I meet with some friends every couple of weeks to pray. We sit together for a couple of hours talking and praying – while downing coffee and donuts. All of us, of course, pray in our own ways – but some are more emotional than others. Yung Kim is the most expressive pray-er of our group. He raises his arms, shouts out “O Holy God”, buries his head in his hands. He’s very emotionally intense. Me – I’m quiet. I sit and pray quietly, maybe I say something maybe I don’t. Meanwhile Yung Kim is shouting something about repentance – and launches into a song.
I do love being a part of an emotional prayer group. But since I am a quiet pray-er I feel a bit out of place – maybe even a little jealous. First it seems that they are having more fun than me. Not that prayer should have anything to do with fun – but still just sitting quietly is kind of dull. On the serious side is the disturbing assumption that displays of emotion are a sign of the Holy Spirit. I have heard many people within the Christian community refer to emotionally charged people as being in the Spirit or that highly emotionally meetings were truly spiritual. Many have said to me that a particularly loud and enthusiastic preacher is Holy Spirit inspired. There is in our current Christian culture an expectation that emotion and God’s Spirit go together. So it is with that cultural background in mind that I plunged into a study of the Infinite Spirit in The Urantia Book fully expecting emotion to play an important role. My expectations were not met.
“God is love, the Son is mercy, the Spirit is ministry… the Spirit is love applied to creature creation” (94.5). Love applied – Action is bound together with Mind and Spirit in The Urantia Book’s descriptions of the Infinite Spirit. For me, the volume of words used to describe the Infinite Spirit always come back to this one thought – “love applied” – “divine purpose in action” (102.5) - the God of Action. Action through creation, action through the intellect of personalities, action through the ever present Spirit.
Through the Infinite Spirit the creation came into being. The Urantia Book says that the Central Universe was created by the Infinite Spirit - the Conjoint Creator (91.5). The Conjoint Creator manipulates energy in the cosmos – and energy is action (101.6). We were created by the expression of the Spirit – the Creative Spirit of our local universe in connection with the Creator Son (93.6). The Infinite Spirit acted – the universe came into being. Everyday we are witnesses to the creative action of God’s Spirit.
The Infinite Spirit acts through the mind of creatures she has created. Ministry to the mind is the essence of the Infinite Spirit’s divine character (94.4). The Infinite Spirit reveals the love of the Father and the Son to the minds of mortals (94.8). The Spirit achieves this ministry because she is in contact with every mind in the universe (103.7). There is no creature that is not being ministered to by God. Our intellect comes from the Seven Master Spirits of the seven superuniverses. They are the “primary personalities of the Conjoint Creator” (102.3). We are connected in some subtle way to the Master Spirit of our superuniverse. And it is through the Master Spirits that the Infinite Spirit is the universal administrator of the mind realms (99.5). Our minds are a compromise between potential perfection and our evolving human nature (103.5). We come from the divine, but our intellects are not very mature – so we are far from the divine. But it is through our immature minds that the Spirit of God can act - if we allow her to give expression to God’s love through us.
The Infinite Spirit acts in the universe by spiritually drawing all will creatures to the Father’s presence. The Infinite Spirit fills the universe and enshrouds Paradise – we can know the Spirit before we reach the Father (94.2). In our local universe the Infinite Spirit is personalized in the Creative Mother Spirit (375.4). Also called the Holy Spirit, our Mother Spirit can effectively draw us to the divine leadings if we allow her to do so (379.6). Through the various spiritual powers of the Infinite Spirit, God comes down into our presence, descends to our level to meet with us and to guide us into the presence of the Universal Father (380.5). The Infinite Spirit departs from Paradise into the universe and returns from where she came with the children of time who are born of the Spirit (380.6). It is through God’s Spirit that we experience God’s love. It is through the Infinite Spirit that we are drawn ever closer to the source of that love. Through the Spirit, God acts to bring his children home.
Therefore lift up a prayer and sing a song to the Infinite Spirit, the God of Action, Love applied in our lives. God has truly blessed his children through her presence in and among us. Get out there and show some emotion for what God has done in our lives.
God Bless You,
William Whitehead
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