God's Software?

The Holy Spirit is one of the most neglected and strange concepts in Christianity.  I suspect most scholars wish people wouldn’t ask questions about the “third person of the Trinity.”  I don’t blame them, I am often baffled by the whole business myself. 

I especially have a problem when I read Paul in his letter to the Roman church where he says “The Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us" (Romans 8:26.)  It makes it clearly sound like we aren’t capable of praying and talking to God.  Frankly, it is made to seem like we need a mouthpiece akin to having a shyster lawyer in court to argue our case.  Paul makes it sound like we are too inept to even know what to pray about.  I find that completely inconsistent with life and certainly inconsistent with my experience.  I suspect you do, too.

Is the Holy Spirit then some kind of translator mechanism…a Dragon software for speech to spirit instead of speech to text on your computer?  I doubt it.  Jesus taught us how to pray and never mentioned anything about needing it translated.  He just said keep on asking.

I heard it expressed once as a kid that the Holy Spirit is more like a phone line that carries communication to God, and for me that seems to work best.  Paul didn’t have the concept of a phone line to use, so I’ll give him some slack that he was trying to express it as best he could.

Share your thoughts on the subject if you'd like!