2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
God keeps showing me with Scriptural gifts and encourages me to share them with you. I knew that He wanted me to write about the Holy Spirit this morning and quite frankly didn’t start out knowing what to say. Then, He sent me to begin right to the OT! Of course it is logical that if the Father and the Son were in there in the OT, the Holy Spirit should be too. I just never thought that much about it before. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the Father is the transcendent (mysterious) part of the Trinity, the Son is the immanent (easier to perceive) part of it, and the Holy Spirit is the communicating (teaching and guiding) part. Each person of the Trinity is in an intimate and unbreakable relationship with the others. No person of the Trinity operates without the others, for God really is One in three. When we come to faith in Christ, we are privileged to have the Holy Spirit indwelt in us. That means that we have continual access to the Spirit. The question is whether we listen to Him continually. I am also of the opinion that even before some people come to faith, God grants them intermittent access to the Holy Spirit. When you read through the citations here, you may come to the same conclusion.
There are times when the King James version of the Bible sheds more light than the others for me. Here is one of them: GN 1: 2, “And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Without God’s perception I’m not qualified to explain more than He gives us about the Creation. What I see here is the presence of the Holy Spirit, just as I testified to Christ’s presence in the previous two messages. The power of the Spirit of God to participate in the Creation certainly makes sense to me, even with my very limited perception.
When it became time for the Tabernacle in the wilderness to be constructed, Moses had to find an artisan with the skills to do this. As I have so often said before, God never gives a person an assignment that isn’t God-sized or for which He hasn’t equipped that person to do. This assignment was no exception to that rule. GN 31: 1-3, “And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘See, I have called by name Bezaleel, the son of Uri of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.” While the design for this unique Tent originated with God, the execution of constructing that design was given by the Holy Spirit to Bezaleel and those who helped him. What a great example of how God can use man to carry out His purposes. Bezaleel was an example of a man who let Him do that. Understanding this should fuel us to ask: are we allowing God to carry out His purposes in our lives?
Let’s look at the situation in which Moses had more responsibility than one man could bear. Have you ever found yourself in that situation? What did you do about it? Moses did the one thing that makes sense to me, he turned to God for advice. NU 1: 16-17 shows how the Lord answered this request. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Assemble seventy respected men who are recognized as leaders of the people, bring them to the Tent of My Presence, and tell them to stand there beside you. I will come and speak with you there, and will take some of the Spirit I have given you and give it to them. Then, they can help you bear the responsibility for these people and you will not have to bear it alone.” Undoubtedly, because God is omnipresent, it makes sense that the Spirit is too. There is plenty of the Spirit to fill anyone who is faithful and obedient. God’s will shall be done.
When it was time for Moses to transfer authority to lead the people to Joshua, the Lord directed him by saying in NU 27: 18, “…Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and place your hands on his head.” It is clear from this and other citations that God knows ahead of time who the right people are to carry out some facet of His will and empowers them to do so. Here are some other examples. JG 6: 34, “The Spirit of the Lord took control of Gideon, and he blew a trumpet to call the men of the clan of Abiezer to follow him.” In this situation, God was empowering Gideon to lead the Israelites against the Midianites successfully. JG 11: 29, 33: Jephthah, a brave soldier from Gilead, was ruler of the Israelites fighting the Ammonites. “Then, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He went through Gilead and Manasseh and returned to Mizpah in Gilead and went on to Ammon.” “He struck at them from Aroer to the area around Minnith, twenty cities in all, and as far as Abel Keramim. There was a great slaughter, and the Ammonites were defeated by Israel.” This remarkable victory was God’s will as a part of defeating the Canaanites in preparation for the Jews to call the Promised Land their home.
These examples are too crucial to our understanding of God’s power to bring about His will for me to short change you by fitting them all into one message. That is why I hope you will bear with me if I give you one more for today and then continue this line of thought tomorrow. David is such a remarkable figure in human history that the Lord keeps me going back to him repeatedly. When David was given authority to rule Israel, he was being chased and tormented by Israel’s previous ruler, Saul. 1 SAM 16: 13, “Samuel took the olive oil and anointed David in front of his brothers. Immediately the Spirit of the Lord took control of David and was with him from that day on…” David’s last words are found later in 2 SAM 23: 1-7, which I hope you will read in its entirety. (2) “The Spirit of the Lord speaks through me…(5) That is how God will bless my descendants because He has made an eternal covenant with me, an agreement that will not be broken, a promise that will not be changed.” How incredibly prophetic that statement is! David’s willingness throughout his life after coming to faith to empty his vessel of his own agendas and allow God to fill it with His through the Holy Spirit is a lesson for us all. Imagine what our lives would have been like if David had refused to carry out God’s will! I don’t even want to think about it.
PRAYER: O Lord, You have given mankind the privilege of Your Spirit’s presence right from the beginning. You never gave up on your created beings even when they refused to put Your agenda first in place of their own. For our own good You challenge us to put our agendas aside and invite us to join You in your work. To help us understand the importance of our willingness to let you use us in carrying out Your will, You give us so many wonderful examples of how important facets of it were carried out by others obedient to You in the past. You bless believers with the indwelling of Your Holy Spirit. For this You deserve our reverence, humility, adoration, thanksgiving, and loving obedience. We dedicate ourselves to this end. In Christ’s name, amen.
Never forget your Lord loves you and won’t abandon you. Remain faithful, and I know your lives will be blessed beyond imagination. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn