Moses & The Holy Spirit

MOSES & THE HOLY SPIRIT

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. Retold Burning Bush account: "Moses, listen to Me. I have good news, and bad news."

2. Moses says, “Tell me the good news first.”

3. “OK.” The voice continues: "You, Moses, will lead the

people of Israel out from bondage. Pharaoh will refuse to let Israel go, so I will release a series of plagues – including blood, frogs, gnats, boils, disease, hail stones, locusts, and many more, all by your hand. At last I will open the Red Sea and all Israel will cross over on dry ground.

4. Moses stammered, "Wow God! That's fantastic - but what's the bad news?"

5. “The bad news is that You have to write the environmental impact statement."

B. THESIS

1. Tonight we’re starting a new series centering on the Person of the Holy Spirit. I thought it would be interesting to see the Holy Spirit at work during different periods of time.

2. To tonight we’re going to start with the first five books of the Bible and look at “Moses and the Holy Spirit.”

I. MOSES’ HISTORY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

A. CREATION OF THE WORLD

1. Genesis 1:2 states that “the Spirit of God moved (continually) over the face of the waters.”

2. This Hebrew word “moved” is used in this way in only one other place (Deut. 32:11) and there it describes a mother bird hovering or fluttering over her young in a vibrant, protective way.

B. THE CREATION OF MAN/WOMAN

1. The climax of God’s creation comes when God says, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26).

2. Though nothing is said about the Holy Spirit here, the Bible does say, “Then the Lord God formed a man[a] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (soul)” Gen. 2:7.

3. The Holy Spirit is active in every instance of Creation, as Ps. 104:30 points out, "You send forth Your Spirit and they are created: and you renew the face of the earth."

C. THE SPIRIT STRIVING IN NOAH’S TIME

1. When mankind sinned, they (Adam & Eve) were cut off from fellowship even from the time of the Garden of Eden.

2. But God's Spirit continued to deal with us after the Fall. This is brought out in Gen. 6:3 where God proclaims; "My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for he (mankind) also is flesh; yet his days shall be 120 years."

3. This “striving” is the wooing of the Spirit and the convicting work of the Spirit, endeavoring to turn us from sin and draw us to God; to quicken our understandings to spiritual things.

D. ABRAHAM: PROPHET OF THE SPIRIT

1. Moses revealed that Abraham was a prophet, when God asked Abraham to pray for Abimelech (Gen. 20:7).

2. A "prophet" means "a spokesman for God." More importantly, prophets were men of the Spirit: "Holy men of God spoke as they were moved (born along, led a long) by the Holy Ghost" 2 Peter 1:21. Abraham was such a man.

E. JOSEPH

1. Joseph was especially recognized for the anointing which the Psalm 105:15-22, speaks of: “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.”…17 [God] sent a man before them—Joseph, sold as a slave. 18 They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, 19 till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true. 20 The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples set him free.”

2. After Joseph interpreted Pharaoh's dream, Pharaoh said, "Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?" Gen. 41:38. Sacred history says Joseph was a man filled with the Holy Spirit!

II. HOLY SPIRIT IN MOSES’ LIFE

A. AT THE BURNING BUSH

1. Moses definite call occurred when he heard the voice of God speaking to him out of the burning bush (Ex. 3).

2. The Voice of the Lord is ever associated with the Holy Spirit, “The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy?” Amos 3:8.

3. Stephen pointed out that Moses already knew God had called him to deliver Israel (Acts 7:25), but his school of the Spirit, like Paul & John the Baptist, was held out in the wilderness with long solitude. We too need to get quiet where we can hear God!

B. SPOKE FACE TO FACE WITH GOD

1. God himself recognized Moses as the greatest prophet of all time. Other prophets God would speak to through dreams and visions only.

2. But with Moses God spoke directly, face-to-face, or literally "mouth-to-mouth" -- just as a man would carry on a conversation with a friend (Numbers 12:6-8).