Mark O'Grady - Born of the Spirit - Class 1 - God is Spirit

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Thank you, Brother Jason and a very warm good afternoon brothers and sisters. I bring the love and fraternal greetings of your brothers and sisters in the Tower Ecclesia and also from brothers and sisters who are meeting in the Summer Bible School in New Zealand at the moment. And a special briefing from Brother Dave and Sister Carolyn Bailey from who asked us to send that their love to you.

2. 0:23

   I think they were last seen looking for lost luggage and Blizzard somewhere in Ontario. I think they’re scarred with their experiences of a Canadian winter.

3. 0:36

   Yes, they now travel with only hand luggage. They tell me. Well, we are in for a wonderful topic, quite a magnificent topic this week as we look at the subject of the spirit. It’s, it’s one of those backdrop subjects, isn’t it? It’s pervasive. It’s sort of always there, but I don’t know when any of you last heard a series of studies on the subject of the Spirit.

4. 1:01

   We were thinking at home, and it’s probably about 20 years since we did a study on the subject of the Spirit in our own home, ecclesia. And it’s one of those subjects which cuts right to the heart of our relationship with God, of our of our interaction with our Heavenly Father. It’s about how he works with us to change us to become more like Him. And so this this topic is about how God uses his intense and extraordinary power to bring about his plan and his purpose with the earth.

5. 1:37

   And what we’re going to find this week, God willing, is that actually a correct understanding of this subject is one of the definitive things that separates the truth from false Christianity. And we’ll see that it’s actually probably one of the core things that separates us from virtually all of the rest of the Christian world, virtually unique.

6. 1:59

   If we get this topic wrong, we find that actually the truth and understanding of doctrines unravels pretty quickly and so does behaviour that goes with it. An incorrect understanding on the Trinity on this subject rather is very closely linked to the Trinity and also to be mortal soul. They have very similar roots and, and very similar origin and, and I don’t know about this country, but I know that in many countries over the decades, issues around the subject of the Spirit raise their head every few decades. So when I was a young child, I remember there was some splits in the ecclesial world.

7. 2:35

   In New Zealand from time to time there’d be people that have drifted off and actually set up churches or joined churches because they felt they had the Holy Spirit power working somehow in them to help them understand. So in the process, of course, they lost their understanding of Scripture and their understanding of the truth and also therefore their place in the covenants.

8. 2:56

   Promise. You know, if we get a simple and correct understanding of the subject, it just binds us together with God and it brings the reality of God’s work so close and so intense with us in our daily lives. So it’s actually very comforting. It’s a very encouraging subject when we when we think about learning from the Scripture about how God actually works with us in our daily life. And it’s a subject which it’s mind expanding and it will give us that that strong conviction, a burning conviction inside about the reality of our God.

9. 3:29

   All right, so is the subject important? Well, there’s just a few passages. There’s probably many more that we could have used. But John 4 verse 24, our Lord said God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. That’s fairly mandatory sort of a statement. They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Romans 8 verse 11 If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by or as it’s better translated because of His spirit that dwells in you. Well, Romans 8 verse 9 here, not in the flesh, but in the spirit If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, He is none of his.

10. 4:27

    So when you look at those passages and reflect on them. So this is actually pretty important if we want to worship God acceptably, if we want to be one of His as it’s described there, if we want to be quickened or given a mortal life, then we need to understand how God works with us through His Spirit and how it becomes an integral part of who and what we are. All right, I’m going to ask a series of questions. You don’t have to answer them.

11. 4:55

    This is a little test on how well we understand this subject. So let’s ask a few questions and just see how confident you are in your mind on the answers. What exactly is the Spirit? Do you have God’s Spirit? Do you possess God’s spirit? Do you receive God’s spirit? Does God’s spirit work in you?

12. 5:18

    Does God’s spirit work with you? Does the Holy Spirit work in our lives? Does the Spirit of God dwell in us? Does God’s spirit guide us? Is it God’s Spirit working somehow in us that makes us faithful or understand or overcome sin? What should we pray for in relation to the Spirit? In what ways in Scripture does this expression, the Spirit actually get used? The passages on the Holy Spirit apply to all believers or only to those who had the Holy Spirit gifts in the 1st century. The answer to some of those questions was yes, and the answer to some of those questions is no. And hopefully by the time we finish our studies together, we should be confident in our answers to to all of those questions.

