 Okay, so why don't we pray and get started, right? Let's look to the Lord and pray. Let's draw near to Him with expectation. The Lord Jesus, when He talked on the Holy Spirit, He said, He will send another helper and He will lead you into all truth. He will teach and He will also remind. So that's who He is, that's who God is and we have come to His presence. So let's just pray and expect Him to lead us into truth, expect Him to speak to us, draw us in. Let's just pray in our hearts today and say, Holy Spirit, come, have your way in my life. I want to know you more. I want to know you more. Just like Paul cried out, oh that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Okay, thank you Lord. Father, we thank you for this time that you've given us. What an awesome privilege to come before you. What an awesome privilege to sit at your feet, Lord. And Father, we thank you for this privilege that you've given us to look into your word and to learn and to study, Lord. I pray that you will quicken your word to us. Holy Spirit, come, have your way. Lord, lead us into all truth. Speak to us, Lord, as only you can. And I just pray that this will be a great time of learning and unlearning as well. Come Holy Spirit, have your way. We give you all the praise. And we give you all the glory. In Jesus' matchless name we pray. Amen. Okay, so welcome back. So last couple of sessions, we went over a whole lot of things, right? So maybe some of you can just put in the chat what is it that you learned, what is it that you took back from last week's class? Maybe just one thing that, just one thing, right? One thing that you remember, one thing that you learned, one thing that was new. Either you can unmute and speak or you can put it in the chat. Just one thing that you learned. Okay, so about Trinity, yes. So anything specific, Robert, about Trinity? Okay, Holy Spirit is a person, that's right. Anyone else? These were the two main categories, right? That we looked at. We looked at God being a triune God. And then we also studied that Holy Spirit is, He is a person, right? He is God, He is triune. God is eternal. He is powerful. And He is omnipresent and so on. But He is also a person. Therefore, He has intellect. Yes, mind will, emotions. He can be grieved. He can be blasphemed and so on. Yeah, He can be grieved because He has emotions, yes. Anything else that you learned? He can be resisted and quenched, yes. Okay, so next question. So from this understanding that we have about the Holy Spirit, did it change the way you related to Him earlier in any way? In what way did it change? The change the way you related to God, related to the Holy Spirit. Well, if it did not change, that's fine. You don't have to... But if there was a change in the way you related to the Holy Spirit, and you can mention that, you can put that. Okay, so Lubeyka, if you can just share in what way, in what way did you experience a change in which you related to the Holy Spirit and what way was it? Anyone else while Lubeyka thinks about it? Okay, no responses. So does it mean that things are as they were? Okay, that's good. Pass on if I may. Hey, John, go ahead and give it. So the fact that Holy Spirit has emotions, and especially when we discussed about the fact that He can be resisted, so it gave me a little more perspective in understanding the way we should respond how Holy Spirit talked to us. Like, even in every aspect that He talks to us, it gives us more understanding that how we should handle even the minute whispers that we listen from Him. Yeah, that was a different understanding and more of a revelation for me. Thanks, Mr. Right. Thank you. Thanks, John. Yeah. Lubeyka says, as an individual, I have started to think more about what I say about Him. Yeah. That's right. You know, sometimes we make jokes about God, jokes about the Spirit, and I mean, you know, not bad jokes, but really, but then sometimes we use the name of God, you know, rather rashly, and this would actually make us think, right? Okay. So Rosalind says, I have a friend whom I can rely on, talk to, very true. Holy Spirit is our helper and guide to walk, to help us, a guide is walk in the right path. That's right, Lubeyka. Oh, yes, who abides in us, so we have access to Him, you know, unlimited access, and you started talking to Him as a lifelong companion. Awesome. That's good. Yeah, that's one of the things, right? So when we know that He is with us, when we know that He is listening, He is talking, so we are more aware of His presence throughout the day, and sensitive to His leading. You know, if you have someone, if someone is talking to you, and you know, as another human being, let's say a student or, you know, someone in your family, if they ask a question and you don't respond, right? Or if someone is telling you something and you just go, or you speak, and then they just go, you do feel hurt, right? That's not the thing that you, that's not how you want the relationship to be, right? You know that something is wrong, right? And so you become more aware of the Holy Spirit being a person, the one who's speaking, so we, you know, respond to Him, listen to Him, obey Him since He knows everything, and He has our best interest in mind, and so on, right? So yeah, so that's, so those are some things that, you know, hopefully that we have learnt and we can put in practice. And so it doesn't have to be just, you know, at the time of, maybe we are in class, or we are in prayer, or we are worshipping, or we are in church, it doesn't have to be those events. It actually has to be every day, every moment, right? In the ordinary things, in the mundane things, when we go about doing our, you know, doing our