Tag: Ruach

The Life and Times of the Holy Spirit

This message is a discussion on the Holy Spirit, called the Ruach Elohim in Hebrew, from Genesis through the New Testament. We discuss many aspects of the Spirit including that people can lose it and even bad people can have it. Did you know that the name Nehemiah is directly tied to the Holy Spirit for New Testament believers? Do you have any thoughts on this message?

The Spirit. Pneuma in Greek. Ruach in Hebrew. It can mean a lot of stuff in both languages and is context dependent. Which is the same as today. This is actually part of our culture and the culture of the Bible. Words always have nuance and can be used in completely different ways. Think about the word phone. Not long ago, that meant a device with wires you use to speak to people after dialing a number. Today a phone is a supercomputer in your pocket that you use least for actually speaking to people!

For the Spirit, you can be with someone “in spirit” and not literally be with them. You can lift someone’s spirits with a visit. Mineral spirits are solvents used to thin paint. One can even drink spirits and spirits can be used for demons. You can see this go a bunch of different ways. Today we’re talking about Ruach Elohim, the Spirit of God, which is also called the Holy Spirit or Ruach ha Kodesh.  And we’re going to take a deep dive into the Spirit and what evidence there is to show that somebody has the Spirit.

Slide 2 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

(2Ti 3:16-17)

The first thing I want us to consider when seeing the Spirit is to come to the realization that the bible doesn’t always literally say “such and such person was given the Spirit”. Part of this message is to show many literal times the Spirit shows up in scripture but I also want us to use our noodles. Scripture being inspired means through the Spirit. Paul is saying the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, aka the Old Testament, was completely inspired. That means through the Holy Spirit. That’s 39 books of the Old Testament that were compiled through the work of the Ruach ha kodesh. By extension, we also generally believe these works were also preserved by the Holy Spirit. This means divine inspiration was involved in the passing down of the writings over time. Yes, I’m repeating myself.

Slide 3 “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.” (Luk 1:15)

This one is a favorite of mine to show that people in the New Testament knew about the Holy Spirit long before Acts 2. These are the very first verses of the New Testament and it shows that Zacharias and Elizabeth could fully recognize the Ruach. Zacharias does talk back to the angel but doesn’t ask “what is this Ruach ha Kodesh you speak of?” but rather doubts the whole prophecy of what John, his son that will be born late in his life, will do.

Slide 4 I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me and also about the king’s words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us arise and build.” So they put their hands to the good work. (Neh 2:18)

From Paul, we know all scripture is inspired so that means the book of Nehemiah, and therefore Nehemia himself, is inspired by the Spirit. Nehemiah is referencing the Ruach with the phrase “hand of my Elohim”. He doesn’t literally say the Spirit is on him, but it’s understood. Guess what else is really cool about Nehemiah?

Slide 5 H5166

נְחֶמְיָה

Nechemyah (637c); from 5162 and 3050; “Yah comforts,” three Isr.:—

Nehemiah(8).

Nehemiah’s name is really Nechemyah. Do you know what that means? Yahweh comforts. It’s a play on the comforter. Was this known in days of old that the Messiah would send the comforter? Think about Nehemiah’s mission. Did Yahweh send him as a comforter?

Slide 6 In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Ruach Elohim (Spirit of God) was moving over the surface of the waters. (Gen 1:1-2)

Very important topic. It starts the Bible. We often look at this for deeper meaning, heck, almost exclusively deeper meaning, but can we just look at it for what it says for a moment? The second sentence of the Bible says the Ruach Elohim, the Spirit of God, was moving over the surface of the waters. That means everybody who has ever read the bible, from the time Moses penned it until the end of days, is supposed to know or be able to know what the Spirit of God is. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have the Spirit, but it means this is a topic that isn’t hidden for 4K years and only revealed in the book of Acts.

Another hint to doing a deep dive on a word is to switch from searching for the word but search for its Strong number. That’s because Hebrew words can often be presented differently in English due to the context. We certainly don’t have time to go through 375 instances of the word ruach, but this give a glimpse at how often the word is used in the Old Testament. It’s pretty overwhelming. This is another way of showing that this concept of a spirit is not an unknown thing to the Tanakh. That’s the perspective we often get from doctrine, that the Spirit was not known before the New Testament because of the Joel prophecy. We’ll get to that prophecy in a little bit, but for now let’s look at some places where little-known people had the Ruach.

