Behold I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?
Jeremiah 32:27
I was blessed to go to a conference this weekend led by Jansen Bagwell. During the talks Jansen gave one of the best explanations of the Blessed Trinity that I have ever heard. I am hoping I can explain it the way he did.
He said that in the beginning there was nothing but God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God the Father had the thought to create. God the Son the second person of the Blessed Trinity is the spoken thought because HE IS THE WORD. The Word is the full expression of the thought. The Incarnation the full expression of God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. John 1:1-3
And God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity enacted the word that was spoken.
In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters Then God said: Let there be light, and there was light Genesis 1:1-3
This mighty wind – this shaking violent wind – is the Holy Spirit waiting for the thought to be spoken so he can act. Light was thought, spoken, and created. Thought, word, action. The action of the Holy Spirit is IMMEDIATE and SWIFT. And the Three are One in creating.
This explanation astonished me because it explains so much of how we were meant to be, but are not yet. Let me explain.
God is still having a thought and speaking to us through His WORD and sending the Holy Spirit to nudge us (God’s creation) to ACT. But in the beginning, the Holy Spirit didn’t have to nudge us to act because Adam and Eve POSSESSED the Spirit. Thus, all action prior to the fall was action of God. Our free will, after the fall was contaminated by sin and so we do not immediately act in accordance with the will of God.
The action of Salvation History is to restore human will to complete harmony with the divine will. And it is why Jesus prayed;
I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. John 17:20-21
After the fall there was a disruption of this harmony. Our human will choosing to sin and bring evil into the world. Thus, ensuing action of the Holy Spirit became the nudge to choose good instead of a harmonious action. The Holy Spirit is calm and convicting, but firm. He isn’t condemning and doesn’t make blanket statements. We have the church to help us recognize this voice. This is why the church stresses obedience so much, because obedience to the law (in love) is an effort to bring us back to harmony with the divine will. But sadly we still live in a state where God the Father has a thought, God the Son is the full expression of that thought in the Word and God the Holy Spirit comes to us to nudge us into action of that thought and word and we say no. We argue. We complain. We outright reject – a blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And the world cannot see the creative action of God because we do not cooperate. And the question becomes why?
Because we want control; that’s why. But what we fail to realize is that when we say no to God we don’t actually retain control, we hand it to the demonic because when we sin with our no to God we hand the domain we were given straight to Satan, who came to steal, kill and destroy. We think we are in control, we turn from God, we sin and we watch our world implode around us.
I recently read a quote from Father Ambrose Dobrosi that stated;
Abortion as population control to combat climate change is literally pagan infant sacrifice, just with a veneer of “science”. The baby becomes a sacrificial offering so that we can have good weather. It’s proof that when Christianity fades, we go right back to demon worship.
What a profound statement. We will not repair the damage done to our environment, which is caused by sin and trying to control things as a god, by continuing to further and further sin and say no to the Holy Spirit – who nudges us to cooperate with the Trinity in the creative LIFE GIVING action. We will heal the environment when we allow God to heal our souls and lift us out of sin.
One way of living begets death. One begets life.
We often live on either side of a pendulum. One where we think we are in control and disregard the law bringing sin after sin. And the other where we use the law to control others instead of letting God work in them, which is the sin of Pride. If we try to control and don’t pray and let God work, we too are sinning.
The WORD BECAME FLESH to show us THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
Jesus did not exercise a Spirit of Control. Jesus loved and converted hearts to love. But many still said no to love. It’s why they took him to the Cross. And because he is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, it is why he went to the Cross. He didn’t even try to control the leaders of his own religion. He walked where they led Him, and surrendered to the will of the Father, because HE IS THE WILL OF GOD and He knew how to save us.
In a later conversation with Jansen we talked about the role of emotion in our lives. Emotion is so important because secular society divorces emotion from our soul, and doing this brings about confusion. We learn techniques that teach us to “cope”. I don’t know about you but I don’t think God came for us to cope. If we don’t learn what our emotions teach our soul, which is deeper than our emotion, then our emotion can be used against us. So many of us today allow our emotions to be manipulated by Satan, the Father of Lies. We accept emotion as truth – and the Spirit of Control attacks us. It is why the Saints cautioned against doing things based on how you feel. We must learn from the feeling and allow the Holy Spirit to act by learning what God is trying to tell us through our emotion.
Emotions are not bad things. The are, in fact, a gift from God. But emotions are trying to teach us something. They are trying to teach us where to place control. An emotion of fear can be a natural thing. It is something that can protect us and often times lets us know the situation we are in isn’t one we are in control of, so if we learn from that emotion we know to turn to the one who is in control – God. An emotion of frustration or irritation can let us know that the virtuous standard of God is not being lived up to. An emotion of anger can alert us to sin and evil, and if we put our enmity on Satan to fight that evil, we give control back to God. An emotion of shame can teach us what we are hiding from God. An emotion of sorrow can alert us to injustice or violation to help us turn towards forgiveness and healing. These emotions are often thought of as bad, but they are not, it is only when we don’t learn from what they’re trying to teach us that they can become bad and open us to sin. Everything God gives is a gift, and therefore brings redemption when used properly.
Right now because we are still not in harmony with the Trinity, it is a struggle to act on the will of God because we sit in our emotion and don’t turn to God so he can work in our soul. But if we learn from what the emotion teaches us, we can act in obedience to the nudges of the Holy Spirit. This is often hard, but is done so by the Grace of God we receive in the Sacraments that draws us closer and closer to the will of God. Grace that is poured upon us in the Sacramental Life. The more we repent in Confession of our sins and unforgiveness, the more grace we receive to go and receive the Eucharist and HAVE GOD IN US, so we can act joyfully, immediately and fully.
I have said before, as have many others, that we are moving through the Passion of the Church.
Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. CCC – 675
I believe the church will come out on the other side looking very different than she does now, having chained up the Spirit of Control, which leads to sin. God is calling each and every one of us interiorly to give him control so the Spirit can dwell within us. Surrender.
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. Romans 8:9
We need to be asking ourselves if we are responding to the Holy Spirit? Are we letting go of control when we are asked? Do we let the emotion of fear invite a spirit of fear or even of Pride that we can fix it? Do we let the emotion of anger invite a Spirit of wrath? Are we learning from our emotions, which should be used as redemptive gifts from God? When I am afraid, and I realize I am out of control, am I surrendering control to the one who actually has it anyway?
When we reflect upon these things, and let God work in us, we can be healed. We can stand with courage when adversity comes. We can be a light in the darkness, and we can have the power of God in us. We are called to union with the Trinity as beloved sons and daughters.
O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!” God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the “plan of his loving kindness”, conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: “He destined us in love to be his sons” and “to be conformed to the image of his Son”, through “the spirit of sonship”. This plan is a “grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began”, stemming immediately from Trinitarian love. It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church. CCC 257
Veil of Veronica 
What can I say Susan but wow, what a reflection on the Trinity.
Thankyou
You and Jansen have definitely given me something to ponder about today.
God Bless all you do.
God Bless you as well.
Steven, you beat me!! This is such a teaching! Obedience as sons and daughters is the key.
So it seems that we are well and truly going deeper into the Passion of the Church. …. To be purified. Reading this alongside Mark Malletts recent writings is wonderful. Again…thank you so much Susan … Please keep listening and sharing. God bless you and your family.
Thank you and God Bless you.
Susan, this is such a beautiful post. Thank you to you and Jansen! I was especially fascinated with the paragraphs on emotions as that part was an answer to one of my recent prayers. I never knew until reading your post that emotions are clues as to what is going on in the soul. Do you have any resources where I can find more information on this role of emotions and the condition of the soul? For example, I am wondering how to deal with anger when it surfaces. I was trained as a child to suppress emotions like sorrow, frustration, and anger. I recently went on a retreat called Grief to Grace and for the first time in my life am trying to be honest with God and myself when emotions surface (instead of burying them like I used to do).
