Holy Spirit is God
In my introductory post, I mentioned that the Holy Spirit is of the same essence as God. He is the third person of the Trinity whereby in the One God there are three distinct personalities, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The second point I made is that the Holt Spirit is not an “it” or a “force” but that He is person with the attributes of personality.
In the Old Testament though, the idea of the Holy Spirit as a part of the Godhead was only hinted at. The Old Testament emphasized the Sovereignty of the One God. The nations around Israel worshipped many different gods and Israel was told to worship the One True God.
We do see, as mentioned above, hints as to the Trinity. All three were involved in creation. Acts 4:24 tells us that the Father was the maker of the heavens, earth, seas and all that is in them. John 1:3 tells us All things were made by Him (Jesus) and without Him or apart from Him nothing was made, that was made and in Psalm 104:30 we read Thou dost send forth Thy Spirit, they are created; and Thou doest renew the face of the ground
Introduction to the Spirit of God
Genesis 1:2 tells us, “… and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water” The NIV and the NKJV use the word “hovering” rather than “moved”. Strong’s Concordance indicated “moved” is “rachaph” meaning: to brood, by implication to be relaxed: – flutter, move, shake. The NIV Strong Concordance indicates “hovering” is “rahap” meaning: to tremble, shake, hover: – hovering, hovers, trembles.
There are two words in Hebrew that are translated breath, wind or spirit. The first “neshama” represents quiet breathing, such as when we are breathing normally. It could be a gentle breeze. Genesis uses this word when referring to God breathing into man the breath of life. The second word is “ruach“. This means a hard noisy breathing, such as when we are breathing heavily after a hard run. The “Spirit of God” is always ruach – ruach Adonai.
Dynamic Spiritual Energy
Ruach Adonai indicate life more than just existing. It represents a real life, vital life, abundant life and a dynamic spiritual energy. So when the Spirit of God moved or hovered over the waters, we see a living, vital, abundant and dynamic God stepping out of His transcendence into the chaos and the He spoke!
It is this dynamic, living, abundant and vital spiritual energy that we see in the Old Testament. We see the Spirit of God working on and through leaders, kings, priests and prophets. Pharaoh said of Joseph, “a man in whom the Spirit of God is” (Genesis 41:58)
When Moses was building the Tabernacle, he was told to chose two men, Bezateel and Aholiab. Both had great skills already but God said He would fill them with His Spirit to enhance their skills and so they could teach others. (Genesis 32:2,3 and Genesis 35:30,31)
Later, Moses in Numbers 11:10-30, is fed up. He is overwhelmed and ready to quite. The pressure is too great. And this is a man “who spoke to God face to face as a man would speak to his friend” God told him to chose 70 elder and God would take some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on these men. Only 68 came as instructed but when the Spirit of God came on them they all prophesied. And lo and behold, the 2 that didn’t come also had the Spirit of God come upon them! The power that was on Moses though did not get reduced. God’s Spirit never loses it strength!
Joshua complained to Moses about the other two and told him to stop them. Moses said, “would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit on them” He realized that all need the Spirit of God upon them. Later Joel would give a prophecy saying that this would happen and we see that on the Day of Pentecost the beginning.
Gideon and Samson
In Judges 6:34 we read, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon”. The picture is that Gideon was clothed with the Spirit of the Lord. Gideon who hid from the Lord and kept putting out fleeces. We need to be clothed with the fullness of the Spirit tofay.
Samson was not a man as pictured with massive muscles. He was probably a man of ordinary build. It was not his hair that gave him strength but it was the Spirit of the Lord upon him. When Samson got into a situation, he expected the Spirit of God to move upon him. Yet he continued to get into situations that he shouldn’t have. IT wasn’t because Delilah cut off his hair that he lost his strength. That was an outward sign but the Scriptures tell us “the Lord departed from him” and he didn’t even know it! Likewise, it wasn’t because his hair grew back that gave him the strength to tear down the pillar of the stadium. It was because he repented and cried out to God, who heard him and again, for one last time put the Spirit of the Lord upon him.
Ordinary people
Most of the people we see that have the Spirit of the Lord come upon them were ordinary people, unknown, unimportant and usually without a power base. Yet when the Spirit of God came upon them, they knew it and were transformed into extraordinary people. God still wants to do this today. He wants you and I to not just exist but to have an abundant, vital, dynamic life full of spiritual energy so we can accomplish the work He has for us … for His Glory!
Attached is the link to the YouTube video for this session: