Study for tonight. Thank you all for your attendance. Reagan is in Odessa preaching tonight, so I'm filling in. Tonight, we're gonna continue our study on the Holy Spirit. And I want you to think of tonight less as a lesson plan that I have assembled in imparting wisdom and more of a presentation of previously prepared material.

I do encourage comments. That's completely fine. Even if you have a question, I'd be happy to relay it to Reagan and he can address it next week. Tonight is going to focus on the use of the word spirit in the old testament. It's the fifth of our classes.

After tonight, we'll be halfway done. Tonight is what I'd call the last of the preparatory lessons on the spirit. I think the meat of our study hopefully will come in the next five lessons when we talk about how the Holy Spirit acts in our own lives, how he operates in modern age, but tonight, let's keep in mind, we are still laying the foundation. We're talking about how the word is used, when the word spirit may or may not be referring to the Holy Spirit, but even when it's not referring to the Holy Spirit, I think as we've learned so far in our study of the New Testament, the word itself conveys a lot of information that we can hopefully learn from. So if you would bow with me in prayer, we'll get into our study.

Our God and father in heaven, we're so thankful for this opportunity that we've got tonight to assemble ourselves together and study a portion of your word. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to focus on what you would have us to know about the Holy Spirit, about our spirit, your spirit, recognizing that you created us, you created the universe, you gave us the word that we are studying. We thank you for being mindful of man that you would hear our prayer. We thank you for Jesus, recognizing him as our savior and our lord who was crucified on the cross for our sins. We ask that you would forgive us of our sins and give us a right heart with you as we study.

It's in his name I pray. Amen. Okay. I'm gonna try to run two different slideshows because I can see this one better, but they're not synced. So hopefully, won't forget to advance one.

Okay. We know from Reagan studies that the Greek word in the New Testament that refers to spirit is pneuma. The Hebrew word that we'll be studying about in the Old Testament is ruach. You can say it with me, ruach. There you go.

Ruach is used just like it is in the New Testament with the Greek word to it's used in a number of different ways. The Holy Spirit, the evil spirit or demons, good or spiritual beings, ghosts, it refers to breath, to wind, It refers to the life that is within us. It refers to the spiritual that occurs in nature, our spirit, our mind, our heart. It refers to our manner or our way and similar to that our mental disposition or attitude, our current state of mind. We've we've learned already in the New Testament, pneuma was used 385 times in 350 verses and Ruach in the Old Testament is used almost exactly the same number of times.

When you consider that the New Testament makes up just less than a quarter of the Bible, this means the spirit is referred to even less frequently in the Old Testament than in the New. And just as we have recognized in the New Testament that the spirit is referred to much less frequently than God the Father or God the Son, that we can see that in the Old Testament as well. Ruach can be used in a number of different ways. We're gonna go through a lengthy reading of scripture that describes the way that it's used in each of these different ways. It is referred to it is used for the word spirit and sometimes as the Holy Spirit.

It's used most frequently when referring when used as the word spirit. But the only time that the phrase Holy Spirit is used in the Old Testament is in it's only well, three times in two different passages. But here here's one example of how it's used for the spirit. The earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Exodus 31, and I have filled him with the spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.

Before I advance the breath of life, if you want to turn to Psalm 51 in verse 11, we'll look at the couple times that it that it actually says Holy Spirit. 5one 11, Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. And then also in Isaiah 63 verses ten and eleven, anybody beats me there, you can read it out loud but they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Therefore, he turned to be their enemy and himself fought against them. Then he remembered the days of old of Moses and his people.

Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his holy spirit? All of that kind of phraseology sounds kind of New Testament y. It talks about grieving the Holy Spirit, God putting His Holy Spirit within them. Earlier verses in this chapter talk about God being their savior and the angel of his presence.

