goes out from God the Father into the Son, and it goes
out from the Son on behalf of the Father. This is why it says, “In that day
you will recognize that the Father is in me and I am in the Father, and
you are in me and I am in you” (John 14 : 11 , 20 ).
The Lord’s clear statements reveal as blatantly incorrect the Christian
world’s belief that God the Father sends the Holy Spirit to us. The Greek
Church, as well, is wrong to believe that God the Father sends the Holy
Spirit directly.
The concept that the Lord sends the Holy Spirit on his own initiative
on behalf of God the Father, not the other way around, comes from
heaven. Angels call it a secret that has not yet been discovered in the world.154 This point can also be illustrated by a number of parallels.
We all know that after the Lord bestowed the Holy Spirit on the apos-
tles, they preached the good news across much of the world and publi-
cized it through speaking and writing. They did this on their own
initiative on behalf of the Lord. Peter wrote and taught one way, James
another way, John a third, and Paul a fourth. Each of them used their own