chores, and that is when we need to put these deep spiritual truths to practice, really, because it's so practical, right? And it's for everyday life. Okay, so today, we are going to look at another different aspect of the whole subject of the Holy Spirit, as we are learning about this person and the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We are going to look at several scriptures in the Old Testament. We are going to start there and look at what the Old Testament talks about the Holy Spirit, the information that we see. Now what is the description of the Holy Spirit? What did he do? What did he say? And we are going to look at that. So that gives us an understanding of, you know, we have an understanding of the Holy Spirit. This will expand our understanding of the Holy Spirit. Just like how when we looked at, okay, Holy Spirit is a person, he speaks, he knows, and that gave us an added perspective of, oh, this is who the Holy Spirit is. So that changed the way we looked at our picture of him. And also it changed the way we related to him. So here we are going to spend some time looking at, right through the Old Testament and we are going to study. So have your Bibles handy. We are going to be looking at verses and that is all we are going to do. We are going to be looking at verses, talking about the context in some cases and also look at, you know, infer from that, learn from that and say, okay, this is what he did. This is what he made the people do or this is what he accomplished. So let's look, if you have your Bibles, you can just open up to right at the beginning Genesis. So before we start to read and look at the several scriptures, I just want to say that the Holy Spirit he is the same across the testaments because he never changed or he never changes. He is the same. But the way he worked in the Old Testament times and the way he works now in the New Testament times is different. So that's an understanding the way he worked before the cross and the way he works now after the cross, after the death burial resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus. It's the way he works in the lives of the believers is different. So it's a very, very crucial thing or very critical thing that we need to understand. Just like how we need to understand that we are New Covenant people and so the Old Covenant what was done in the Old Covenant and how people related to God in the Old Covenant, there does change. How they worshiped him there's a change. So in a similar way when we study the Holy Spirit the working of the Holy Spirit the ministry of the Holy Spirit we need to understand that there is a difference. And one main difference is that he he came on people to lead them to do certain things as part of the plan and the purpose of God to communicate a message to do certain tasks in the plan and purpose of God to achieve the plan and purpose of God and he would move. He would come upon he would move he would go again so that was how he operated in the Old Testament that is how he operated but we see that in the new dispensation of the New Testament that he has come to be with us forever he has come to indwell us the moment we said yes to Jesus the moment we received him as Lord and Saviour he has come and he has sealed us according to the New Testament he has sealed us and he is the guarantee or the earnest of the full redemption so that's a very simple or a very basic difference that the way he worked in the Old Testament and the way he works now in the New Testament so that changes a lot of things the way we relate to him as minister the way we serve God everything gets a new perspective so that is something that we need to keep at the back of our mind it's the same Holy Spirit he has not changed but the way he worked or the way he works now that has changed so with that let's look at a few scriptures let's look at Genesis chapter 1 verse 2 like for one of time I'll just quickly read the scripture and then we can discuss so 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 water so we in the right at the beginning we see that the Holy Spirit is mentioned and he is hovering over the face of the earth and the word used there is a Hebrew word rakaf which means to brood over to hover over to brood over just like how a mother hen would brood over the eggs to wait for them to be hatched so that's the picture that we have the Holy Spirit was brooding over the hovering over the face of the waters then God said let there be light and there was light so you see that in the creation process that the Holy Spirit was actually involved because that's the word that we see there that he in a way he birthed the creation God spoke and it came into being by the power of the Holy Spirit and he was seen he was hovering over the waters over the earth but the Holy Spirit did that the Holy Spirit he is creative we are going to look at scriptures that testify to that but he is the creator the original creator the one who creates we see this Genesis 6 if you look at Genesis 6 and verse 3 God says my spirit shall not strive with man forever for he is indeed flesh yet his days shall be 120 years so here it's referring to the time of the just before the flood actually and the preparation of the ark and so on so I got saying my spirit shall not strive with man we see the wickedness increasing and so on so this is something that the Lord says about the Holy Spirit then we are just going to skip over and go to Genesis 41 Genesis 41 it's not like we are doing a very exhaustive every verse being covered we are not doing that we are looking at verses there and we are picking up certain verses to just read that and to get an understanding so let's look