Slide 8 Now YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. “I have filled him with the Ruach Elohim (Spirit of God) in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship.” (Exo 31:1-5)

Just to be clear, this is a skosh before Pentecost, 30AD. Have you ever considered the ability to make stuff as evidence of the Spirit? If not, please re-read Genesis 1. Creation week is where we see Yahweh building the universe, the planet, and all that is on the planet. Yahweh is Spirit, so building, craftsmanship, and the ability to do work is evidence of the Spirit. The wisdom and knowledge to have a plan and execute it is also evidence of the Spirit. The guys name means “in the shadow of God”. Hmmm.  

Slide 9 When Balaam saw that it pleased YHVH to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times to seek omens but he set his face toward the wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe; and the Ruach Elohim (Holy Spirit) came upon him. (Num 24:1-2)

A bad guy has the Holy Spirit. Remember that just because someone has evidence of the Spirit, or even can prophesy correctly, that doesn’t mean they are without sin or can be fully trusted.

Slide 10 Then YHVH came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took of the Ruach who was upon him and placed it upon the seventy elders. And when the Ruach rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again. But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Ruach rested upon them (now they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp. So a young man ran and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all YHVH’S people were prophets, that YHVH would put His Ruach upon them!” (Num 11:25-29)

In this case, the elders got a portion of the Ruach Moses had. This showed they were lesser prophets than Moses. And the evidence was them prophesying immediately but the long term evidence was wisdom. This also shows that Yahweh is going to bless whom He will bless. Moses is also foreshadowing the Joel prophecy here. He is wanting all of us to have the Spirit. That is an acknowledgment that not all did then, and I’d even say not all do today. But the young man knew the evidence of the Spirit, huh?

Slide 11 “Then the Spirit of the LORD will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man. “It shall be when these signs come to you, do for yourself what the occasion requires, for God is with you. “And you shall go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you should do.” Then it happened when he turned his back to leave Samuel, God changed his heart; and all those signs came about on that day. When they came to the hill there, behold, a group of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him mightily, so that he prophesied among them. It came about, when all who knew him previously saw that he prophesied now with the prophets, that the people said to one another, “What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” (1Sa 10:6-11)

In this case, it’s called the Ruach YHVH, not Ruach Elohim. That seems significant.

Pretty self-explanatory but also see how all who knew Saul previously knew how to recognize the Spirit and that a group of prophets already existed.

The transformational power – Saul became another man. This is very similar to NT language. And don’t lose the power of the witnesses. They witnessed Saul’s blessing and his change.

Saul lost it. He lost the Ruach and was changed back. And he missed it. Badly. Huge lesson for us. Even if you have the Spirit, you have free will and can blaspheme it!

Slide 12 Then Saul sent messengers to take David, but when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing and presiding over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul; and they also prophesied. When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. So Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied.

(1Sa 19:20-21)

Lot’s of folks with the Spirit again. It’s back to Ruach Elohim.

Slide 13 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 have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and commission him in their sight. (Num 27:18-19)

Still slide 13 Now Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses.

(Deu 34:9)

Interesting that Joshua appears to have the Spirit prior to the laying on of hands.

Slide 14 Now the Ruach YHVH (Spirit of YHVH) departed from Saul, and a ruach ra (evil spirit) from YHVH terrorized him. (1Sa 16:14)

Saul lost the Spirit. Ra is bad, not necessarily evil. Saul felt this loss deeply. Depression, anger, and evil. He ultimately wanted it back so badly that he sought the counsel of a medium, breaking his own decree and Torah. And it ended poorly for him.

Slide 15 The glory of YHVH went up from the midst of the city and stood over the mountain which is east of the city. And the Ruach lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the Ruach Elohim to the exiles in Chaldea. So the vision that I had seen left me. Then I told the exiles all the things that YHVH had shown me. (Eze 11:23-25)

This is right after YHVH reveals to Ezekiel that He will return all Israel to the land, they will remove the defilements, and will get a new heart of flesh. They will obey Torah and will be Yahweh’s people and He will be their Elohim. The Ruach Elohim allowed Ezekiel to bring this message. Where else in scripture do we see the Ruach taking people places and directly aiding in the spreading of the Word? Yes, this is a foreshadowing of the NT. And this is where I will leave it for the Old Testament.

