Spiritual Worldview: In The Begining

Overview.

As we have been working through our series we have seen: Our Spiritual Worldview will determine what we experience spiritually and will determine how we understand spiritual events. For example: If I see spiritual events through a pagan spiritual world view I will interpret spiritual events produced by the Holy Spirit as the acts of spiritual force as we saw Simon did, two weeks ago…An art to learn, to manipulate, to accomplish my will. I believe the Pagan Spiritual Worldview is dominant today, even by many who fill church pews, but if I see spiritual events through a biblical worldview, I will understand Holy Spirit is a person – not a force, or some kind of spiritual power, we can manipulate.

We also saw last week that the Holy Spirit is God, part of the Godhead

Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is part of the inseparable God,

yet distinctly a person/personality. A paradox – we have difficulty understanding.

We saw the Trinity works together to fully accomplish God’s will. Trinity in action

Father – initiates.

Son - accomplishes Father’s will.

Holy Spirit – brings to fruition.

The Holy Spirit is our connecting point . Through the Holy Spirit the Inaccessible God is Accessible. Our priority then is, knowing and understanding the Holy Spirit. The funny thing is – the Holy Spirit is the part of the Trinity we know the least, when really, we should know him the closest. So let’s find our more about the Holy Spirit…

Myth: The Holy Spirit is active only in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit has always been active.

We read in

Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

Acts 2:2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Acts 2:3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

And we are told by commentators – this is the age of the Spirit and they are right, but that doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit wasn’t at work since the beginning. There is a major difference in Holy Spirit working in OT times and today, and it is this: Since Pentecost the Holy Spirit is with every believer, before Pentecost the Holy Spirit was with selected believers. Today – all believers. Before Pentecost - selected believers.

We will see an example of this today from our Numbers passage. The Holy Spirit was working since the beginning….Let’s take a look at our passage from Genesis.

The Holy Spirit and Creation.

Verse 2.

2 Now the earth was formless and empty,

darkness was over the surface of the deep,

and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

NIV – hovering.

KJV - And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

ASV – the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

NRSV - while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

Each translation attempts to capture what is happening here. In the Hebrew - literally, HMT – and rooch elohim j…wr MyIhølTa, fluttered over the water. Here again we have the trinity in action. Here the Holy Spirit is….present, waiting.

Maybe you have experienced a time where you felt the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit.

Story – Onoint With Oil.

We had a wonderful man, Jerry who had discovered another tumor behind his eye. So we called the elder together and lay hands on him and prayed, we onionted him with oil and prayed some more. Several people afterwards came up to me and asked: What was that? I responded - We prayed for Jerry, what do you think? No, no, something else, there was something in the room, there was a powerful presence.

Yes I responded, that was the presence of the Holy Spirit, you’ve never experienced that? No.

That’s scary. They were elders, what’s up with that?

In a sense that is what is happening here. There is a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit and something big is about to happen - light. God speaks his will and His Word creates. Jesus, remember, is the Word.

Trinity in action.

Father – initiates.

Son accomplishes.

Holy Spirit – brings to fruition.

Here from day one, in the creation of the world – the Holy Spirit is active. Of course the Holy Spirit has always existed – he’s part of the trinity.

Universal Presence of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is present all around us, but that does not mean the Spirit of God is in everything, nor is the he active everywhere, or with everyone, this is not Pantheism where God is in everything, the universe and its effects are God. No – there is God and then there is God’s creation. A tree does not have God in it, but the presence of God is all around us. This we need to understand: There is a difference between the universal presence of the Holy Spirit and a life empowered by the Holy Spirit.