13. 6:10

    All right, well, let’s start with some pretty basic foundations. And we’re going to begin with the Christadelphian instructor. And can I have a hands up? I won’t ask you any difficult question, but have any of you actually learnt as children or had your children learn? Christadelphian instructor answers anybody? Yep, there’s a few. I remember when I was at Sunday school doing the Christadelphian instructor.

14. 6:33

    Well, there’s no apologies here. We’re going to be going back to the foundation to be a community in some of the writings of Brother Thomas and Brother Roberts as they opened up our understanding of scripture on some of these things. And I thought the best place to start was with the instructor, which was designed for Sunday school scholars of age 9 and upwards. So as we struggle to understand it, just remember that this was designed for 9 year olds and upwards. OK question #16 in the Christian instructor, in what way is God everywhere if he dwells in heaven? And the answer is, God is everywhere present by his spirit which proceeds from him and which fills all space. We won’t look at all the all the passages there, but you’ll notice that Psalm 139 is mentioned there as one of the proofs.

15. 7:23

    And we have this, this magnificent Psalm which Brother Jason read the first 10 verses of. And if we look at verse 7, whither shall I go from my spirit? Whither shall I flee from my presence? If I send up into heaven, Thou art there. If I make my bed in the grave, behold, thou art there. He describes the fact that God’s in front of him. He’s put his hand behind him.

16. 7:43

    His hand is above him. Everywhere he looks, he’s completely enveloped in the Spirit of God. So actually this concept here is God is everywhere present by his spirit. Next question, what is the Spirit of God? Answer? It is His invisible power or energy breathed forth from His presence, and of like nature with His glorious person.

17. 8:12

    By this or by His spirit, heaven and earth have been made and are preserved in being from moment to moment. In this or in God’s Spirit we live and move and have our being in Him. All right. Next question. Is God separate from or different from the Spirit? Now, this is actually quite key because the churches who believe in the Trinity teach that the Spirit is actually a different being.

18. 8:40

    That there’s God, that there’s Jesus Christ, and that the Holy Spirit, which is part of the one Trinity, is actually a separate being in its own right. And we’ll look at that as we go through this particular topic. And the answer is no. God and his Spirit cannot be separated. They are both one. The sun and the light that comes from the sun are both 1. So God and the Spirit that comes from God are both one. God is the center and glorious, substantial form of the Spirit that fills heaven and earth.

19. 9:15

    So we have a few simple little questions there. Now, we say this is the most basic of doctrines. But you know, the wonderful thing about our doctrines, about our beliefs, our understanding is that it then flows immediately through into how we behave as individuals. So you may have heard people make the comment that good doctrine creates good morals. So what’s the lesson that comes from this about God being everywhere present by his Spirit? So Brother Roberts asks the question, do these things teach you any lesson concerning our conduct and the answer for the children?

20. 9:51

    Yes, They teach me that I’m always in the presence of God, even though I don’t feel it. He always sees me, even when it’s dark. Though I can’t see Him. Nothing can happen without His knowing it. Even my inmost thoughts and intentions He can discern, though I should seek to keep them secret.

21. 10:18

    Brothers and sisters, in terms of our session this afternoon, that’s the number one thing for us to take away. Everything we do is in the presence of the Almighty. Every word, every thought, every impulse, every action is absolutely in the presence of the Almighty. As we’re going to see a bit later, His energy sustains the structure of the universe in which we live.

22. 10:49

    So it’s His spirit power which sustains the energy fields that create all substance, because substance or matter is an energy form. That’s Einstein’s theory of relativity equals MC squared. So there’s enormous energy in this lectern. As I said to the young people when I covered the subject with them this morning, there was enough energy in this lectern to blow Toronto off the face of the earth. It’s just that it’s in a very stable form. So when man understood how to break apart the atom, that’s because they were using uranium, which is an unstable material, easier to break apart.

23. 11:25

    But the energy and the power that actually holds the structure of all things together is phenomenal. That is all held together by God’s Spirit. What that means is when we speak, it’s not that God’s got remarkable hearing and he can somehow hear us from billion miles away in space somewhere. It’s actually that his power is right here. And so when we speak, we speak in his presence. If we think our thinking is simply an electrical impulse in our minds, He feels that sound speech are just sound waves. They’re energy waves.

