The Ink of the Holy Spirit that Writes the Word • Deshen Daily

And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts (2 Corinthians 3:3 ESV)

The Trinity teaches us that the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Word; but the unity of the Godhead reminds us that God is one being, not three gods. In other words, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three distinct persons, but it is one God, not three—therein lies the mystery of the Trinity. So the Word and Spirit are different, yet they are one. Paul explains this mystery using the analogy of ink as in 2 Cor. 3:3 above.

Ink is the substance that creates written words when it assumes different forms on paper. Take a moment to think about what happens when we write or draw an object using a pen or marker. The written words are nothing other than the different shapes of the ink on paper. Therefore the words exist because of the ink, yet the ink differs from the words. Paul uses this profound truth to explain how the Spirit and the Word operate in our hearts.

The Holy Spirit is the ink, and the Word is the written words He creates on human hearts as the writing paper. So when God gives the Spirit, He indirectly gives the Word—His self-expression. At salvation, we received the Holy Spirit who made us Children of God, and as God’s ink, wrote on our hearts the eternal Word of God—Christ’s divine nature in our hearts. This mystery will also help us understand why when people are filled with the Spirit, they prophesy and speak God’s words because the Word is the usual expression of the Holy Spirit!

Meditate

I have struggled to condense this mystery in the brief devotional above. Please take a moment to ponder upon and reread it to grasp fully this remarkable truth.

Apply the Word

When you received the Holy Spirit at salvation( as the divine ink), Christ’s nature(the Word) was engrafted in you ( James 1:21). Christlikeness in character, a life that expresses the Word,is the form of expression of the ink of the Spirit in our hearts. Let the Lord write the Word on the paper of your heart as you continue yielding to the Holy Spirit.

Thank the Father for the ink of the Spirit in our hearts.