at Genesis 41 and verse 38 Genesis 41-38 in Pharaoh said to his servants so this is about Joseph and Joseph he has just interpreted the Pharaoh's dream and this is the conclusion that the Pharaoh comes to and he says can we find such a one as this a man in whom is the Spirit of God so this is a testimony of a pagan ruler who did not worship Yahweh but he comes to this conclusion and he says can we find such a one as this a man in whom is the Spirit of God now why did he come to that conclusion anyone he comes to this amazing conclusion how can he find such a man he is complimenting Joseph and he is saying in whom is the Spirit of God I think most of us would have read through that instance which happened when Joseph is in prison and the Pharaoh has a dream and there is no one to interpret and the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh let me just read chapter 41 and verse 8 now it came to pass in the morning that his Spirit was troubled and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt wise men and Pharaoh told them his dream but there was no one who could interpret them for Pharaoh so we all know the dream very quickly anybody can you just tell me what the dream was that the Pharaoh had what was the dream that he had I think it was a dream about the Isaac I think it was the dream about the cows the fat cows and the thin cows that's right so it was a it was a dream that the Pharaoh had in the dream he he saw 7 thin cows 7 fat cows and the 7 thin cows ate the fat cows and then he also had another another scene where there were 7 thin years of corn and these actually devoured the 7 healthy looking years of corn so this is the dream that he had and so he was troubled he didn't know the meaning of it and he wanted interpretation of it so he called the magicians the ones who were who were considered wise in the kingdom and no one could actually interpret it and the butler was serving in the kings palace so he he remembers Joseph from the prison days so he comes and says yes now I know this person so Joseph comes and he interprets right so this is what Joseph says let's look at verse 15 and Pharaoh said to Joseph I have had a dream and there is no one who can interpret it but I have heard it said of you that you can understand the dream to interpret it verse 16 so Joseph answered Pharaoh saying it is not in me God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace it's not in me but God will give Pharaoh the answer of peace and then of course Pharaoh describes the dream and immediately Joseph gives the interpretation he talks about the seven cows referring to seven years the thin cows referred to seven years of famine the fat cows referred to seven years of plenty and he says after the seven years of plenty there would be seven years of famine and he says both these scenes they refer to one thing there is one message that is being communicated there is one message and he interprets and then Pharaoh says there is no one can we find such a one as this a man in whom is the spirit of God so Joseph himself testifies the interpretation of God and here the Pharaoh testifies saying that in whom there is the spirit of God so the spirit of God enabled Joseph to interpret the kings of Pharaoh's dream Joseph goes one step ahead and he shares a word of wisdom he shares about how he gives a strategy so this is the interpretation and he gives a strategy so during the seven years of plenty let there be a collection of grains let there be store houses let the grains be wherever the fields are and one fifth of that let it be stored in the store houses and so on and then we read about so what does the Holy Spirit do Holy Spirit is creator Holy Spirit is also the one who gave the interpretation or the information to understand to decode communication or something like a puzzle the dream was like very symbolic it was like a puzzle but he gave the wisdom to Joseph to interpret that to decode that right and also you know that Joseph was able to share a strategy to overcome that problem so the message was actually a problem this is the problem that's going to happen in the nation so several things we learned Holy Spirit does that we understand that the Holy Spirit speaks to rulers speaks to heads of nations in this manner and this is what he did in the Old Testament he spoke to heads of nations who did not know him so that's something which is very encouraging that people who do not know him well God will speak in a way that they cannot really ignore the message so if you have a dream you cannot ignore it you're helpless anyway you're sleeping it just comes to you you're thinking about it and so that's something that we understand and also we know that in many of the Islamic nations we hear so many testimonies of God speaking like the Holy Spirit speaking to them in a dream and giving the entire gospel in a dream where they see certain things where sometimes it's scripture references sometimes it's a picture of a bright person who's got a beard and who's saying I am the way, the truth and the life and so on so many times when people are not open to reasoning when people are not really open to sit and not really responding it just drops a dream and a very important message it's a message for the nation and he does that so we understand something about the Holy Spirit about the working of the Holy Spirit okay let's move on we move on to Exodus 28 okay Exodus 28 now this is again very interesting we look at Exodus 28 and verse verse 3 okay Exodus 28 and verse 3 so these are instructions that God gives Moses and 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 that he may minister to me as priest okay so gifted artisans who are gifted