24. 12:06

    And when we think that actually, as it says in Romans 11 out of him were created all things, we start to realize that God is absolutely fundamental to our existence and everything we feel or speak or hear or say, he feels that. So he’s here in a very real sense, not just with really good hearing from some distance away. OK, so let’s have a look at,

25. 12:38

    well actually let’s have a look at these something we should be very familiar with, the Birmingham amended statement of faith. We won’t spend much time on this, but you notice there that in clause one it talks about the fact that there is the only true God is he that was revealed to Abraham. And if we go down here a little bit, He is everywhere present by His Spirit, which is a unity with His person in heaven. He has out of his own underived energy, created everything. So that’s the first clause in the Birmingham Amender statement of faith.

26. 13:12

    Or if we go on to clause 2, Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, begotten by the Virgin Mary, of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit, without the intervention of man. He was afterwards anointed with the same Spirit without measure at his baptism. Or clause 10, That with Christ being so begotten of God and inhabited or used by God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was God with us.

27. 13:40

    So this concept of the Spirit is a really fundamental part of our statement of faith. Same actually with the the doctrines to be rejected. So clause 25 of the doctrines, doctrines to be rejected that a man cannot believe without possessing the Spirit of God. It’s a bit of a double negative. In fact, it’s actually a triple negative.

28. 14:00

    What’s being said there? Well, the churches teach. The churches teach that unless you possess the Holy Spirit given to you by God, you can’t understand or believe. And then they believe that actually, I’ve now got the Holy Spirit. It helps me understand the things of God. I’m no longer so dependent on the Bible. That’s exactly what happens with church church teaching. And we’re going to see that in more detail on one of their later, later studies.

29. 14:29

    The concept of the truth is that actually belief comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God. It’s really straightforward. It’s a comment that Brother John made last night. The power is in the word, and it’s the word that creates our faith as we have the blessing of what the Holy Spirit recorded for us to read and to believe.

30. 14:53

    So these are fairly, fairly basic doctrines for us. OK, the next thing is to say, well, let’s have a look at the words that are used in Scripture for spirit. Does anybody know what the word is in the Old Testament for Spirit? Any guesses? Ruach. Ruach. Excellent. So ruach is the Hebrew word.

31. 15:11

    What about the New Testament? Numa. Excellent. Numa. So if we look at this, it’s actually quite straightforward when you look at words. First of all, there’s one main word and in fact my only word in the Old Testament which is ruach and it means wind or breath or mind or spirit, and in the New Testament pneuma which means wind or breath or spirit.

32. 15:33

    In fact the ideas behind the 2 words are basically exactly the same. Another trick of the question I asked for Robert Column Mizzos. Who’s Greek? How you pronounce pneuma? Any guesses?

33. 15:50

    Go for it. Oh, you’ve had some help. Yeah, yes. Excellent. Penfma. So they pronounce both the P and the N Pennet. But AU is AV, so it’s Pennifma. So like the word Eureka is actually Eureka, not Eureka. So just a little, a little one there. If you, if you’re talking to a Greek, you’ve got to pronounce it Pennifma, not Newman. OK, we’re familiar with the word pneuma. It comes up in a couple of words we use in English, pneumatic, pneumatic tire, pneumatic drill.

34. 16:28

    It’s something which is powered by air. That’s this idea of air that comes up. We say, OK, well, at one level then it’s quite straightforward.

35. 16:39

    But then we would say, well, let’s start to look at how the words are used in Scripture, and suddenly it starts to get a little more complex. So here is the Theological Wordbook’s comment about this Hebrew word ruach, which is translated as spirit in the Old Testament. The basic idea of ruach is air in motion, so moving air.

36. 17:04

    The connotations of breath include power and courage. Ultimately, breath signifies activity in life. In God’s hand is the breath or ruach or the life of all mankind. The noun ruach further depicts a a disposition of mind or attitude. Ruach comes finally to denote the entire immaterial consciousness or the thought processes of men.

37. 17:31

    With my spirit within me, I’ll seek you earnestly. Or a wise man rules as spirit. In fact, what do you think about it? We use the word the spirit in the same way. So if someone’s, I don’t know if we’re talking to one of our children and they’re being very unhelpful and they’re not cooperating at all with mum and you say that’s not the sort of spirit you should be showing.

38. 17:51

    So we’re using the word spirit there, not in terms of them having miraculous powers, but in terms of the attitude of mind. The preeminent example, he says, of a spiritual personality is God. I missed the line there. Ruach may designate a supernatural or angelic being, a spirit being, a spirit from God. Ruach can exhibit a range of meaning. Well, we’ve worked that out, haven’t we? There’s a whole series of different things that the ruach gets used for.

39. 18:20

    The breath of God. Well, that might be a strong wind. So we find there are passages in the Old Testament using ruach that are talking about wind at most points. However, he says the context proves, and the analogy of the New Testament strongly suggests that the ruach of Yahweh is the Holy Spirit.

40. 18:38

    So you look at that and think this is this is suddenly a little bit more complex. There’s a lot more dimensions to this. Jacinius basically says the same thing the at night in the second line down under sea, breath of air or air in motion. All right, well, what about the New Testament, the Greek word Nephma or Numa?

41. 18:58

    And this is vines primarily denotes the wind. It’s akin to Nuo, which means to breathe. Also breath, then especially the spirit, which like the wind, is invisible, immaterial, and powerful. The New Testament uses of the word may be analyzed approximately as, and I’ve popped a few of them there Now. I have to say, by the way, I’ve been quite selective in what I put in from vines. You’ll notice I don’t have AB, you don’t have CD and E, and various others.

42. 19:27

    Because what I found with basically every Christian commentator, they all believe in the Trinity. About half of their explanations are full of dissertations on the Trinity. So if you strip that out in terms of the way the words used, wind, breath, the way in which man perceives or reflects or feels or desires, purpose, aim, character, moral qualities, the Holy Spirit, unclean spirits, angels, divine gift for service, that’s the Holy Spirit gifts.

43. 19:56

    So you say, well, actually this is again quite, quite diverse. There’s a related word which is quite helpful, Pneumaticos. Which means spiritual. So if someone is of a spiritual outlook, it’s the Greek word numaticos, things which have their origin with God and which therefore are in harmony with his character. Men in Christ who walk so as to please God are spiritual. OK, so that gives us then a, a, a few dictionary definitions of this particular word.

44. 20:32

    Brother Thomas has got a couple of quite useful comics to make about this word and the use of the words. There were some articles that were written, published in the Christadelphian magazine a few years ago, back in 1876. And there was a succession of articles in different editions of the magazine. They were entitled The Spirit of God and the Baptism thereof. And he picks up this idea of the air in motion. So the English word spirit comes from the Latin Spiritos, which means to blow from sphero, to breathe or to breathe out or to exhale.

45. 21:09

    So the spirit is the idea of something which is exhaled. So you go the idea of air in motion, something that’s being breathed out or exhaled in the Greek. Oh, sorry. Yeah. In the Greek the word which answers to spirit is pneuma, which means exactly the same thing. And in the Hebrew it’s the ruach.

46. 21:29

    So in all of them, it has this idea of air in motion or air being breathed out. These words tell us they stand for something which is radiated or exhaled. So it’s radiating out or being breathed out, but it doesn’t tell us what’s being breathed out, what the essence or the substance of the breathing is. It might be air in motion, it might be wind or breath or electricity, power, some other agent. So the point that leaves us with is we really have to have a look at Scripture to see if we can build a bit of a profile of this word and how it’s actually used.

47. 22:06

    Because he said what the word represents depends upon something which is more than etymology can supply, more than just the study of the words themselves. The words ruach, numa, spiritas and spirit do not signify the same thing in all places. But whatever they do mean, the radical idea or the base idea behind it is this idea of motion outwards. So breathing out or exhaling something which is moving outwards.

48. 22:36

    OK, let’s keep working on this. So Job, this is Job 33 verse 4 says the spirit or the Ruach of God, ale hath made me in the breath of Nishima of the Almighty hath given me life. So now we say, oh, that’s interesting. Here’s the spirit is being used as a creative force.

49. 22:59

    The Spirit of God has made me ale. Does anyone know what the word ale means? Power. So we know that in the Old Testament, in the Greek, we have the word God in the English and it’s predominantly 3 Hebrew words, Ale, a lower or Elohim ale, which is the root of each of those ale and lower.