Our faith is unique because we use the entirety of the Bible. We know that Genesis to Revelation is al applicable. Paul validates that all scripture is inspired and profitable. Not some scripture, all. It’s easy to get into the misconception that the Spirit came for the first time in Acts 2 or that it was very limited in its use in the Tanakh because of the way mainstream Christianity approaches the Bible, by starting to read in the NT with the OT as an afterthought. The previous 12 slides are about the Ruach Elohim, the Holy Spirit in the Tanakh, the Old Testament. I stopped because that’s overwhelming. You could spend a couple weeks on this and not catch them all. People who received it were changed and received power and ability. People with abilities were recognized as having the Spirit and those abilities having come from Yahweh. If we were to have a study on the Spirit in the OT in totality, it would cover many, many more verses and take quite a bit of time. I wanted to show today just how established the Ruach Elohim was prior to the NT.

From the close of the Old Testament until the Messiah there were about 400 years. This is referred to as the 400 years of silence. It’s during this period when anyone who followed Torah became known worldwide as “a Jew”. It’s just parlance. 2 Mac is addressed to the Jews in Egypt. That’s and application of the word being used to refer to all who keep Torah in Egypt. And we know that Yahweh was still working with the Jews because the temple was in place, the LXX was written, and the Christ had to come. So, while it was a period of silence, it wasn’t a period of abandonment. The silence means there were no prophets or new scriptures penned. It wasn’t really a “silent” period because of the Maccabean revolt, the creation of the LXX, and the spreading of the Tanakh throughout the known world through the synagogue system which all helped to set the stage for the coming of the Messiah.

Slide 16 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. “For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says, ‘THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; EVEN ON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy. (Act 2:14-18)

The Ruach guided Peter’s speech to remind them that the gift of the Ruach Elohim was not something new. Joel references it and says what some of the evidence of the Spirit is. And it’s the same evidence as it was in Moses’ day and in Saul’s day. This is also a fulfillment of Moses’ comment that he wished all of God’s people would be prophets. The difference is the Spirit will be much more prevalent on mankind. This is an exciting time for those who witnessed the Apostles prophesy because Yahweh was showing them all that they had indeed entered the latter days. That the Christ had come and then sent the Ruach, just as He had promised.

Slide 17 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” (Joh 16:13-15)

The Ruach guides into all truth. The fulfillment of this prophecy is Acts 2. What truth was discovered in Acts 2? That Torah was broken to murder the Christ. That they used false witnesses to accuse the Son of God. That they killed the Son of God, that God raised Him up on the third day, and that Yeshua is now exalted to sit at the right hand of God. Now, did it just guide Peter to speak the truth so it could be spoken? Did it guide Peter to speak the truth so the murderers could be punished and put to death? No and no.

Slide 18 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Yeshua Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Act 2:37-38)

The Spirit guided Peter to speak the truth so the people could repent, be forgiven, and then receive the Spirit themselves.

Slide 19 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” (Act 10:44-47)

Just like with Saul, just like with Moses, the Spirit comes and then Peter needs to recognize it. It’s also important to note what is not evidence of the Holy Spirit. Peter was granted the Ruach in Acts 2. This is many years later. And it shows that the Spirit did not make Peter perfect. One with the Spirit can error and even go against the Spirit. One can even lose the Spirit. But Peter, who was previously quite stiff necked, was a changed man. He was able to see the error of his ways and change, thus being comfortable with Yahweh calling those of the nations. Peter is being shown the fulfillment of his own words in Acts 2 here when he cited Joel that the Spirit would be poured out on all mankind. Even though Peter had uttered those words, he didn’t realize it until the vision of the unclean food. This is another place where we must take care not to think too highly of ourselves when we see the evidence of the Spirit in our own lives. It does not make us supermen who know everything. And it also gives us a check on those with whom we see the evidences of the Spirit that we are not to trust them blindly. In short, people are still flawed even when they have the Spirit.

Slide 20 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Yeshua the Messiah has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Yeshua is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. (1Jn 4:1-3)

For us who live after the Messiah came the first time, this is the first big check for evidence of the Spirit. People must believe that Yeshua is the Messiah and has come in the flesh. And their actions need to align with supporting this most important truth and furthering it. As we looked today, the evidence of the Spirit in a person can be widely varied. It can be in prophesying, teaching, administration, or also in craftsmanship and building. But all those abilities and blessings need to be founded upon Yeshua being the Messiah and having come once in the flesh. Thanks.

Slide 21 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. (2Pe 1:20-21)