The Dove Series Part 3: The Seven Spirits of God & the Beatitudes
Conversations with Saint Augustine
What a fitting time to begin this third installment of the dove series during Black History Month by interacting with one of my favorite early church fathers Augustine of Hippo. Saint Augustine was a Black North African Saint, Philosopher, and Doctor of the Church. In his work “Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount,” Augustine engages in some significant insight regarding the virtue of the Beatitudes and the Seven Spirits of God. To begin with, Augustine believes that the Seven Spirits of God are the sevenfold operation of the Holy Spirit, and I agree. We see that in John’s Apocaplyse, He refers to the Holy Spirit within the declaration of the Triune God, The Seven Spirits of God before the throne in Revelation 1:4-5:
4 John, to the seven churches which are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.
Augustine also sees the Seven Spirits of God in a different manner than many in our modern day because of the early translations. For example, when reading Isaiah 11:1-3, it can easily be mistaken to see the seven as such:
The Spirit of the Lord
Wisdom
Understanding
Counsel
Might
Knowledge
Fear of the Lord
The translation in some versions reads the Fear of the Lord twice in verses 2 and 3, but initially, the Greek translation of the Fear of the Lord was meant to be piety, godliness, or holiness. The Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) reads this way:
2 and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness shall fill him,
3 the spirit of the fear of God. He shall not judge according to appearance nor reprove according to report:
The Spirit of the Lord produces:
Wisdom
Understanding
Counsel
Fortitude (might)
Knowledge
Piety
Fear of the Lord
Augustine, according to this translation, saw the Seven Spirits of God blossom out of the root of Jesse himself, who is also called “The Branch” (Jeremiah 23:5; 33:15; Zechariah 6:12)
Isaiah 11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a blossom shall come up from his root… This is referred to as the Rigteous Reign of the Branch.
Saint Augustine saw the eight sentences of the Beatitudes as stages bringing the believer through humility (blessed are the poor in spirit) into the likeness of God (blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be sons of God). He saw the beatitudes within the framework as a way of ascending into maturity.
“Seven in number, therefore, are the things which bring perfection: for the eighth brings into light and shows what is perfect, so that starting, as it were, from the beginning again, others are perfected by means of these stages.” Within this framework of perfection, according to Augustine, was the blessing of persecution for righteousness’ sake.
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on the account of the Son of Man!
Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets[1].
If we continue to follow the narrative of Luke, who sees Jesus as the Greater Elijah and the disciples as a type of Elisha, then the beatitudes are the embodiment of those who carry the inheritance of persecution as a prophethood of believers and sons of the prophets (term used to describe disciples of the prophets). They carry the inheritance of persecution because they embody His name and character. As Chris Green describes, Jesus demonstrates what it means to walk out the Beatitudes:
“Jesus embodies the virtues the Beatitudes describe not only because he is God the Son, but also because the Spirit rested and continues to rest on his body in his incarnate mission. Through the Ascension/Pentecost event, the Spirit continues to rest on him and so on us, Jesus’ ecclesial body, so that we can continue to body forth his ministry, and his presence. The Spirit gave the Word a body so that those with bodies might receive the Spirit”[2].
The Spirit who came in the form of a dove and rested on the body of Jesus is the same Spirit that continues to rest upon his body, the Church. If this same Spirit is also the Sevenfold Spirit that rests upon the Lamb, it is by the inner working of the Sevenfold Spirit of God that we embody the virtues of the Beatitude. The Metaphor of the dove is also a sign of the power of the Spirit within the believer to bring them into the measure of mature sonship. The affirming voice of the Father came as the heavens were open in concert with the Spirit resting upon the root of David and the Son of God. It is out of this root that the inner working of the fruit and virtue of the Spirit is seen in the life of Jesus. The fruit produced from walking in the light is the virtue of the Beatitudes.
Augustine compares the eight sentences of the Beatitudes with the seven Spirits of God in Isaiah.
