Who is the Holy Spirit?

May 24, 2026

The Mystery of the Triune God

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, whom I hold so deeply in my heart, It has been a magnificent journey walking alongside you until today, our very last Sunday, worshipping together in this beautiful sanctuary. I am profoundly joyful that we get to celebrate Pentecost together today. It is the church’s birthday, the monumental day when the Holy Spirit first descended upon us. What a comfort and powerful reminder it is to know that the Holy Spirit does not operate on a human schedule; He has no internship program, no interim periods, and no part-time hours. He is eternally and fully with us. May we invite the Holy Spirit into our hearts today, anchoring ourselves in a never-ending, perpetual Pentecost until the day we see Him face-to-face.

With her permission, I would love to share a recent conversation I had with my daughter, Hannah. The other day, she came to me with some very heavy, theological complaints. “Mom,” she asked, “why didn’t God just come down to Earth Himself? Why did He have to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to do the dying for us? And seriously, Mom—why on earth did God ask Abraham to kill his own son, Isaac?” Now, looking at her face, I realized what was actually going on. I think she was feeling a deep sense of solidarity with Jesus and Isaac. In her mind, they were the ultimate victims of parental decisions! She was looking at them and thinking about our family's new pastoral appointment. She looked at me and said, “Mom, God told you and Dad to move to Cape Cod... but He completely forgot to put me on the group chat! I didn't hear a thing!” I smiled at her honesty and asked, “Do you want to listen to what God wants to say to you right now?”

(And then, we shared a quiet moment of silent prayer. After a little while...)

“Did you hear anything?” I whispered.

“I think I just made up the words myself,” she replied.

“That's okay,” I assured her. “Sometimes God speaks to us through spontaneous thoughts or prompt words while we are praying. What did you hear?”

With tears welling up in her eyes, Hannah whispered, "Do not be like Jonah." And then, "Follow your parents." Suddenly, she just wept deeply for a few minutes, and I cried right along with her. It was the very first time in her life that she had ever recognized and heard God’s voice for herself. After that holy moment, I could feel a profound calmness and peace wash over her. Even though absolutely nothing had changed on the outside, her inner world had been completely turned upside down by the Holy Spirit.

Just like Hannah, we all face seasons filled with burning questions. Sometimes we don’t get the answers right away, but the Holy Spirit makes His presence known as the One who walks through those questions with us. The Triune God remains a grand mystery that we cannot fully untangle. Throughout church history, countless believers have debated, wrestled, and even laid down their lives over the doctrine of the Trinity.

Following the Augustinian tradition of the Trinity, the great theologian Jonathan Edwards boldly described the mutual indwelling of the three Persons as a divine "society"—the Society of the Three Persons in the Godhead. He reminds us that the Triune God is not a closed, isolated entity, but a dynamic, deeply relational community that communicates internally through perfect love. Furthermore, theologian Daniel Migliore beautifully notes that God is above us as Creator, for us as Reconciler, and in us as Sanctifier.

Yet, because the Holy Spirit acts in ways that are often unpredictable, churches have historically fallen into two extremes: either avoiding Pneumatology out of a fear of the unknown or overemphasizing it to the point of excess. However, when we truly understand who the Holy Spirit is, we realize we have been given an extraordinary Counselor, Partner, and Companion to walk with us through every trial.

So, who is the Holy Spirit? Today, let us look at His three beautiful attributes: Vulnerability, Creativity, and Unity.

 

1. Vulnerability: Love that Shares in Our Suffering

First, the Holy Spirit is a God who deliberately chooses to be vulnerable.

When God the Father chose to love us, He refused to make us robots. Instead, He gave us free will so that we could choose to love Him back authentically. In doing so, He risked rejection; He made Himself vulnerable for the sake of true relationship (Hosea 11:8–9). God the Son stepped away from the absolute glory of His heavenly throne to be born as a helpless baby, ultimately choosing the ultimate vulnerability of the cross (Mark 15:34).

In the exact same way, the Holy Spirit chooses vulnerability by entering into our brokenness, interceding for us with groans that words cannot express (Romans 8:26). For the sake of true love, He throws Himself into our spaces of rejection, pain, and loss.

Yet, here is the beautiful mystery: our Triune God is vulnerable, yet unconquerable. Though He can be wounded by our grief, He can never be controlled or defeated by it. He understands our agony perfectly, but He is never overwhelmed or paralyzed by it.

Recently, I wept bitterly with some dear friends of mine who made the brave choice to become foster parents. They knew from the very beginning that a day of parting would inevitably come. They knew it would break their hearts, yet they deliberately chose to be vulnerable so they could pour unconditional love into that child. Now, the time has come for the child to return to their biological parents. Watching the process of letting go has been an agonizing, soul-wrenching experience for them; it feels as though an earthquake has shaken their entire home. As we held each other and cried, I realized that our tears looked exactly like the weeping of the Triune God. Right there in the midst of that raw vulnerability, the Holy Spirit was actively moving among us.

Are you feeling vulnerable today? Are you facing seasons of loss, rejection, or deep transitions? Are you, like Hannah, crying out to God with complaints? If so, take heart: this is the exact canvas upon which the Holy Spirit does His finest work. We do not encounter God by losing our minds in emotional frenzy; rather, we are invited directly into the beautiful mystery of the Triune God’s voluntary, vulnerable love. May your seasons of pain and transition become sacred spaces where you experience the overwhelming comfort of the Holy Spirit.

 

2. Creativity: The Unpredictable and Renewing Power of God

Who is the Holy Spirit? The great New Testament scholar James Dunn once wrote:

"Because the Spirit is so dangerous and unpredictable, a church that seeks to restrict and control the Spirit may be safe, but it has already signed its own death warrant. A church that seeks to follow where the Spirit leads must expect the unexpected and be prepared to be shaken to its very core."

The Holy Spirit is beautifully unpredictable, constantly initiating fresh, transformative movements. Daniel Migliore captures this paradox perfectly: God is completely unchangeable and fiercely faithful to His character, yet He is consistently doing new, unexpected things to accomplish His divine purposes. This is what I call the magnificent Creativity of the Holy Spirit.

Inviting the Holy Spirit into your life is a glorious risk—it has the power to shake your carefully constructed plans to their very roots. But when you step into His unexpected layout, you begin to experience a life of joy that far exceeds anything you could have engineered on your own.

As I have spent the last few weeks packing up twelve years of accumulated belongings, I have found myself looking back over our ministry journey. I couldn't believe how many things we had gathered, how much dust had settled in hidden corners, and yet, how many heart-fluttering love letters and beautifully handwritten cards our church members have blessed us with over the years. Looking through my old prayer journals, I was overwhelmed with gratitude to see how God has meticulously woven his answers through every single prayer.

Over the past two years, I admit there were moments where I questioned myself: “Am I doing this ministry right? Is our church sliding backward instead of moving forward in revival?” Yet, over this past month, as we wrapped up our small groups and transitioned our responsibilities, the Holy Spirit showed me something stunning: our departure was actually the exact catalyst God was using to raise up new local leadership.

Nursing Home Ministry Team

Combined Women's Group

                          Cooking Class in the Afternoon School Program

Suddenly, the big picture became clear. I see over 150 vibrant saints across our four connected churches stepping boldly into ministry. The Holy Spirit is assembling a beautiful puzzle right before our eyes—raising up fresh leadership for the nursing home ministry, the after-school programs, the Sunday School, local community outreach, and our combined women's ministries. We haven't even seen the final piece of the puzzle yet, but what has been uncovered so far is breathtaking. We had prayed so hard that our family would be like Moses, leading you to the edge of the Promised Land. Now, I can joyfully leave knowing that these four churches are stepping into the shoes of Joshua, ready to conquer new horizons. The Holy Spirit's creativity works in ways we could never predict!

 

3. Unity: The Unbreakable Bond of Love

Who is the Holy Spirit? He is the ultimate Bond of Love.

Our Triune God is the definition of love. Because true love cannot exist in isolation, it requires both a subject and an object. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit serve as both the subject and object of love for one another, giving us a living blueprint of how distinct individuals can be perfectly unified through love. Out of love, the Father sends the Son; out of love, the Son submits to the Father; and out of love, the Holy Spirit sustains that bond eternally. Their relationship is not defined by a rigid, oppressive hierarchy, but by an egalitarian community of mutual honor, order, and deep respect.

Theologians point out that there is a downward order of sending—the Father sends the Son, and the Son sends the Spirit (Galatians 4:4–6). But Daniel Migliore beautifully reminds us that because the Holy Spirit has landed on Earth, there is now an upward order of return! Through our lives as faithful witnesses, we now offer a counter-appraisal of unity back to God.

Migliore emphasizes that the Holy Spirit is never just a private, internal experience for an individual. Rather, He is "the power of God that unites us to Christ and simultaneously binds believers to one another." The Spirit builds and sustains the Church by knitting radically different people into a singular, cohesive family. This is why I define the Holy Spirit as our Bond of Unity—the unbreakable cord of divine love.

We have already witnessed this glorious bond of love at work across our four churches. It is my deepest prayer and confidence that no matter where we go or how many miles separate us, we will remain tightly anchored together by this very bond. I also know with absolute certainty that this same bond of love will seamlessly unite you with your incoming pastor and their family.

This is the exact same bond that the disciples experienced on the Day of Pentecost amidst rushing winds and tongues of fire. Through Peter’s sermon that day, over 3,000 completely different people were instantly bound together by that spiritual cord, marking the glorious birth of the Global Church.

 

Korean Bibimbap

The Spirit of Bibimbap

Last week, Victor asked me a fascinating question: “If you had to define the Patten church using the imagery of the seven churches in Revelation, how would you describe us?” Without hesitation, I told him, “Our church is like a beautiful bowl of Korean Bibimbap.” Think about it: every single ingredient in Bibimbap has its own distinct flavor, texture, color, and aroma. Yet, when they are mixed together with the rice and the spicy sauce, they create a unified, extraordinary flavor that no single ingredient could ever achieve on its own. That is the mystery of divine unity! We are all beautifully different, yet through the Holy Spirit, we become one—not by erasing our individuality, but by blending together in exquisite harmony.

Serving as your pastor over this past year has been one of the greatest joys of my life. I have encountered such precious souls and experienced a truly rare community of faith.

Right now, our parting and the structural shifts across our four churches make us feel incredibly vulnerable. But I declare over you today that this vulnerability is simply the empty space the Holy Spirit requires to show His power. It is the room He needs for His divine creativity to guide you into a Promised Land filled with wonders you cannot yet conceive. Together, let us lift our beautiful "Bibimbap spirit" back to the heavens as a sweet offering of unity to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May we all be filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit.

Amen.