Holy Spirit - April 3, 2011

“God is Spirit….” (John 4:24) We experience the life and power of God through the Holy Spirit. This is true now, as it was true at the very Beginning and will be true when Jesus returns, the Bible tells us.

The Spirit was present before Creation, confirming that the Spirit and God are One: “In the Beginning… the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) Jesus was also present before the Creation: “In the beginning was the Word…. He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2) This “Word” in the original Greek is Logos, another name given for Jesus. One root meaning of logos is “reasoning expressed in words.” God expressed Himself through His Word, which gave motive and purpose (“logic”) to the substance of His Spirit. The outcome was all of Creation.

The Spirit of God is no ordinary substance, but the substrata of all creation—the finest of matter still undiscovered by science because it is not observable by ordinary means (Luke 17: 20-21). When God spoke in the Beginning, action resulted. Light appeared, waters and firmament were established, vegetation came forth, and the world as we know it came into being. Then God breathed on Adam to give him life, and humanity came forth. In Hebrew, the exact same word is used for God's life-giving “breath” and His “Spirit”, which we call the Holy Spirit!

The DNA of the entire Bible is the ongoing story of God's Word combining with His Spirit to impart purpose and bring forth New Life. As the Scriptures unfold, the fundamental role of the Holy Spirit in this process of creation/recreation becomes increasingly clear. Early in the Old Testament, we read how God placed His Spirit on the seventy elders of Israel, the only time this occurred in ancient Israel. Moses said (Numbers 11:29): “Oh, that ALL the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!” Nearly a millennium later, the Prophet Joel said (Joel 2:28) that it would come to pass that God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh, just as Moses asked.

Jesus' life on earth was the very embodiment of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament (KJV), the word “Spirit” with a capital “S” appears 91 times, jumping to 247 times in the New Testament. With Jesus, the Holy Spirit came out of the closet, as it were. He was begotten by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), baptized by the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:10), filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1), walked in the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:14), and was anointed by the Spirit of God to “preach the gospel to the poor… heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18). Jesus also taught about the Holy Spirit (John 3:5-6, 4:23-24, 6:63-65).

At the same time Jesus is God's Word expressed in human form. This is why He is called the Logos of God. While on earth, He only spoke what He heard the Father speak. (John 5:19, 8:26, 12:49) Jesus brought forth creative miracles all the time because the Word and Spirit of God were perfectly combined in His Being.

Finally, Jesus imparted the Holy Spirit to His followers, once by breathing on them (John 20:20-23) to grant them authority and again on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) to give them power. Further, He promised that whoever believed in Him would have rivers of living waters — referring to the Spirit of God — flowing out of their hearts! (John 7:37-39)

God is still speaking into His Creation through Jesus. Scripture says “no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor 12:3) When we receive the Words of Jesus in faith, God's Word becomes mixed with our spirit through the power of the Holy Spirit, and we are Born Again. We become a “New Creation” in Christ Jesus, and out of us can flow rivers of God's life-giving Spirit, flowing like water. Joel's 2:28 prophecy is being fulfilled today among Spirit-filled followers of Jesus, more and more of whom minister with signs and wonders following.

If you want to see God move, you need to allow His Spirit to move in you and receive His Word, both the words that Jesus spoke recorded in the New Testament and the Living Word sent to us today from above!

Abba, thank You for sending Your only Son, begotten of Your Spirit, to impart Your Spirit to everyone who trusts in His Words, which give life today to all who hear and receive them. Amen.

To learn more about what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, download this free PDF of our 20-page booklet: The Holy Spirit: Learning How to Walk in the Sanctifying Power of the Holy Spirit.

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