Holy Spirit: The Hand of The Lord - Part 1

BANGALORE, India - April 9, 2014 - PRLog -- Today and next Sunday, we will explore the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. We must keep in mind, that while the Testaments have changed, the Spirit of God is still the same. He is able to do what He has done and even more!

The same Holy Spirit who worked in the Old Testament also worked in the time of Jesus, and in the Early Church and is at work today. The Holy Spirit did not change across the Testaments. However, the way in which He worked in the Old Testament, differs, from the way in which He works under the New Covenant. In OT He came on few individuals for particular reasons. He moved upon them guiding, directing and encouraging. He did not reside with them permanently. He ministered through prophets, judges, kings & few other individuals. In the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit lives inside every believer, and empowers every believer.

In the Old Testament, "the hand of the Lord" is a term that is used to refer to the moving of the Holy Spirit upon a servant (or prophet). Hence we have titled this sermon "The hand of the Lord".

We will touch upon some aspects of the Holy Spirit's work in the Old Testament

Genesis 1:2
The Spirit is present at creation (see also Job 26:13)

‘moved’ Hebrew 'rachaph' = to brood
was brooding over; for the word expresses that motion made by the hen while either hatching her eggs or fostering her young. Hovered over Heb. rachaph = brood over, a reproductive term
The Holy Spirit is involved. He is God’s birthing agent.

We can invite the Holy Spirit to hover over people, cities and regions and bring about the birthing of sons and daughters into the Kingdom of God.
Genesis 41:38
Empowered Joseph to interpret dreams

People in the Old Testament manifested the Holy Spirit with the same "gifts of the Spirit" that we know of in the New Testament. Other than tongues and interpretation of tongues, we see all of the other 9 gifts of the Spirit also manifested in the Old Testament.

Exodus 28:3, 31:2-5, 35:31
God through His Spirit gave special ability to specific people for the building of the tabernacle, its furniture, and for the garments the priests had to wear.

The Holy Spirit is doing the same in our day. Empowering God's people with special creative and artistic abilities.

Numbers 11: 17-29
The Lord took some of the Spirit from Moses and put it on the elders.

So we see that there can be different "levels of empowering" brought into individual's lives by the same Spirit. We call this different "measures of the Spirit". It was the same Holy Spirit on Moses and the 70 leaders. But the level of empowering was very different. Moses was empowered to lead a nation. Each one of the 70 was empowered to lead a smaller group of people.

Numbers 27:18
Joshua was prepared as a leader by the Spirit (see also Deuteronomy 34:9)

Leadership also comes as an empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Similarly in the book of Judges, the Spirit of the Lord came upon various leaders to enable them to deliver them from their enemies.

Othniel (Judges 3:9,10)
Gideon (Judges 6:34)
Jephthah (Judges 11:29)
Samson (Judges 13:25, 14:6,19 15:14)

David
We see several different aspects of the Holy Spirit's work in David.
1 Samuel 16:13
He was anointed by Samuel the prophet.
The Spirit of the Lord came on him “from that day forward”
Oil is a symbol of the anointing, the presence and power of the Spirit.

2 Samuel 23:2
He wrote psalms by the Spirit

1 Chronicles 12:17,18
People connected with David because of the Spirit

1 Chronicles 28:12
David was given the Temple design by the Spirit

Nehemiah 9:20,30
He gave His good Spirit to instruct them

Today, we have seen a few highlights of the work of the Holy Spirit from the Old Testament. We need to remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit can do the same, and even more, as He desires in and through us today.

Next week we cover a few more highlights of the work of the Holy Spirit from the Old Testament.

http://vimeo.com/90012415