Anyway, I am wondering how I navigate this balance of looking honestly at what I’m feeling (instead of just pretending I don’t have the feeling) so I can give control back to God, and not sin in the process. I would also like to teach my children how to deal with their emotions, but I’m not exactly sure how to do that. So if I’m following what you are saying, the emotion of anger would reveal to me that in my soul I’m angry about some injustice. Would you be able to explain how I turn that anger into enmity to fight Satan? Sorry if these are ignorant questions. And I’m also wondering what to do with emotions of frustration? Do I just talk to God about it? Is that sufficient for turning control over to Him so that Satan doesn’t use the emotion to tempt me to sin? Thank you for your help!
And if it’s ok to ask one more question I was wondering how I discern a nudge from the Holy Spirit. This is an area I’m confused about because before my reversion 8 years ago, I was in New Age for 5 years. During my time in New Age I heard a lot of voices during prayer. I thought the voice was from God, but I now know I was being deceived. So from that experience, I am very hesitant to act on any nudges.
Thanks and God bless you,
Katherine
There’s a lot here Katherine. I will do my best to answer. While I am sure there are many books on dealing with emotions, I think the Lord wants me to respond by simply saying Read His Word. While it won’t give you a how to guide with your emotions, it actually does speak of them. Ephesians (and Romans) are a good place to start. You will notice that in Ephesians chapter 4 Paul says, “be angry but sin not.” He then goes on to spell out how to sin not, and of course once we get to chapter 6 he is spelling out how to fight the enemy and what armor we are supposed to put on in order to do this. For a person who stuffs their emotion there is often a spirit of passivity attached. For example, you may have had a parent who was emotionally unavailable and perhaps let the other parent walk on them and their opinions. In these cases forgiveness must be extended to the parents and to yourself then that spirit can be told to leave. The emotion we are having often tells us the root cause of our issues. For me anger wells up at evil – which it should – but if I then go and spew at a person or curse or harm them then I am committing evil and sinning. The battle would be to pray for that person and will their good. And to stand against the evil act while not personally attacking the person.
It is just simply important when you have an emotion to, yes speak to God about why you are having it and what it is teaching you, and to read what scripture says about it. This will also help you discern who is speaking. The Holy Spirit doesn’t yell or try to paralyze you (with any of these emotions). The more adept you are at discerning the more Satan will try to mimic the Holy Spirit- BUT – this is why it is so important to be grounded in Scripture and Church Teaching. One thing that ALWAYS helps me is to remember to Love and also that God alone is good. These two things keep me focused on Christ. If God alone is good and I know that I can recognize when I am too attached to something that it becomes an idol. And if I remember to love – then I don’t sin. But being grounded in scripture and church teaching lets me know what love actually is. Love does not accept sin – but doesn’t condemn a person – for that judgement belongs to God.
Thank you so much, Susan! I was in the process of trying to decide which Bible study to do next. I was leaning towards Jeff Cavins’ study on Ephesians, and when I saw that was a book you recommended to me to start with, I see that as a confirmation. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. I tend to get a little long-winded. Sorry about that. I really appreciate you and your blog! God bless you!
God Bless you!
Emotions are not bad things, not even anger necessarily. I read once (and unfortunately I don’t remember by whom to give credit for this) addressing anger said “What would Jesus do” – well it turns out he would fashion a whip, over turn tables and drive out the money lenders and sales people who were defiling the temple, that is exactly what he did do! Righteous anger is real, and at times it is Godly!
John 2:14-17 He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”
His disciples recalled the words of scripture, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Jesus wasn’t always the mild meek person we tend to think he was!
I agree. Emotions aren’t bad. God gave them to us. But they can be used improperly. Jesus could see into souls and anger at sin is appropriate. We can’t know intentions the way he did so we need to be careful in our anger.
Would it be correct to say that fear is at the root of anger and frustration?
And I also remember….. Perfect Love casts out all fear
So the world needs repentance and an In filling of the Holy Spirit.
