She sells seashells at the Seychelles
"Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; together to judgment." (Isaiah 41:1)
A moment of silence please. It's not the ocean you hear when you hold the shell to your ear, it's your heart. Max Muller in part one refers to the images taken in by our eyes in turn turning into that which we attach sounds and therefore meaning (or is it the other way around?). All I know is that the imagery with which each solid object has been labeled--taxonomized, as it were--with words is the object you pick up with your hands or feel. And still we're no closer to figuring out how this thing called "language" works. I mean, if I don't understand how my brain works, will it still work? And I'm hungry! Give me a moment before I eat (and after I say grace) to figure out my digestive process(es). Thanks. Real quick, diaphonous refers to similar sounds across a phonetic spectrum. Like the "s" in the tongue twister above. Diaphanous, however, simply means "light", "airy". Insubstantial. Or, in the case of the Holy Spirit, not taken seriously. Dismissed as unnecessary and therefore sidelined in a fuller measure. It's one thing to dismiss Him as a non-Christian. Quite another to dismiss and ignore as a believer. The Holy Spirit is like the ocean from which we came. We are a spirit (I believe--not just a soul) and when we neglect the stuff from which we came, spiritually, all we hear is our own heartbeat as it slowly dies down. Listening, then, for the true voice of the Holy Spirit is what takes us back to God. The God who formed us.
Holy Spirit/Holy Psirit
"Let them give glory unto the Lord, and declare His praise in the islands." (Isaiah 42:12)
Think about your will. That with which you purpose to do things. If the idea that you are merely matter directed around by your impulses is abhorrent to you, play it up. If the notion that your are merely responding to your brain--the way you respond to your stomach when it's empty, albeit way more complex--doesn't go to the top floor (it's because you're more than your body), you might be something more than your body.
"For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread." (Isaiah 8:11-13)
The Lord has a voice. And I'm referring to each member of the Trinity when I say that. While I find that God's (the Father's) voice resonates across time and season, Jesus' voice is distinctly His own. More, uh, human sounding, in other words. The Holy Spirit, however, has not only been facilitating all of it--as in, causing it to happen on this plane and me to hear it--but is also like a mood. Both an undercurrent to my life to which I am not always either attuned or at least conscious of, or even present for. This is what Jesus provided for the human race with His death and resurrection. And this is what He carried around with Him after His baptism in the river Jordan. "And, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him:" (Matthew 3:16) Interesting how it says He got to see it as it was happening. One of the hallmarks of the Holy Spirit is that you don't really get to see when He comes in to your life except that He's been there since before you became aware. And this is where you want to make sure what you're hearing is truly Him. Because the voices that direct us around, outside us, of course, do the enemy try to counterfeit. Hence the anagrammed first syllable to the second word on the right side of the bolded slash above.
"But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe." (John 19:34-35)
So, I didn't actually see it happen. But I do believe it. I believe Jesus died on the cross like it says and that the blood symbolizes His life spilled out for me and that the water symbolizes the Holy Spirit He was carrying around. The thing about the Holy Spirit, though, is that in order to receive Him, you must look beyond yourself. Beyond your own brain and heartbeat to Jesus. Anything less, is, well, something else.