By Gwen Frangs / Templemore, Ireland / 6 December 2022
The Lord said the words: ‘Tell the church that I Am El Shaddai’ to me on the morning of Tuesday 6 December 2022. I had been listening to the first verse of the beautiful song entitled ‘El Shaddai’ being sung on YouTube. I have loved that song since I first heard it as a teenager at the Rhema Bible Church in Johannesburg, South Africa.
However, the theology that underpins the song is not entirely correct. The last two lines of the song address God the Father saying: ‘Your most awesome work was done through the frailty of Your Son’. These two lines make it clear that the entire song is addressing God the Father, calling the Father El Shaddai. Clearly, the writers of the song thought that El Shaddai was God the Father. However, the Bible does not teach that El Shaddai is the Father. According to the Bible, El Shaddai is the Holy Spirit and it was the Holy Spirit Who became incarnate as the Son.
We can know that El Shaddai is the Holy Spirit because Exodus 6:2-3 says:
2 And God said to Moses, “I am Yahweh—‘the Lord.’ 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob in El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty’—but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them.
Exodus 6:2-3
Although commonly translated as God telling Moses that He appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai, this is not what the verse actually says. The correct translation of the verse says that He appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in El Shaddai.
The preposition on the word ‘el’ is בְּ which is the preposition ‘in’ in ancient Hebrew.
Therefore, it follows that God the Father, Who is speaking to Moses, is saying that He was in the person that appeared to Abraham. God the Father is saying that He was in El Shaddai.
In Exodus 6: 2-3 the Father tells us that every time one of the Patriarchs saw God, they were seeing El Shaddai.
Genesis 15: 1-5 says:
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,[a]
your very great reward.[b]”2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit[c] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring[d] be.”
Genesis 15:1-5 NIV
We see that the Word of the Lord is a person because Genesis 15:5 says that ‘he‘ took Abram outside. Because of Exodus 6: 2-3 we know that this Person, the Word of God, is El Shaddai. In John 1 we are told that this Person, the Word of God, became flesh and dwelt among us.
In Genesis 48 Jacob speaks about El Shaddai, Who appeared to him at Luz (Genesis 48:3). In Genesis 48:15-16, Jacob continues to speak about El Shaddai and describes El Shaddai both as God and as the Angel:
15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,
“May the God before whom my fathers
Genesis 48:15-16
Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,
the God who has been my shepherd
all my life to this day,
16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm
—may he bless these boys.
May they be called by my name
and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they increase greatly
on the earth.”
In Isaiah 63 this Angel, El Shaddai, is called the Holy Spirit:
8 He said, “Surely they are my people,
Isaiah 63:8-10
children who will be true to me”;
and so he became their Savior.
9 In all their distress he too was distressed,
and the angel of his presence saved them.[a]
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them
all the days of old.
10 Yet they rebelled
and grieved his Holy Spirit.
So he turned and became their enemy
and he himself fought against them.
Exodus 6: 2-3 makes it clear that God the Father was in the Word of God when the Word of God appeared to the Patriarchs. The New Testament reveals that when the Word became flesh, the person Who was in the Word before He became flesh remained in the Word. The New Testament reveals that the person living within the Word is God the Father.
The New Testament teaches us that God the Father is an invisible spirit (Colossians 1:15 ; 1 Timothy 1:17 ; Hebrews 11:27).
The New Testament teaches us that the Father can live inside another being. In the New Testament Jesus tells us that He and the Father are One (John 10:30). He also tells us that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him (John 10:38). He tells Philip in John 14 that the Father is living in Him:
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
John 14: 8-10
In Colossians 2:9 we are told that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus in bodily form. In John 14:23 Jesus makes it clear that if we obey His commandments that the Father will come and live in us:
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
John 14:23
In all of the above verses Jesus is telling the disciples that He is the Angel of His Presence, the Holy Spirit, El Shaddai, incarnate.
The only way that Jesus can come and live in a Christian is in the form of a spirit. It is possible for Him to do this because His spirit is the Holy spirit. I have a human spirit, but Jesus does not have a human spirit, Jesus has an angelic spirit. The spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. The apostle Luke called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Jesus:
Paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to .
Acts 16:6-7
In Colossians 1:12-20 Paul described the Son of God:
12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[f] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and into him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Colossians 1:12-20
In verses 15-18 Paul is clearly describing Jesus as He pre-existed as the Holy Spirit. Then In verses 18-20, Paul is describing the Holy Spirit after He became incarnate as Jesus. In verse 16 Paul says that all things were created through the Son. The Old Testament makes it clear that God used the Holy Spirit to create everything:
The Spirit of God has made me;
Job 33:4 NIV
the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
All creatures look to you
Psalm 104:27-30 NIV
to give them their food at the proper time.
28 When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
Clearly, the Son is the Holy Spirit incarnate or Paul would have been contradicting the Old Testament by teaching that the Son had created everything. The apostle Paul was fully aware that Jesus’ spirit was the Holy Spirit. That is why the apostle Paul wrote:
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Corinthians 3:17
In Galatians, Paul says: ‘And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father’ (Galatians 4:6 NLT).
Because of this it would be better if the line in the song: ‘Your most awesome work was done through the frailty of Your Son,’ was changed to say: ‘Your most awesome work was done, when You became the Son.’ This is because the song is actually addressing the Holy Spirit, El Shaddai, Who became incarnate as the Son of God.