50. 23:22

    And Elohim has the idea of power, an energy source. And that’s the root of this word God that we find throughout the Old Testament. So the point that’s being made here is it’s the spirit being breathed out of that power source which actually creates us. What is ale? It’s not actually, it means strength, might power. So the spirit of ale is a powerful breathing out of power that comes from that original power source. So then he’s got this little statement. Ale is spirit, there is spirit avail. The fountain and the stream are both spirit. And that’s actually quite a helpful analogy. So let’s put that aside for a moment. In your mind, I want you to picture a little fountain bubbling out of the side of a hill. The fountain is water.

51. 24:18

    Then you scoop some of the water out. You say the water has come from the fountain. So the water is both. What’s coming out is coming out that the fountain itself is water. It’s like that with God’s spirit. God is spirit, it’s his energy. And so as his energy does things, you say that actually that spirit comes from God himself. So it’s actually quite straightforward. There’s nothing deep or mysterious about this. It’s actually the concept of being God’s power or his energy. That’s why we can’t separate it from God himself. OK, let’s, I think probably the best thing to do now is, is actually turn to look at how the word is used in Scripture and see if we can build ourselves a bit of an understanding of the of the ways in which this particular phrase is used. We’re going to look at a few quotes, particularly on the screen, but we might turn a few of them up, but I won’t be. First of all, please to turn up Mark chapter 5 and verse 2. Let’s have a look at Mark 5 and verse 2. We’ll start with the New Testament. So we’re looking at our Greek word Numa or Nephma. Mark chapter 5 and reading from verse 2. This is talking about the Lord.

52. 25:42

    He catches the ship across to the other side of the sea and then there comes out of the out of the tombs. And verse 2 we read when he was come out of the ship, immediately they met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. And that’s our word, Numa.

53. 26:01

    So here’s a few passages. Mark 5, Matthew 8, verse 16. When even was come, they brought unto a many that were possessed with devils, and he cast out the spirits, these devils or these unclean spirits with his word, and healed all that was sick. Or Ephesians 2, verse 2, in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. So as we look at those passages, what’s the common element that strikes you about those passages? Any thoughts, any suggestions?

54. 26:44

    An unclean way of thinking? Oops, too far. So unclean spirits, illness, mental illness, or actually unclean minds, which is the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. So the word spirit pneuma can be used of an unclean mind. All right, so cool. OK, let’s keep going. What about these? Well, here we’ve got Jesus being led by the Spirit in Luke 4, verse 1. So he’s full of the Spirit and he’s led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

55. 27:17

    Or in Acts 2, God says I’ll pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters will prophecy. That’s in the context of them speaking in tongues. Matthew 12 verse 28. If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come to you. Or second Peter one verse 21, holy men of God spake.

56. 27:36

    So the inspired writings of Scripture spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So here we have the word spirit being used in what sense? Actually of divine power, Holy Spirit power. And when it’s used that way, it’s talking about an ability which is not natural. I might sometimes use the phrase supernatural.

57. 27:58

    When I do, I’m not referring to little ghosts and goblins in terms of literally what it means supernatural, something which is above what we can normally do. So the Holy Spirit power of God was given to people from time to time to enable them to do things they could not otherwise do. Miracles, speaking in tongues, the inspiration of prophecy, and so forth.

58. 28:23

    All right, what about these? Look at verse 55. So this is the little girl who dies. Her spirit came again, and she rose straight away, and he commanded to give her meat. So how’s the word pneuma being used there? John 19 verse 30 when our when our Lord died, he bowed his head and gave up the ghost as it says in the AV, it’s the same word pneuma.

59. 28:48

    He gave up the spirit or X7 verse 59 Stephen when he died was calling upon upon God saying Lord Jesus. The word God. There is is an italics Lord Jesus received my spirit. So in those passages, the word spirit’s being used for life, life itself, the essence of life itself. All right, what about these?

60. 29:14

    Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Or first to Corinthians 4, shall I come to you with a rod or in love and in the spirit of meekness? Second Timothy, one God’s not given us the spirit of fear, but of power of love, a sound mind. How’s the word spirit being used in those passages?

61. 29:37

    Well, that’s actually a mind and a character, someone who’s meek or someone who’s poor in spirit. All right, what about these Ephesians 4? Be renewed in the spirit of your mind or cleansing our minds from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. So now we’ve got the word spirit being used in the idea of a mind that needs to be cleansed to become a new mind, a new way of thinking and closely linked to that. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, they mind the things of the spirit.