“Hence also the sevenfold operation of the Holy Ghost, of which Isaiah speaks, seems to me to correspond to these stages and sentences. But there is a difference of order: for there, the enumeration begins with the more excellent, but here with the inferior. For there, it begins with wisdom and closes with the fear of God: but “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” And therefore, if we reckon as it were in a gradually ascending series, there the fear of God is; first, piety second, knowledge third, fortitude fourth, counsel fifth, understanding sixth, wisdom seventh.”
Augustine sees the correlation between the stages of the Beatitudes and the Seven Spirits of God as the inner working of virtue that produces mature sons of God. Comparing wisdom with peacemakers, he argues because they are called sons of God, they are being brought into the likeness of God.
“To peacemakers, the likeness of God is given, as being perfectly wise, and formed after the image of God by means of the regeneration of the renewed man.”
So, the question becomes, what does Augustine do with the eighth sentence of the Beatitudes since there are only Seven Spirits of God? Well, Augustine goes on to argue that the eighth sentence, where Jesus declares, “Blessed, are those which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” is a new beginning that goes back to the starting point. It is the resurrection of the Lord that happened after the Sabbath; the first day after the Sabbath is also the eighth day.
It is by the Spirit of Christ that continues to rest upon His body that we enter into union with His virtue to put our flesh to death and let the fruit of that light shine so men may see the fruit of walking in the light of the Lord. Jesus, as the Greater Moses, teaches from a mountain not to abolish the Law but to become the embodied Law by the Spirit. He also stands as the Greater Elijah, teaching His disciples, who are a type of Elisha, what it means to bear His name through the inheritance of the Spirit. Being clothed in power is also to be clothed in His name.
“Cast off the works of darkness, and be clothed in the armor of light…Put on the Lord Jesus Christ”[3].
Peter brings a profound connection with the Spirit, who came as a dove, and the blessing of persecution for his name.
"If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you."
Union with Christ as we bear his Spirit is also union with the narrative of his life. It is by his Spirit that he re-lives the crucified life through us; it is by the same Spirit that we are empowered to give witness and bear his sufferings. As we embrace the fellowship of sufferings, the refining fire of trials purges and perfects us to bear his name so others will see the light and knowledge of the glory that shines from the face of Jesus through his body, the Church. Peter indicates this verse is not speaking of a future glory as he does in verse before 1 Peter 4:13 but a present (present and presence of)glory seen upon those who suffer. The language of the Spirit of Glory echoes the tabernacle, where the glory of the Lord rests between the cherubim's wings or the mercy seat. Peter's words echo Isaiah 11:2, where the Sevenfold Spirit of God would rest upon the Messiah. Peter also says that persecution comes from our share with the same Spirit that rests upon Jesus the Messiah. There is persecution because we bear his image, and if they persecuted him, then they will persecute those who look like him.
The Dove Company are those who bear the name of Christ because they share the same Spirit, life, and body of Jesus. We are to be the continuation of the incarnation of Christ and are to be, as Augustine says, "You are to be taken, blest, broken and distributed, that the work of the Incarnation may go forward."
The Sevenfold Holy Spirit is not given only to display external power over external enemies. He is also given to do an inside job of shaping and forming us into his image so that we can display the works of his hands to principalities and powers. In fact, Augustine only seems to argue for this inner working of the Sevenfold aspect of the Holy Spirit that produces the fruit of Christ out of us. Virtue of Jesus is not without power. The woman who touched the hem of his garment pulled on the virtue of Jesus.
While on the mission trip, I had a dream where I encountered some demonic powers. However, while they were releasing fear, anxiety, and witchcraft, amidst all this….there was a table set that was meant to be "Eucharistic."
There were way more details and certain things I was leaving out that were just for the mission itself; however, in contemplating this, I also became more aware of something else.
I believe as we learn to "incarnate" Christ in a sacramental way by becoming broken bread and pouring out wine to those who hunger and thirst for Him, we will realize the enemy is already losing ground as the revelation of the Crucified Christ and the power of His Resurrection is embodied through the Church.
The Cross that disarmed principalities and powers will manifest through His Body as we learn, as Paul says, that death works in us so His life can work in others (2 Corinthians 4:12).
[1] Luke 6:20-23
[2] Green, 60.
[3] Romans 13:12;14