Later in the chapter, Isaiah talks about the spirit of the Lord leading his people. Now all of those words take on a deeper meaning in the New Testament context. However, what exactly is being referred to when it says the spirit of the Lord, sometimes that can be difficult to differentiate. You may be tempted to believe that or lean towards the belief that when it refers to the spirit of the Lord, it's referring to the Holy Spirit. Many times, it seems like it's only referring to God's spirit as we just saw.

Is that still up there? Yeah, the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, the spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding and in knowledge. And this was likely difficult for the Jews as well. The breath of life. In Genesis seven verse 15, and they went into the ark to Noah two by two of all flesh and which is the breath, ruach, of life.

It refers to wind and wind is only second to the word spirit for how often ruach is used. It's used well over a 100 times to describe wind. Genesis eight one, then God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were with him in the ark and God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters subsided. It refers to the mind. Genesis twenty six thirty five, and they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebecca.

Habakkuk one eleven, then his mind changes and he transgresses. He commits offense ascribing this power to his God. It also refers to a blowing wind, not just maybe you think of it as a gust of wind. Exodus fifteen eight, and with the blast of your nostrils, the waters were gathered together. The flood stood upright like a heap.

The depths congealed in the heart of the sea. Isaiah twenty five four, for you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, for the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. The next way that ruach is used is to describe ability or skill. This is a passage we'll return to later on in the class, but from Exodus twenty eight three, so you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him and that he may minister to me as a priest. And then mental disposition, attitude, or feelings, we can go to numbers five fourteen, if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife.

Joshua two eleven, and as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Judges eight three, God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb, and Zeb, and what was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger toward him subsided when he said that. First Samuel one fifteen, but Hannah answered and said, no my Lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. One more, Proverbs fourteen twenty nine, he who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.

And Proverbs twenty nine eleven, a fool vents all his feelings but a wise man holds them back. So as you can see, there are numerous ways that that ruach describes our mental disposition or attitude. Hosea five four, they do not direct their deeds toward turning to their God for the spirit of harlotry is in their midst and they do not know the Lord. Ruach is used to describe our spirit. Job thirty two eight says, there is a spirit in man and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.

Psalm thirty one five, into your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, oh Lord God of truth. And interestingly to me, it also refers to when it's used as a form of wind, ruach refers to the different directions of the wind. First Chronicles nine twenty four, the gatekeepers were assigned to the four directions, the east, west, north, and south. And in Ezekiel thirty seven nine, thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, o breath, and breathe on these slain that they may live.

Almost done with these. It refers to good spirits or angels or ghosts. I like this one, Job four fifteen, then a spirit passed before my face and the hair on my body stood up. It's a ghost. Psalm one zero four, who makes his angels spirits, his ministers a flame of fire.

And I think yeah. Finally, the unclean spirit. Zechariah thirteen two, it shall be in that day says the lord of hosts that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land. So that's all the different ways that that we can find that Ruach refers to, well, all these different things.

But what does that have to do with New Testament? We are New Testament Christians. We live within that covenant. We study those scriptures as a model for our life. How can we relate that and what does it have to do with?

A good passage to turn to, if you if you would please turn to Acts chapter 17. And Reagan's got a little exercise set up for us. I'm gonna read Acts chapter 17 verses 22 through 28 and we're gonna pay close attention to 24 through 28. So this is Paul addressing the Greeks at the Areopagus, and Paul standing in the midst of them said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.

What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being. So what are we going to do here?

Using that passage, take a few moments, either yourself or with the person sitting next to you, we're gonna we're looking gonna look at two different things. We wanna find out what do we learn about God from this passage? And then secondly, what do we learn about our lives in relation to God from this passage? So take a few minutes to do that. Another half minute or so.

What can we learn about God from this passage? Okay. Your turn. You tell me what's something we learn about God. Okay?

He made everything in it, including us. What else? He doesn't live in temples made by man. He does not dwell in temples made with hands. He's not far from us.

That is that's right. Doesn't need anything. He doesn't have us do things as if he needs it from him. What does he desire for us to do? Seek him.