62. 30:17

    Romans 8 verse 5 four verse 6. To be calmly minded as deaf, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. So now we have a spiritual outlook or a spiritual way of thinking. Let’s keep going. Hebrews 1 He makes the Angel spirits. Now we’re talking about a spirit being, an immortal body, a spirit being. Or what about John 6 verse 63?

63. 30:44

    It’s the spirit that gives life, says Christ. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, the words they are spirit. They are. So now we have the words of Christ being used in the sense of of being the spirit as well. So you can see there’s quite a few different ways in which the spirit is actually used.

64. 31:10

    All right, let’s have a look at some a few passages using Gruwark because of course, as we start to go through here, there’s a very big question that comes up. It just automatically pops up. Why? Why is the word spirit used in so many different ways? So let’s have a look at Ruach. Well, the Ruach spirit was there at creation, second verse of the Bible.

65. 31:36

    The earth was without form, void, darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. So here we’ve got God’s spirit and it’s brooding there. We’re going to look at that in a later study moving upon the face of the waters. And then Psalm 33 by the word of Yahweh, where the heavens made and all the host of them by. And it says the breath of his mouth. It’s the word ruach by the spirit of his mouth. So the Spirit of God is used in the creative process in Genesis chapter 1.

66. 32:10

    And as we’ve seen in Psalm 139, the Spirit is all pervasive, whether shall I go from my spirit or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? So we ask ourselves, sorry, let’s look at that one as well. Links to the previous one about His presence being everywhere through His Spirit. This is a very important element.

67. 32:35

    It sustains life. Particularly that bottom passage there, Job 34 verse 14. Just think about the implications of this. If God set His heart upon man, if He gathered to himself his spirit, his ruach, and His breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would turn again to dust. Or, as it says in Psalm 104, Thou takest away their spirit. The word breath.

68. 33:02

    There is the word ruach and spirit. They die and return to the dust. Thou sent us forth thy spirit, ruach, and they’re created. So that tells us that the only reason we’re here today, the only reason we’re actually breathing, is because God’s spirit is actually holding us alive. And if he was to look at us and say, actually, I’ll just withdraw my spirit, all flesh would perish together and instantly die and return to dust. So I think, right, this is actually quite extraordinary. Here we’ve got now the word spirit being used in this whole range of different things.

69. 33:37

    So is the spirit the power of God, or is it the mind of God? Is it a godly mind? Is it life itself? Is it our mind or character? Is it the air we breathe? Is it the wind that blows? Is it the power of God-given to man to enable the impossible to do miracles?

70. 33:57

    Is it the angels? Is it the words Christ spoke? And the answer is yes, it’s all of those things. Why? And that really has to be our number one question this afternoon. Why? Why are these simple words used in such a diversity of ways? Is it just simply coincidence? The one Hebrew word and one Greek word happened to have a multiplicity of different means. Take for example the English word bark. Bark is the outside of a tree.

71. 34:35

    It’s also the strange sound of God makes completely unrelated. So is this just a case like that where there are just these different meanings of the same word? Or is there a very beautiful element that pulls all these things together for the most powerful message for us? Is there a glorious truth to be revealed in this?

72. 34:55

    The answer actually lies in God’s plan and purpose for the earth. Now this is a passage we should all know really well. Why did God create the heavens and the earth? Well, He wants them to be full of the knowledge of His glory. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea. And the spirit is the means that God uses to achieve that purpose.

73. 35:30

    That’s it. God’s spirit is the means that He engages to achieve that objective or that spirit, because the spirit is God in action. It’s his power, it’s his purpose, it’s his capability to achieve his objective with the earth.

74. 35:55

    So it all began with a shapeless BLOB which was without form and void, no shape and it was empty. And the spirit of God was brooding upon the face of the waters. And then His spirit power was used to start creating structure and shape and fill the heavens and the earth as He created the separation, light and dark and the separation of the waters, the bringing out of dry land, populating it with with with plants 1st. And then the seas were fish and the and the air with birds, and then animals and then finally man on the earth. All of that was achieved by the Spirit of God. By His spirit power He established all the laws of nature.

