Who Is the Holy Spirit?

One of my most unforgettable moments happened when I was about ten years old. My father served our country during World War II in a plant in our hometown, building all sorts of interesting equipment for the massive tanks, fighter planes, and bombers that defended us in lands far away. Dad worked too long and too hard. As a result he suffered a physical breakdown, and on its heels came an emotional trauma that puzzled everyone, including the doctors.

I was convinced in my heart that my dad was going to die. He may have had such thoughts too, because one night he called me into his room for a somber fatherson talk, spoken in terminal terms. I remember leaning hard against his bed, listening carefully to a voice that was hardly more than a whisper. I thought I was hearing him for the last time. He gave me counsel on life—how I should live, how I should conduct myself as his son. The counsel wasn’t long, and then I left and went across the hall to the room that I shared with my older brother. All alone, I lay across my bed and sobbed, convinced that I would never see my dad alive again.

That scene haunts me. Even though my dad recovered to live three decades more, I still remember the night he talked with me.

Something very significant is wrapped up in our final words. Consider that night in Jerusalem when the Lord and His disciples gathered for the Passover Seder—what we call “The Last Supper.” Less than twelve hours after the disciples sat beside the Savior during that meal, Jesus was nailed to a cross; a few hours later, He was dead. Jesus understood the significance of those moments and the importance of His last counsel. And so He gave His disciples exactly what they would need to carry them through the rest of their days. In that little room they pushed aside wooden cups and bowls, and every eye fell on Him and every ear leaned in to hear His voice. Their grief hardly allowed them to take in the last words of their Lord as He taught them how they might live on . . . without Him.

Recorded by the disciple John—one who had sat by the Lord’s side at that meal and who had meditated upon those events for sixty years before expressing them in his Gospel—the comfort and instruction that fell from our Lord’s dying lips comes alive in John 13 through 17.

Two Secrets about the Christian Life

Jesus told His men two secrets—two pillars of truth that support all other truths about the Christian life . . . truth that would bring life into focus after His death. The first related to Him and had to do with something that happened when He came. The second relates to us and has something to do with what would happen when He left . . . and what has since happened.

First, the truth about Him: Jesus told the disciples that the secret of His victorious life was His vital union with His Father. He spoke of His Father repeatedly as He talked that night. He told them that when He came to earth it was with the Father’s blessing, it was in the Father’s power, and it was through the Father’s guidance that He was able to minister. In addition, it was the Father’s will that He proclaimed the Father’s Word. Because there had never been a break in that vital union, He had been able to live a perfect life, qualifying Him to die as the sin offering for man.

But He didn’t stop there. The second secret was about His followers: that our victorious life is connected to our vital union with the Holy Spirit. If we would be habitually empowered by the Spirit that indwells us, we could know the kind of life He had lived. Ian Thomas described this well: “The life that He lived qualified Him for the death that He died. And the death that He died qualifies us for the life that He lived.”

Jesus told us that the life He lived is possible to be lived day after day when we draw upon the strength of the Spirit of God who lives within us. Read this as new news for yourself: through His Spirit, we can actually live like Christ.

No doubt the disciples were confused to hear about “a Spirit.” Their minds were probably still whirling with His declaration, “I’m going away.” They sat paralyzed, riveted to that statement, unable to form any of the questions they would later ponder. They were in shock. Jesus pointed out that they weren’t even curious about where He was going. They couldn’t cope with the news of His departure, just as I couldn’t, as a little boy, cope with the possibility that my dad would be gone by morning. Wrestling with that tragedy and unable to get beyond it, I dissolved into tears.

So did the disciples. “Sorrow filled [their] hearts” (John 16:6). The Greek word for sorrow here means “grief”— devastating pain that accompanies the loss of someone we love. Jesus understood all that they were experiencing. He saw that grief and fear had gripped them.

We all want very much to give the impression that we can handle anything that comes. We want to appear secure, even when we feel very insecure. The big lie is that “We can handle everything.” The truth is, deep down within each of us, we long to be kept. We ache to be held securely. When some earthquake takes that security from us, the moorings of our foundation shift. It happens when we face the possibility of a terminal illness or the imminent death of a loved one or danger on the battlefield. How many soldiers go berserk on the landing craft before they ever hit the water? The imminence of danger or separation brings about feelings of desperate insecurity. That’s what happened with the disciples. And Jesus said, “Look, men, sorrow has filled your heart. Grief has paralyzed you. I understand.”

But He didn’t abandon them in that desperate place. He promised, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18).

