Holy Spirit

Introduction to Series

Take a deep breath in…

Now breath out

Do it again deep breath in

Now breath out

Did you see the air you breathed in?

Did you see the air you breathed out?

Some of you might have smelled it

Did you have to catch the air and put it in your mouth?

Imagine if every time you took a breath you had to catch and put it in your mouth.

You don’t have to do that.

The air you breath is just there. It sustains you.

This morning I want to launch a series on the Holy Spirit.

I have seen a lot of things when it comes to the Holy Spirit in my life of being a Christ follower. Some of it good and some of it not so good.

Because of all that is out there and the enemies desire to create confusion, I have come to believe that there is a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to the Holy Spirit.

With the misunderstanding, the Holy Spirit is then put on a shelf and as Christ followers we are left without God being near to us and us believing that we must live the Christian life by being the best version of ourselves.

I have a lot of stories but let me just give you two examples

I was in high school and I was invited to a nondenominational charismatic church for revival. They were having revival and they had a special guest speaker.

This guest speaker was known as a faith healer.

People said I needed to go see what was going on there. So I went.

It was ok for the most part and then things kinda started getting weird. They started healing people and people started going up front to be healed.

My buddy in high school went forward and I watched as he was “slain” in spirit. I did not go down front.

So the service went on and then it finally ended. I had a lot of unrest inside my mind about some of the things that took place.

The next morning at school I ran up to my buddy first thing in weights. I said hey tell me about what happened last night. I want to learn more.

He said

I went forward and told the evangelist speaker guy that I had a sore throat. He said the guy then put his hand on my head and kind pushed me back and I went back like this. I didn’t go down so he put his hand on my forehead again and pushed me back and I went back a little but didn’t go down.

He said after that he leaned me over and he upper cut me right in the gut. I said what happened next and he said I WENT DOWN! He said and I am still coughing this morning.

I think the other example is a lot more simpler than this. I have met others who have said the gifts of the Spirit were for first century Christ followers alone.

It was for the founding of the church and did not expand beyond this. This has caused for the Holy Spirit to be placed on a shelf and to be an under utilized and misunderstood part of the Trinity.

So my hope is that through this series we can understand what the scriptures say about the Holy Spirit.

I want to be Biblically grounded in the Holy Spirit.

So we start all the way back at the beginning of the Scriptures

Genesis 1:2 HCSB

2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Formless/tohu

trackless waste, emptiness, chaos, baseless or futile

empty/bohu

void or waste, emptiness

Spirit/ruah

wind, air moving(sometimes with considerable force) from one area to another.

breath, wind, spirit

mind

In some places of the Old Testament the Spirit is a term for God’s outgoing energy, creative and sustaining

A few other examples in the Old Testament of this use of Ruah

Genesis 8:1 HCSB

1 God remembered Noah, as well as all the wildlife and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside.

God caused a ruah to pass over the earth

This is complex because we see God’s outgoing energy, creative and sustaining that caused the flood waters to subside.

I like to think of growing in our knowledge of the Holy Spirit as though like legos or building blocks. We just put one brick on top of another and slowly out of all the bricks we can see or understand a little better.

So the language here is Energy going out from God and the use of the word Spirit.

I am ok in my mind just letting that sit there and not having to figure out all the details of God here.

I am also ok realizing my mind is finite and God is infinite

Exodus 14:21 HCSB

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back with a powerful east wind all that night and turned the sea into dry land. So the waters were divided,

Ruah: a powerful east wind

This one would be a little easier for me to see this as God’s outgoing energy, creative and sustaining.

This one is hard for me to truly grasp the Holy Spirit described as coming from the east.

I can still see the Trinity at work here though. My mind does not figure out all the details of it but I like the Trinity present.

Judges 6:34 HCSB

34 The Spirit of the Lord took control of Gideon, and he blew the ram’s horn and the Abiezrites rallied behind him.

Ruah took control of Gideon

They rallied behind him

This one is a little easier to understand but still presents some challenges to us.

We see it is the Spirit of the Lord at work in the life of Gideon. That’s good and I we like that.

The challenge is our independent lives trying to understand how a sovereign God took control of Gideon and the result was people rallied behind him.

The other part I like about this text is that this happens before Gideon and the fleece story. I encourage you to go and read the rest of this story with this one piece added in.

That is the Spirit is present in Gideon’s life before he asked the Lord for confirmation.

Psalm 104:27–30 HCSB

27 All of them wait for You to give them their food at the right time. 28 When You give it to them, they gather it; 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 breath, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.

Breath: Ruah

When you take away their breath they die

When you send your ruah they are created

Job 33:4 HCSB

4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Ruah of God has made me

Neshamah: breath

Remember where we started today

Take a deep breath in.

And breathe it out.

You didn't have to go looking for it.

You didn't have to earn it.

You didn't have to convince the air to come into your lungs.

You didn't have to understand everything about oxygen in order for it to give you life.

God has given us His Spirit.

The same Spirit who was hovering over the waters in Genesis 1.

The same Spirit who brought order out of chaos.

The same Spirit who gave life.

The same Spirit who empowered Gideon.

The same Spirit who gives breath to creation.

The same Spirit who gives us life.

One big driving force for this series on the Holy Spirit is that I believe God in his goodness dwells among us and helps us daily live our lives through His Spirit.

The problem is that we don’t know a lot about the Holy Spirit or how to live daily with Him.

I am certain that many of us have been confused about the Holy Spirit or put this on the shelf because we just didn’t understand.

We want to look at the Word of God and build on what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit.

I want us to know the Holy Spirit

I want us to understand who He is

I want us to understand what He does

I want us to see the Holy Spirit at work in our lives daily

I have a desire for Christ followers to interact daily with the Holy Spirit.

I love being empowered by the Holy Spirit

I love having help daily with the Holy Spirit

I want to see less of myself trying to do things and more of trusting his Spirit to help me with things.