The Holy Spirit 2
August 28th
Part 2
I will continue with examples from the Old Covenant. I start with Nehemiah. He was called by God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. In chapter 9 he talks about the time they had in the desert. He talks to God and says in verse 20: “You also gave Your good Spirit to instruct them, And did not withhold Your manna from their mouth, And gave them water for their thirst. ” I used last times many examples to show that the Spirit came upon people and they prophesied. Nehemiah says in verse 30 in the same chapter that God had testified against the people by His Spirit in the Prophets. The people had not listened and unfortunately turned away from God. I do not understand that they would not listen to Somebody so Good.
We read both in the New and Old Covenant that we should be led by the Spirit. In psalm 143:10 we read that the Spirit of God is Good and He will lead His children in the land of uprightness. In psalm 25:4-5 the psalmist ask God to show him His paths and lead him in truth.
When we come to God and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, we do that as a result of the works of The Holy Spirit, not because we deserve it nor earn it. The Holy Spirit has worked with us, sent Christian people in our way, testifying about Jesus. In John 14:17 it says that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. Those who are not Christians do not know the Holy Spirit, but we know Him and He is in us.
You can look up the Book of Isaiah and we will stay there for some time. This prophet prophesied about Jesus several times and Jesus referred to Isaiah. You can start with Is.11:2.
He refers to Jesus when he writes: “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” When Jesus did His deeds on this earth, He was not alone. His Father had sent the Holy Spirit to be with Him and Jesus could also talk to His Father. They were a unity from the very beginning and continued to be so even if they were at different places.
When the children of God lived in rebellion and made treaties against the Will of God, they sinned and God could not bless them and their lives became miserable.(chap.30)
In chapter 32 it says that the Spirit will be poured over the people and the desert will become like an orchard and righteousness will rest in the orchard. Where the Spirit of the Lord comes, there comes Life and lovely fruits will grow. It happened then and it will happen to-day. This goes for natural and supernatural fruits. I have read about places where Christians have prayed for a long time and the Holy Spirit has filled the place, and one of the results is bigger and better fruits and vegetables. HALLELUJA!
The Spirit of the Lord cannot be measured says Isaiah in chap.40:12 and he continues to say that no human being can give the Spirit advice, knowledge nor understanding because He has all knowledge and all wisdom. It was exactly here where Adam and Eve sinned. They ate from the fruit of the tree that would make them know good and evil and become like God.
Isaiah is again prophesying about Jesus in chap.42. It says in the beginning: “I have put My Spirit upon Him. Then God continues to tell Who Jesus is and what He shall do.
In chap.44:3 we read: “I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring.”
I believe that Is.61 is the passage that is mostly referred to in Isaiah. Jesus referred to this passage in Luke 4. We read in both places that the Spirit of the Lord has anointed Jesus. The Holy Spirit is doing the same to-day. If we are not anointed, we have no power to do the works of the Lord. We can try, but the result is very bad. We need oil or cream when our skin is dry or sore. We use cream and oil to cleanse and to reduce pain. When the sun is strong, we use cream or oil to protect our skin. We can see from these examples how necessary it is to be anointed both in the natural and in the supernatural.
Chapter 63 is the last chapter in Isaiah that I will mention. The house of Israel, His people, had made rebellion and they grieved The Holy Spirit. Then the Lord fought against them. We read earlier that the Lord is fighting for them. The Holy Spirit is also fighting our battle to-day. When we have tried to battle in our own power, we should stop and leave everything to The Holy Spirit and He will lead us to rest as it is written in Is.63:14.
You can look up and read about the prophet Zechariah. God gave him the task of encouraging the people and to fulfill what God had given him responsibility for. The temple should be built and the Glory of the Lord should be revealed. Israel should be blessed because the Lord is faithful towards the covenant He had made with the forefathers. It says that God sent them a word by His Spirit.(Zech.7:12) It is very important to give heed to the words spoken by the prophets because they come from The Holy Spirit. (I will come back to the gifts of the Spirit later.)
Maybe the most known verse in Zechariah is Zech. 4:6. This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel.: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” God does not listen to our prayers because we raise our voice. People will not get healed because we cry loud or try to make them fall. Meetings do not become strong because we try to make manifestations. We get all of this by the Holy Spirit. I have seen people fall without anybody touching them and I have seen people getting healed during praise and worship. I have seen people getting their prayers answered after a sigh and a quite whisper. I have been driven by the Holy Spirit to pray like I was giving birth to a child and that was powerful because it was driven by the Spirit. EVERYTHING IS DEPENDANT ON THE HOLY SPIRIT.
You can go with me to Luke, the first chapter. We are going to prepare the coming of Jesus to this earth. The angel Gabriel was sent by God to the town of Nazareth. He was sent to a young woman with the name of Mary. She was engaged to Joseph, but they had never had any sexual contact. She was therefore very surprised when the angel told her that she was going to become pregnant. She wondered how that could be. In verse 35 we read what the angel said: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is born will be called the Son of God.” The angel continued to inform her that Elizabeth, her relative, was pregnant in her old age. She could not conceive before , but God had made it possible. Mary visited Elizabeth and when Mary came with a greeting to her, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with The Holy Spirit. She cried out towards Mary: ” Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Elizabeth gave birth to John, the Baptist. His father had not been able to speak since he had doubted the word from God, but in verse 67 we can read that he was filled with the Holy Spirit and said: “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people, And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of His servant David.” He prophesied over his son, John and said that he would go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways. Theologians have always wanted to discuss and put a doubt to the fact that Mary conceived a baby by the Holy Spirit. It was done by an order of the Father so that Jesus could become a human being and identify with us and become our Eternal Savior, saving us from our sins and sicknesses and all the works of the devil.
ALL THAT IS CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, HAS ETERNAL LIFE!!!!!!!
Mother Else