We are able to read that calmly . . . but try to imagine the disciples hearing it for the first time. Their stomachs must have churned at the word orphan, for that is exactly how they felt. For more than three years they had been inseparable. Jesus was there when they awoke. He stood with them through virtually every situation they faced. When they called for help, He was nearby, ready to step in. When they said “Good night,” He quickly responded. Suddenly all that would change. He was leaving them— permanently. And though they were adults, the sting of His departure left them feeling orphaned.

I told you about that night when I thought my dad was leaving our family. To our surprise, he recovered and lived another thirty-five years, even surviving my mom and living to see us all grow up. Nevertheless, his departure from this life in 1980 marked a passage in my life after which things would never be quite the same. No more visits. No more phone calls. No more opportunities to sit and talk through something and to have him listen and respond. In a strange way since that day, there are occasions I feel orphaned. I still miss being able to see my father, to hear his voice, to watch him respond.

That was how the disciples felt. No more meals together. No more discussions beside the sea. No more quiet talks around the fire at night. No more shared laughter . . . or tears . . . or watching Him handle some thorny situation. Orphaned.

I love Jesus’ compassion for them in that moment. He carefully chose His words. “I won’t leave you orphaned . . . I have a solution.” Plan B was already in motion.

The answer Jesus gave them was the person of the Holy Spirit.

“I Will Not Leave You Orphaned”

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper [literally, another of the same kind], that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. (John 14:16–17)

Aha! Jesus promised them that His replacement would be “another Helper.” Namely, the Holy Spirit. And when that other Helper came, He would become an integral part of their lives. He would reside within them. Unlike Jesus, who had only been with them, He (the Spirit) would be in them. Huge difference! Not too many days hence, when the Spirit arrived, He would slip inside them and live within them forever. No more temporary companionship; the Spirit’s presence would be (and still is) a permanent presence. It had never been like that before. Not even in the lives of those Old Testament greats. But from now on . . . yes!

Jesus had to leave in order for the Spirit to begin His permanent indwelling. Jesus made that clear: “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7).

The question that comes to mind is, Why was it advantageous for Jesus to leave? Why is it more beneficial for us to have the Holy Spirit than Christ Himself?

That’s not too difficult to answer. Jesus Christ, while on earth, inhabited a body. Therefore He could be only one place at one time. When He was in Nazareth, He was not in Jerusalem. When He was near the northern shores of Galilee, He could not be walking along the Dead Sea. He could only be one place at one time. However, when He left the earth and sent the Spirit, the Spirit of God, being omnipresent (the everywhere-ness of God), could fill and empower with the same power a man in Palestine, a woman in Syria, and yet another individual in faraway Italy. At the same moment you experience power like Jesus experienced from the Father, a believer in Angola or in Alaska or the southern tip of Australia can experience that same power at the very same time.

“It’s advantageous that I go,” said Jesus. “That way you don’t have to be with Me physically to have My strength. I’ll give you that inner strength you need, and it will never leave.” What a great plan! The reaction was fear; the solution was the Spirit of God.

Embracing the Person of the Holy Spirit

Notice Jesus referred to the Helper as “He” or “Him,” not “It.” To most folks, the person, work, and ministry of the Holy Spirit are little more than a mystery. He is not only invisible but also a bit eerie . . . especially when, for years, He has been referred to as “It” and formally addressed as the Holy Ghost. The whole concept is difficult to get our arms around.

All of us have had earthly fathers, so trying to understand the concept of a heavenly Father is not that difficult. In traditional homes, the father is the one in charge, making the big decisions and ultimately responsible for the family’s overall protection, direction, leadership, and stability. There are exceptions but in the final analysis, it is Dad who casts the final vote. We respect and honor God the Father. We worship Him in the majesty and beauty of His holiness.

We identify much more easily with Jesus. Although He is the Son of God, He was born as a human being and grew up alongside His parents, much like we did. Because He was a flesh-and-blood person, we have a tangible mental image of Christ. Even His role as the Son of God is fairly clear to us. Our familiarity with His suffering and death causes us to feel close to Him and grateful for Him. He is the One who points to the Father. He is the One who implemented the Father’s plan. We not only love Jesus, we adore Him.

But the Holy Ghost? To many, He is still the divine “It.” Not even changing His title to “Spirit” helps that much. Certainly to the uninitiated the name sounds weird. If His name is vague, it is no surprise that most find His work and ministry mysterious. And since those who attempt to explain His workings are usually theologians who are often notoriously deep and unclear themselves, no wonder most people don’t have a clue in understanding what He is about. Small wonder we don’t feel intimately related to Him.

But no more! God is not passive. He didn’t just hope we would be okay; He is proactive, sending His Spirit so our security is certain.

Moving from Theoretical to Relational

Candidly, I am just as guilty as those complex-thinking theologians who have attempted to “explain” the inscrutable Spirit of God. Way back in the 1960s I taught a course on the third member of the Trinity. When I picked up my pen to write this book, I thought it might be helpful to glance over those old notes. My immediate problem was locating them. Had I filed them under H for “Holy Spirit”? No. How about S for “Spirit”? Nope. Maybe they were tucked away in my subject file under the letter G as in “Holy Ghost.” Wrong again. Or T for “Trinity.” Not a chance.

I stayed at it until I unearthed them . . . filed under P for Pneumatology. Amazing! That tells you a lot about how I approached the Holy Spirit five decades ago: strictly theoretical and theological . . . not at all relational.

Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing—absolutely nothing—wrong with theology. Sound doctrine gives us strong roots. Those who lack such stability can easily fall into extremism and error. However, it won’t cut it to track a subject this intimate from an impersonal distance, keeping everything safely theoretical and coolly analytical. There has been too much of that already. What we need is a much more personal investigation of the intimate workings of the Spirit—we need to be embraced by the Spirit without losing our anchor on theological truth. Admittedly, some of the Spirit’s workings seem more theoretical than experiential. But a closer look makes them very personal. For example:

• The Spirit is God—co-equal, co-existent, and co-eternal with the Father and the Son.

• As a child of God, you have God Himself living inside you. St. Augustine, who found himself yielding to sin on one occasion, turned and ran. Finally, all alone, he stopped and put his head in his hands and said, “Oh, soul, dost thou not know that thou art carrying God around with thee?”

• The Spirit possesses all the attributes of deity. All that you have heard about God—His everywhere-ness, His all-powerful-ness, His all-knowing-ness—can be said of His Spirit. So when you need strength, the Spirit is right there to give it. When you need confidence . . . faith . . . comfort . . . you can get all you need from His Spirit.

• The Spirit regenerates the believing sinner. Your salvation, made possible because of Jesus’ death on the cross, is personally accomplished in your heart through God’s Spirit. He makes alive that immaterial part of you that was stone-cold dead in sin. He brings you to life in a new and eternal way.

• The Spirit baptizes us into the universal body of Christ. You have a new identity, a new family. You’ve got relatives you don’t even know about. You are connected by a common bond that takes you all the way back to the cross. Because of the Spirit, you and I are members of God’s family.

• The Spirit indwells all who have been converted. You are never alone. Your day-to-day life takes on an eternal dimension because He lives in you. Life’s catastrophes can be weathered because you have a different purpose for living.

• The Spirit seals us, keeping every believer securely in the family of God. You should have no fear of losing what God accomplished on your behalf . . . beginning with your salvation. You didn’t do anything to earn it; the Spirit guarantees you won’t lose it.

He’s got you covered.

And that’s just a start!

These truths are so deeply personal that it’s going to take us a while to unpack them, but it’s a wonderful journey. What we’re about to discover is the practical difference the Spirit can make in our lives on a personal and lasting level.

I’ve been a pastor for nearly fifty years. Year after year, talking with folks before I preach or while standing in front of the church after a worship service, I’m able to get a handle on the questions that people are asking. Without exaggeration, the majority of the issues on people’s hearts can be answered with a practical understanding of how God’s Spirit works within the life of the Christian.

My emphasis will be on the practical side of the Holy Spirit—seldom-mentioned dimensions of His work within us individually and His ministry among us collectively. Why? Because these are the things that give us an edge on living in a sin-cursed world, surrounded by people who have lost their drive for life. It is when these things come alive in us that we become unique instruments in God’s hands. I believe that’s what you really desire. Candidly, I do too! We have everything to gain and nothing to lose by allowing the truth to emerge. It’s the truth, remember, that sets us free.

The inescapable fact is this: most (yes, most) Christians you and I know have very little dynamic or joy in their lives. Look at them. Ask them! They long for depth, for passion, for a satisfying peace and stability instead of a superficial relationship with God made up of religioussounding words without feelings and on-going struggles without healings. Surely there is more to the life of faith than church meetings, Bible study, religious jargon, and meaningless prayers. Surely the awesome Spirit of God wishes to do more within us than what is presently going on. There are scars He wants to remove. There are fractured feelings He wants to heal. There are insights He longs to reveal. There are profound dimensions of life He would dearly love to open up. But none of the above will happen automatically—not as long as He remains a sterile, untouchable blip on our theological screen. We need to allow ourselves to be embraced by Him. We need the security that comes from being completely surrounded by His protection and power. He is the comforting Helper, remember? He is the Truth Teacher, the Will-of-the-Father Revealer, the Gift Giver, the Hurt Healer. He is the inextinguishable flame of God, my friend. He is God. To remain at a distance from Someone that vital is worse than wrong; it is downright tragic. Removing the Resistance between Us and Him Doesn’t all of this sound appealing? Haven’t you longed for such fortitude, such confident faith? These traits were never meant to be restricted to century-one saints. Nowhere in the Scriptures do I find a statement that limits the Spirit’s presence or dynamic to some bygone era. The same One who promised a handful of frightened followers new dimensions of divine enablement is anxious to fulfill that in us today.

Frankly, I’m ready for that kind of enablement, aren’t you? You and I need it, and it is ours to claim . . . so let’s claim it!

I must make a brief but honest confession: a practical, personal look at the Spirit does not come naturally to me. I was raised by a very stable, consistent mother and predictable father who provided a solid home where my brother, sister, and I grew up securely. We were taught to love God, believe in Christ, trust and obey the Bible, and be faithful in church attendance. Much of my theology was hammered out on the anvil of those early years at home.

As I grew up, my roots were strengthened in the fundamentals of the Christian faith. My training in seminary drove those roots even deeper. By the time I graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary, I had many convictions and few questions, especially in the realm of the Holy Spirit. I thought I had the subject “knit up,” as they say.

But during a lifetime of ministry that has taken me around the United States and to many countries abroad, I have found that the work of the Holy Spirit continually keeps me off balance. I’m not alone in that. Those in church leadership seem afraid the Spirit is going to do something that we can’t explain. I’ve found that disturbs many folks . . . but I’ll admit it energizes me. I’ve come to realize that there are dimensions of the Spirit’s ministry I have never tapped and places in this study about which I know very little. I’m on a strong learning curve. I have witnessed a dynamic power in His presence that I long to know more of firsthand. I now have questions and a strong interest in many of the things of the Spirit I once felt were settled. To say it plainly, I am hungry for Him. I long to know God more deeply and more intimately. I’m not alone.

The Amplified Bible describes the same desire in the great apostle Paul:

[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection. (Phil. 3:10)

This intimate knowledge and practical power is the work of the Spirit, alive in me. I long to have my life enriched inside the circle of His embrace. I genuinely long to experience for myself the untold blessings of intimacy with God Himself made possible by His Spirit. I’ve come to realize that only a fine line separates the mystical from the profound. I’m not bothered by the mystery. I know that we as men and women are limited by all that we can understand. Let’s not try to unscrew the inscrutable! There’s no reason to add to the mystery with our own conjecture. But I’m convinced that the more we allow “the Spirit of truth” to guide us into all the truth (John 16:13), the more He invites us to travel much deeper into these intimate and mysterious realms. The more we can keep the real world in view, the more we will feel embraced by the comforting and reassuring presence of the Spirit. There’s nothing to be afraid of.

Discovering the Spirit’s Significance

That said, may I ask you, have you ever been shown from the Scriptures just how significant a role the Lord intended the Holy Spirit to play in your life? Before bringing this chapter to a close, let me help you see three contributions He makes, without which life is reduced to dull and gray.

His Unparalleled Dynamic among Us

Think back to that scene in Jerusalem just hours before the cross. Jesus promised that the Spirit would come. But when? The disciples probably pushed that question to the back of their minds as that terrible weekend unfolded. What’s interesting is this: when they saw the risen Lord a few days later, He brought it up again.

Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:4–8)

In those last moments before the Lord ascended, His mind was on the Spirit. Naturally, He wanted to say good-bye to His closest friends. He wanted to reassure them: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (v. 8). Not if the Spirit came, but when. And immediately upon His arrival, power would transform their lives. He promised that!

Now, Jesus did not say that power would begin to exist at that point, for power had always been one of God’s characteristics. Power initiated creation. Power opened the Red Sea. Power brought water from the rock and fire from heaven. In fact, that same magnificent power had brought Christ back from beyond at His resurrection. But those supernatural manifestations were not what He was promising. The disciples would not be creating worlds or parting seas or taking the place of God.

Christ promised them enabling power that would transform them from the inside out. Another kind of power, as A. T. Robertson correctly observed: “Not the ‘power’ about which they were concerned (political organization and equipment for the empire on the order of Rome) . . . this new ‘power’ (dunamin), to enable them (from dunamai to be able), to grapple with the spread of the gospel in the world.”1 Jesus was saying, in effect, “You will receive a new enablement, a new dynamic, altogether different from what you have ever experienced before.”

