The Hub and the Spokes
The Spirit cannot be directly defined — Jesus said so himself. But it can be pointed at. Every biblical pointer is a spoke aimed at the same hub. And the hub, it turns out, is closer than it appears.
A friend named George responded to a prior post (The Mask and the Metamorphosis) with a question worth taking seriously:
“Perhaps in your next essay it is your intent to explain what ‘Spirit’ means and how it presumably functions within a person to bring about change… Your comments, I believe, presume a force outside of us somehow works within us to bring about this metamorphosis, vs each person simply being capable of choosing that he or she will speak and act differently… Can this happen? Does it require a force outside of us, the Spirit? Or is it possible that, as we behold and contemplate love, we can decide and choose to change and go in that direction?”
It is a good question. It deserves a straight answer, which means starting with an admission: the Spirit cannot be directly defined. Not because the subject is too advanced or too mystical, but because the text itself says so.
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8
Jesus is not being evasive. He is being precise. The Spirit is not the kind of thing that yields to direct definition. It can only be pointed at — the way spokes on a wheel point toward a hub without being the hub. Every biblical pointer to the Spirit is a spoke. None of them is the center. The center can only be known by where all the spokes aim.
What the Spokes Show
Two sets of spokes are particularly clear.
The gifts of the Spirit — wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, prophecy, discernment — are capacities that emerge in people, not manufactured by them. Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 12 is precisely that no one produces these by themselves. They are placed. They are given. The body does not assemble itself.
The fruits of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control — are not a behavioral checklist. They are what grows when the Spirit is present and operating. You do not produce fruit by deciding to have fruit. You produce fruit by being rooted in something that generates it.
Both sets of spokes point toward the same hub. Call it Love. Call it Life. The names are the closest language gets, and even they slip the moment you try to hold them still. John says God is love — not that God has love or demonstrates love, but that love is what God is. The hub has a name, and what is named immediately exceeds what language can contain.
George’s Question
George asked whether a person can simply choose love — behold it, contemplate it, decide to move toward it — without requiring a Spirit outside themselves.
The answer is not no. The answer is that the question contains an assumption worth examining.
It assumes love is something outside the person that the person can aim at from a neutral position. But consider two more spokes.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. John 1:9
Not to some. To everyone. Every person already carries the illumination of the true light — not as a religious achievement or a special endowment, but as a given reality.
The kingdom of GodNot a future political territory but a present reality. Jesus located it precisely: entos hymon — within you (Luke 17:21). The alternate translation "among you" reflects a theological preference more than the Greek; Jesus was addressing Pharisees, making "among you" an unlikely reading. The kingdom is not coming to be observed from outside — it is already within. Synonyms: kingdom of heaven, kingdom of Christ, basileia. More is within you. Luke 17:21
Not coming toward you. Not available if you qualify. Within you. Already. Prior to any contemplation or spiritual achievement.
George is right that the choice is real. But no one gives themselves the light. No one places the kingdom within themselves. The choice is genuine — and it is a response to something already present that preceded the choice entirely.
God is spirit — John 4:24. The kingdom is within. The light is already given. What you are moving toward is already there.
The Hub
Father, LogosLogos (λόγος): An ancient Greek term translated “Word” in most English Bibles, most famously in John 1:1. Unlike rhēmata (individual spoken words), logos carries the weight of an ultimate organizing principle — supreme logic and the source of cosmic meaning. John’s deliberate use of the term announces that Jesus is not merely a messenger, but the living structure by which all things were made and continue to hold together. 📖 Want to dig deeper? See The Word That Isn’t Just a Word. More, Spirit, light, love, life — these are not competing titles for the same position. They are the text’s best attempts to point at a reality that exceeds all of them simultaneously. The descriptions are the spokes. The hub is what they all aim at.
My wife, Mary, asked recently: “How does the Holy SpiritFrom the Greek pneuma and Hebrew ruach — both meaning breath or wind: invisible in itself, known by its movement and effects. The theological debates surrounding personhood and the Trinity are later developments; the original words are grounded in something physical and immediate. Synonyms: Holy Ghost, pneuma, ruach, Spirit of God, breath, wind. More measure up to Logos — is He one in the same?”
That question deserves its own post.
Thanks, Lance. You’ve set forth an excellent Bible based understanding of Spirit. I’ll go with, “The Spirit of Love.” It surely is an intangible quality, not easily defined, but we know what love is when we see it, when we experience it both in receiving and giving. The “good news” is that one can experience Love within any religious tradition or with no religious tradition. We all possess the [higher] power to be loved and to love.