Fear can be the root of anger and frustration,but not always. Sin makes me angry, but not because of fear – but rather the enmity that God gave us as a result of the fall. And that quote of perfect love casting out fear – that’s of a demonic spirit of fear because demons get cast out – but I wouldn’t say it’s about the emotion. Jesus felt fear and so did Mary. They felt the emotion – and didn’t give into the spirit of it – so they were able to perfectly do God’s will. The rest of that verse states that perfect love casts out fear because the fear is of punishment- but if sin is purged then you have no fear of punishment.
Thank you for clarification Susan.
Just thinking then….. When emotion of fear comes…. The answer is Jesus I trust in You. Surrender.
Exactly. Mary never stopped trusting, even when she was afraid and sorrowful.
Thank you Susan.
Dear Veil of Veronica
Beautiful insights.
The most intimate description of the Trinity and obedience I have found are in the writings of the Servant of God Luisa Piccareta on the doctrine of the Kingdom of the Divine Will. Although not yet anonized the Vatican has approved the writings and an approved Italian printer for the Italian translation only at this time. However the Archbishop has given permission to go ahead and read the already published volumes. Accurate information can be found on the website of Father Joseph Iannuzi
I have read her writings. Thank you.
Thank you for posting this! Jansen is a personal friend and is a wonderful mentor.
He is one of the best people I know this side of heaven. I work with him in deliverance ministry and God really uses him to set people free.
Thank you for the article. My understanding of the Father is slightly different, but fits in well with the concept. God the Father is all knowing, and he Wills. This is not “thought” as we think about it. Thought takes time and God the Father is outside of time. Thought leads to, or should lead to a conclusion, and God the Father already knows everything, he doesn’t have to “think” about it. Thought is something we do since we do not know everything perfectly and our will is ever forming.
Jesus as you say proclaims the will of God, he is the word. This is reflected where Jesus states in Mark 13:32 “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Jesus himself proclaims the Will of God the Father when it is Willed, the end times were not yet willed by the father (but is known to the Father) and Jesus didn’t/hasn’t proclaimed it because he does not know it. Jesus has a human nature as well as a divine nature. Jesus was within time and Jesus did/does think.
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways—oracle of the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
This is not meant to down play what you said, it is to show that God is even greater than we know. The persons of the Trinity have real purpose and truly are distinct yet are still our one God.
Thank you
Mark
Thanks. I think the Catholic belief is that Jesus actually does know but didn’t come to reveal it. The catechism states it this way; By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal. What he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal (474). I do understand what you’re saying about thought. The reason I loved this description by Jansen is because the Holy Spirit as action tells me what I am supposed to be doing. It’s a view that I can understand. I will say neither I nor Jansen are theologians but I just appreciated from a practical standpoint understanding how God wants you act in me – how he wants me to cooperate. But it’s a safe bet no one can truly understand the Trinity in our limited human capacity.
The technical term for the way the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son is “spirates”. It is interesting that it has the same root as the word aspiration – breath. As an example God breathed into Adam to give him life. God The Father Wills, Jesus the Son (The Word) proclaims the will by speaking the word, and the breath and action from these spirating out (proceeds) is the Holy spirit.
The root of anger is PRIDE. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
yes for a Spirit of anger but not for the emotion of anger. Remember Jesus got angry and flipped the tables. That certainly wasn’t about Jesus being Prideful.
The first time I heard this description of the Most Blessed Trinity was on a Sid Roth show. It was from a little boy who was autistic and never spoke. But his mother realised he understood a lot. One of the things that came from the interview with the mother was how her little boy explained God, I believe the little boy had inspirations. He said. The Father thinks it, The Son speaks it and the Holy Spirit carries it out. I thought this was awesome and wanted to share with you where I first heard this description of how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit work as one from a little Christian boy.
that’s awesome. Sometimes I will get amazed at something I hear in prayer. Then I will realize some Saint said it 800 years ago. What it tells me is God is speaking and what’s true can be heard by those listening and remains true throughout time.
The Trinity will change the world like never before when the Medjugorje Secrets are revealed. The forty-year biblical waiting period ends next year.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Amazing! Beautiful! Thank you.
Thank you. God bless you.