To grope for him if you have the English standard. Think it who has English standard? What does it say? Feel their way toward him and to find him. And like Stephanie said, God is never far from each one of us.

Okay? He's god of all. He doesn't he doesn't need us. We need him. Mhmm.

And as far as as that, because he blesses us in so many ways to where he's not gonna make us do his will. It's up to us. And I feel like that's a good point on on between acts twenty two and thirty one. He doesn't he doesn't need us. Mhmm.

We need him. And we learned from all of that that he because he made everything including us, we have a constant reminder of his creation that he is always near us. What do we learn about our lives in relation to God from this passage? I think did you say we're God's offspring? Okay.

Through him, we what? We live, we move, and that's a good way to put it. We exist. We have our very being. We are because of him and through him.

When Paul was speaking to this Greek audience and was expressing he was expressing things in a way that Greeks could understand, and these points are confirmed by the Old Testament and the descriptions of God that are within the Old Testament. This is especially helpful to us as we learn about the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and there are several concepts that well, the word spirit is associated with several different concepts, we'll put it that way. There we go. Alright. So similar to how we went through the different ways that the word is used, let's explore some of the concepts.

Alright. There's a concept of creation. I'm gonna read from Psalm 33 and verse six. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth, all their hosts. God spoke the universe into existence.

Everything that we see in his creation, we know from Genesis that he spoke it into creation, spoke it into existence. So just by the by the very act of us being able to observe, we can see how the spirit is associated with that creation. It's also associated with life and death. I'm gonna read from Job twelve, one verse, Job twelve ten, In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. Like we said a while ago, he made everything including man and he put what did he put in man?

Put the breath of life into man and when that breath is no longer there, we cease to exist and we die. In him, we live and without him, we don't. Movement and animation, in him we move. From the trees blowing in the wind to the breath in our bodies, the word spirit is seen in movement or the concept of spirit is seen in movement. I wanna read I wanna go back to the New Testament for a second and read from John three.

So Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus. I'll start in verse, no, I guess five. Jesus answered, truly truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes, that's pneuma, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. So it seems here that Jesus is using the unseen wind. You can imagine the wind just blowing the leaves of the trees and blustery and he's drawn upon Nicodemus' familiarity with the old testament wind and spirit that we have already said is used well over a 100 times for for wind. And so think of this concept, you know, you know someone and they become a Christian and they put on Christ.

And if you observe closely, can see changes in their life. And sometimes that's slow, sometimes that's immediate, but you can kinda witness, hey, something's different about that person. You don't know really how it's happening, to what extent it's them, God, spirit, but spirit is guiding them and it's similar to that concept of when Jesus says, don't know where it comes from and you don't know where it's going, but it's acting. And we can kinda we can kinda relate that back to the spirit. Any questions or comments so far?

Alright. Concept of wisdom. Intellectual wisdom, practical wisdom, skill or ability, and miraculous power. I'm gonna read another verse, just a short one, Micah three eight. Okay.

Micah three eight, but as for me, I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord and with justice and might to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Miraculous power, the concept of miraculous power often this was not necessarily the healing of sick or miracles and the laying on of hands, but a miraculous portion of skill that that God gave people. Maybe a portion of intellectual wisdom, a portion of insight, or a portion of strength, the concept of enhancement of something that was already there. So if we wanna turn back to Exodus 28 that we read earlier, I think this explains a little bit better what we're we're talking about here. Exodus twenty eight three, talking about the construction of Aaron and his son's garments.

You shall speak to all the skillful whom I have filled with a spirit of skill that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood. So this skill, this wasn't just given to a bunch of random farmers and folks off the street. This skill was given to existing artisans, talented, gifted artists, people that already had this ability and then they were even given a greater ability by God to make those garments. It's an interesting pattern and we might relate it to us or people that we see when people already have the right kind of spirit and then God gives them more from him of what they already have themselves and then what they have already themselves was already given to them when God created us. That maybe maybe describes that concept of an enhancement of something that was already there.