75. 36:43

    He sustains in His hand the life of all living creatures. Excuse me, That is the work of the Spirit. Also. He gave to the human race a mind that was capable of understanding spiritual things. They were made in the image and the likeness of the Elohim. What happened? Man corrupted God’s way on the earth, and so death came on the human race.

76. 37:10

    The heart of man became desperately sick or desperately wicked. Jeremiah 17. So now we have in the heart of man with a bias towards sin, an uncleanness of an evil spirit. That’s the way the human mind now thinks, and it makes them naturally blind so they can’t see God’s truth, deaf so they can’t hear His messages, dumb so they can’t speak forth his praises, and it fills them with madness, fits and torment. That’s the natural state of the human mind now with the uncleanness of spirit.

77. 37:52

    So the Spirit of God began a new creation. His Holy Spirit brought into being His only begotten Son, who He filled without measure with His Spirit. And the words that His Son spoke, they were Spirit and they were life. He came in the power of the Spirit to heal the deaf, the dumb, the blind, and the lame.

78. 38:16

    He then sent forth men endowed with the Holy Spirit to speak the words of the Spirit, to preach the gospel of good news to anybody who would listen, and they had the power of the Spirit to do wonders and miracles as a witness of the extraordinary message they were sending out. And then men and women who hearkened to that message, they had minds that were responding to the things of the Spirit and their mind.

79. 38:42

    And their spirit begins to change and to become like Christ’s. The Spirit word begins to dwell in them. They become spiritual creatures. This is the new creation in whom God and Christ come to dwell. And ultimately they will be spirit beings like the angels, with a mortal power as part of God’s energy source itself.

80. 39:05

    The power that achieves that is the spirit. It’s God’s energy, it’s God’s power, it’s his plan, it’s his purpose. And that is why the word Spirit has so many dimensions, because it’s telling us about the journey of the Spirit, of what God’s purpose was right at the beginning, and how He is moving the whole of creation to achieve His glorious purpose. And He’s taking us on that journey. The only thing in that process that isn’t breathed out of God is the uncleanness of the spirit of the natural mind. Every other element of that, brothers and sisters, every other element has its origin in God Himself, exiles or breathes out of them.

81. 39:54

    That’s the power that keeps us alive. That’s the power that knew that we would be called in our names, written in the book of life before the foundation of the world. That’s the power that’s working to teach us His ways who wants us to respond and develop a mind like his sons, a spiritual way of thinking.

82. 40:15

    It is the journey of the Spirit that he’s working on with you and me, and that’s why there’s such a diversity. Of applications of these simple words, because in that word it’s talking about God’s power to achieve his plan and purpose for the earth. Let’s put it another way. God’s purpose requires men and women who are alive, who have minds which learn His ways and change, to start thinking in a different way from what we do naturally and demonstrate the principles of God’s glorious truth in their own individual lives. And ultimately they’ll become immortal beings as he is. And that those are all different facets of the work of the Spirit.

83. 41:02

    And in the process, he Stoops to call creatures like us, flawed creatures like us. And somehow he’s able to take people like us on that extraordinary journey.

84. 41:21

    What a wonderful thought, brothers and sisters. We look at our own flaws. We look at our mistakes. We look at our natural minds. And we look at how the Father’s trying to work with each of us and with their children, with our brothers and sisters to develop a group of beings like that. And we just say that’s an extraordinary thing. That’s the journey of the spirit. It’s a magnificent subject, brothers and sisters. So tell me, brothers, sisters, 4:30 on a Friday afternoon, when the end of the tough weeks come, do you feel like a spirit being in waiting, full of the Spirit of God? Mums, as you struggle to remain patient, as the children are arguing yet again about whose fault it was that the drink got spilled on the floor, do you feel like you’re full of the Spirit?

85. 42:21

    Brothers, when we realized with great disappointment we’ve LED our heavenly Father down again and we’ve succumbed in the face of a trial or a temptation yet again, do we feel like glorious spirit beings that God’s working with?

86. 42:39

    Let’s compare ourselves to Solomon. Solomon was a truly outstanding person, a unique character, with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ, the wisest man who has ever lived. He was actually endowed with the gift of wisdom, the Holy Spirit, gift of wisdom, most extraordinary understanding. And as Brother Roberts wrote of Solomon in an article, actually that Brother Roberts wrote on the Spirit, Solomon is an example not surpassed in Scripture, of what human nature is at the bottom.