This transforming power also included an inner confidence, sometimes to the point of invincibility, regardless of the odds they would face. F. F. Bruce, in his splendid volume on the book of Acts, stated that “they would be clothed with heavenly power—that power by which, in the event, their mighty works were accomplished and their preaching made effective. As Jesus Himself had been anointed at His baptism with the Holy Spirit and power, so His followers were now to be similarly anointed and enabled to carry on His work.”

The power (I prefer to use the term dynamic) that Jesus promised the disciples directly—and us indirectly—was the Spirit’s unparalleled help and enablement, which would immeasurably surpass their own human ability. Think of it! That very same dynamic is resident within every Christian today. But where has it gone? Why is it so seldom evident among us? What can be done to get it in motion as it once was? It’s those questions that prompted me to write this book.

His Affirming Will for Us

In His statement prior to His departure, Jesus included an additional promise to His disciples. “You shall be My witnesses,” He said (v. 8). The Spirit would free their lips so that they would witness consistently of Him. First in Jerusalem, where they would be located when the Spirit came. Next in Judea and Samaria, the surrounding regions beyond the capital city. Ultimately “even to the remotest part of the earth” (v. 8). The Spirit’s presence would spur them on, enabling them to speak openly and boldly of their Savior.

He still longs to do that within and through us today, affirming God’s will for you and for me.

A quick glance at the fourth chapter of Acts reveals the results of this Spirit-filled dynamic: perseverance. Peter and John had been preaching in the streets of Jerusalem, where they were later arrested, confronted, and threatened by the officials. Undaunted by the threats, those two disciples stood toe-to-toe with the officials. Their calm perseverance and remarkable courage did not go unnoticed: “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Why? Why would the religious officials marvel at untrained and unlearned men? What impressed them? It was the disciples’ firm resolve. Their thoughts might have been: These are a different category of humanity. They are not like the soldiers we deal with or the politicians or our fellow officials. Frankly, they recognized that these were Jesus’ people—men who had once been with Jesus. How would they know that? The dynamic.

Not long afterward, the Jewish supreme court called the disciples back and told them in no uncertain terms to knock it off.

“We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:28–29) Clearly, that is persistent, invincible dynamic. Normally the official setting of a courtroom intimidates people. But not these men.

Remember Acts 1:8? “You will receive power.” You’ll be witnesses. You’ll have perseverance to stand firm, regardless. That promised power is now on display. A few moments later these same Spirit-enabled men set the record straight:

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him. (Acts 5:30–32)

And what happened? Did they lick their wounds and curl up in some cave until the situation cooled down? Were they frightened and disillusioned? Weeks earlier they would have been. Not now. Even after threats and brutal beatings, “they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:41–42).

The Spirit’s enablement—that’s heaven-sent, transforming power! Get this: the same Spirit who filled believers in the first century is ready to fill us today. That same dynamic can be ours, the same boldness and determination, invincibility and perseverance in the midst of danger.

His Permanent Presence within Us

Put yourself back again with the disciples in that Upper Room in those last intimate moments with Jesus. Let’s relive the scene. Feel the heaviness in the air. Hang on His final words. Identify with the growing panic in the disciples’ hearts. You’re going away? They sat stunned. Felt orphaned. Some may have wept. You’re leaving us alone? Picture their Savior, their Friend, Jesus. Imagine how His heart rushed to their comfort. No, I’m not leaving you alone. “I will ask the Father. He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive. He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:16–17).

Pause right now. Realize this: when your heart is troubled, the most devastating, demoralizing, paralyzing thought you can ponder is, “I’m all alone.” Isn’t that true? “Nobody cares” comes next.

But, child of God, I’ve got wonderful news: you are never alone. God cares immeasurably about you. He gave you His Spirit to be with you. When you came to know Christ, He took up His residence and began living inside you. The very word helper (parakletos) means “one called alongside to help.”

He enables you to face today’s trials.

He empowers you to meet tomorrow’s demands.

He gets you past the divorce.

He guides you to your mate.

He goes with you to the funeral home.

Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Monday, He is with you. Wherever you are—hospital room, dorm room, at home alone, in a difficult work environment, with a sick child, standing by a fresh grave—you have an inner Helper. He has “come alongside” to assist you. The Spirit of God has been provided to comfort as nobody else can. He loves you. He’ll never leave you. He supports and strengthens you. And because of His indwelling presence, you have an amazing life open before you.

I love how my friend Eugene Peterson described the work of the Spirit in Ephesians 3. Read this slowly, preferably aloud. His words describe what we will learn together in the coming pages:

I ask [the Father] to strengthen you by his Spirit— not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength— that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:15–19 msg, emphasis mine)

That is what happens when you and I are embraced by His Spirit. That’s why He came. Let’s start there as we begin to experience the untold benefits of intimacy with our great God!