Two more quick passages that that kind of make that clear. Numbers twenty seven eighteen. We use that in conjunction with a passage from Deuteronomy. Twenty seven eighteen says, so the Lord said to Moses, take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit and lay your hand on him. And then in Deuteronomy, we read about the same event in 34 verse nine where it says, and Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom for Moses had laid his hands on him.

So we see here that that Joshua, he had the spirit of wisdom and then Moses laid his hands on him and then he had the spirit of wisdom. And so there's two components of that spirit that he had. One that he already dwelt within him, maybe it was just part of his normal skill set and then after hands were laid on him, he had more. Oh, too quick. That may remind us of Romans eight sixteen, which further conveys that thought, which reads, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

So the thing we wanna get in our minds is that we have we have an existing skill or wisdom or intellect or something. We have the right kind of spirit. The Holy Spirit brings that out of us in a greater degree or maybe it's not anything in particular, we just have the right heart maybe. God gives god gives them more from what he are they already had themselves. The Holy Spirit, our spirit is trained and guided and informed by the Holy Spirit to be more who God has called us to be.

It's not us becoming less ourselves but it's becoming the best version of ourselves as we seek to become more like God. Any questions or comments on that? Okay. Finally, one other concept, it's conveyed through the spirit in the Old Testament, is prophecy and speaking for God. The spirit was given to the prophets.

The holy spirit was inspiring them, but that's not the same as what we read about with say demon possession or what the ancients or the Greeks thought about how gods spoke to them through people. This is the holy spirit actually inspiring these prophets to speak for him. It is the holy spirit working with and through this the existing spirits of these prophets which seems similar to how the Old Testament informs us, how we should think about the dwelling or the presence of the of the spirit. So we know that God does not dwell to well, let's say it this way. God does not dwell in any physical structure.

What's that make you wanna say? First thing I thought about was, wait a minute, God instructed the building of the tabernacle. God instructed the building of Solomon's temple. Purpose of which for him to dwell within it. What about those?

Any comments about that? Those were types that the Lord was trying to get across to us how he would dwell in his people. Did God dwell in these in these structures? Yes. Yes.

He did. So the idea is can God be constrained by those physical structures? Or is he constrained? Or does he constrain himself to those physical structures? This is a this is a fascinating one to me.

I've done some reading and studying in the past and have come away with no conclusions on on the matter, but and this is just me, but God created us. God is a spiritual being. God created us. He created spiritual beings and he has given us a physical dwelling to reside in. It does not confuse me if God wanted to have a physical structure to dwell in at various times and errors.

But we would I know that we would be remiss if we thought that God constrained himself to that dwelling. We've already talked at length about how God is with us and around us always. So let's see what Solomon said in first Kings eight. First Kings eight twenty seven through 30, But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you.

How much less this house that I have built. Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea. Oh Lord, my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day, that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, my name shall be there, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place and listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place and listen in heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive. So Solomon understood that the temple could not contain God, but at the same time he asked that God would listen to be close and to dwell with his people as represented by this temple. And he does dwell with his people.

Just at the same time that God can't be contained by the temple, God's glory did enter the temple as we can read about in second Chronicles, it's a companion account verse second Chronicles seven verses one through three. Second Chronicles. As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priest could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord saying for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever.

God is showing us his dwelling, but he doesn't mean it doesn't mean that God can be contained there because we know as we've studied, through him we live. We live, we move and we have our very being, and God is not far from each one of us. We breathe his air, ruach, we seek his wisdom, ruach, we are created in his image with our own ruach and he holds everything together. And that's all. Any comments or questions?

Okay. Hopefully, we've established a foundation of all the different ways spirit can be used and so over the next half of this study, we'll see if we can learn any more about how the Holy Spirit operates within us or in the modern era. Thank you for your attention.