87. 43:18

    Though divinely blessed with the Spirit, enabling him to utter the wisdom of God, and excitation, warning the proof to the things against which he cautioned his son, he himself gave way. The man who spoke the pure words of the wisdom of God was himself an entire failure in the application. So how’s the journey of the Spirit if you’re going to be possible for you and me?

88. 43:52

    The answer, of course, brothers and sisters, lies in the greatest work of the Spirit. And that’s in God’s work with the Son, with the Lord Jesus Christ. At least 2 passages and juxtaposition. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea. How? What’s the New Testament called?

89. 44:18

    God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. Note the echoes there of the creation process has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. How well we see it in the face of Jesus Christ. So here’s God’s purpose to fill the entire earth with the knowledge of His glory.

90. 44:46

    And that becomes possible, brothers and sisters, because of what we see and learn in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has shined in the darkness of our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of His glory, and we see it in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the creative work of the Spirit to transform the human race, people like you and me to become a reflection of His glory.

91. 45:17

    And so, brothers and sisters, this subject, it just encapsulates the fullness of God’s plan and purpose with us. It’s just extraordinary to stop and think about, incredibly encouraging to think about the fact that God’s objective is to continue to work with the human race to teach us to become a reflection of his glory. And for that work to be complete, we need to come to understand what this idea of the Spirit is actually all about. And throughout the pages of the truth of the of the Word, God explains to us how his Spirit works with us in daily life. And as we go through these studies, God willing, that’s exactly what we want to see.

92. 45:56

    We want to see the way in which God’s Spirit interacts with us in the development of our character to become a reflection of His glory. As I said before, the churches get this entirely wrong. Basically, the whole of Christianity says that God’s Holy Spirit power comes into me and all I have to do is submit. And it just makes me believe.

93. 46:25

    It makes me understand. It helps me resist sin. And they turn their back on the very thing that God has actually given us to help us in the journey of the Spirit. Paul says I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. The gospel which is the good news of the Kingdom and the work of Christ recorded in Scripture for us.

94. 46:46

    The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes the Jew 1st and also to the Gentiles. As our Lord said the words I speak to you, they are Spirit and they are life. So the question for us really as we go through is how will we respond to the invitation of the Spirit? How will we respond to the words of the Holy Spirit which speak to us through the words which that has recorded through the inspiration of the pen of those of old? As the Apostle Paul said in first of Corinthians 2, verse 13 of his teaching, he says which things we teach, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness to them, neither can he know them because they’re spiritually discerned.

95. 47:46

    So we have this most most wonderful blessing, brothers and sisters of God’s Word, which encaptures His mind speaking to us through the pages of Scripture. And there’s no wonderful power in that which creates this this journey of transformation of our own hearts and minds as we change to become more like his glorious son.

96. 48:11

    I’d like you to turn with me, please in conclusion to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 is a is a wonderful chapter talking about the way in which the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of God is to be developed within our own hearts and minds. And there’s some some beautiful sections in there which we will no doubt be looking at as we go through our studies this week. But let’s have a look.

97. 48:34

    Romans chapter 8 and we’ll commence in verse 5. Those who are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, they mind the things of the spirit. For to be calmly minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life in peace. There’s the alternative for us, brothers and sisters, laid out so clearly. To be calmly minded is death.

98. 49:00

    To be spiritually minded is life and peace. He said It’s a calm mind. It’s enmity against God. It can’t be subject to it. So those who are in your flesh can’t please God. This 9 But you are not in the flesh, he said. You are in the Spirit if the Spirit of God dwells in you. We’re going to see as if studies unfold, that it’s talking there about a new way of thinking here. The Spirit of God dwells in us as we develop an understanding of his ways and his principles.

99. 49:32

    And literally it transforms the way in which we think. And so he says in verse 11, if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in US, then he that raised up Christ from the dead will also quicken or bring to life our mortal bodies because of his spirit as the way it actually means because of his spirit that dwells in you.

100. 49:58

     So there’s the conviction of our hope, brothers and sisters. But in the same way that our Lord was raised from the dead by the power of God, that power will achieve God’s ultimate objective with you and me. Thank you.

101. 50:37

     None.