artisans they are people who are skilled people who are skilled to create some things maybe carvings maybe they work with precious stones precious metals maybe they work with iron maybe they work with wood like a skilled carpenter maybe carvings so these are artisans this is the word we use artisans are skilled in using their hands maybe they make jewelry so I don't know if anybody is like that here maybe you paint anybody like that anybody who paints who does maybe carvings maybe you design jewelry anyone like that you can just put it on the chat okay no one so everybody is into software programming okay if there's anyone what we're going to look at is it's very interesting it can be even so Pema what do you do bit of crafts okay okay Nicholson Nicholson actually made a huge cross I know he's good at woodwork for one of our youth camps he actually made a cross and anything else Niki apart from woodwork okay so jeffina says okay I love decorating okay carpentry painting carpentry and painting okay nice sketching okay Rosalind awesome yeah so don't consider these as something secondary something teaching abu worker yeah absolutely video and design it counts in today's day and time you're actually a designer you're using an imagination to you know designs maybe it's a graphic and absolutely yes it does count so that's what I just wanted to say that don't discount these things you know maybe they're part of you maybe it's your livelihood okay detergent powder interesting okay yeah so we're going to look at that also you know so we saw that God gives strategies to actually a nation okay for cleaning toilets and so on one okay awesome you're making our life cleaner and brighter thank you good job Aodesh so let's look at several other scriptures okay on the same lines of skill and how the Holy Spirit you know sometimes we think of God as yeah he is dwelling an unapproachable light he is a holy God and you know all the nations are gathered to his praise and you know 24 seven there are elders and you know the hosts of heaven there's worship going on even right now there's worship happening he's a holy God but we see that he interacts with man he interacts with man and we see that all these gifts and talents that we have is part of his personality we are created in this image now that has been marred okay that has been marred that's you know that has been destroyed or you know kind of damaged because of sin but in Christ you know we have been restored we have been redeemed God is bringing that back to back to how it's supposed to be and even further right even better than that so that's what redemption is so okay so let's look at a few other scriptures let's look at Genesis 31 okay Genesis 31 and verse 3 again the Lord let's look at verse 31 one onwards then the Lord spoke to Moses saying see I have called by name Bezalel the son of Yuri the son of the tribe of Judah and I have filled in with the spirit of God in wisdom in understanding in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship okay to design artistic works to work in gold in silver in bronze in cutting jewels for setting in carving wood and to work in all manner of workmanship and he goes on to say you know I indeed I have appointed with him and there were others also a holy son of Ahisa Mark and the tribe of Dan and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans that they may make all that I have commanded you and several things there tabernacle of meeting the Ark of Testimony and everything that goes into the tabernacle mercy seat the table is utensils and and everything the altar of incense very interesting so who is it who is giving the knowledge the wisdom the understanding and the skill for all this artistic things right the Holy Spirit and God says I have filled in with the spirit to work in all these things you know several other scriptures you know if you look at chapter 35 and 31 again it's you know Moses said to the children Moses is repeating the instruction which God gave him see the Lord is called by name is filled in with the spirit of God in wisdom and understanding in knowledge in an all manner of workmanship to design artistic works to work in gold and so on so he filled them with skill to do all manner of work of the engraver of the designer I am reading verse 35 of the engraver and the designer and the tapestry maker those who do every work and those who design artistic works and chapter 36 verse 1 and Bezalel and Aholiyab and every gifted artist in whom the Lord has put wisdom and understanding to know how to do all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary shall do according to all that the Lord has commanded so 31 1 onwards yes so that is what we read just now so you see that the Holy Spirit is giving special ability creativity skill, knowledge in all these things now I just wanted to share a quick story I mean a real thing that happened many years ago and this was someone whom I knew the mother this daughter was actually very good she was interested in doing all these things right from a childhood so she after school joined this National Institute of Design and she learned design and art and so on and I think this was the last year of college there was an internship and there was a competition and this was by Titan now Titan I'm sure you've seen the Titan watches Titan watches are very very creative the watches that you have the face of the watch and they have these they have a range called Raga which is jewelry in watch and so on so the face of the watch very creative very different and it came in at a time Titan watches when you had HMT HMT only for a long time I don't know how many of you have had HMT I used to have one HMT watch so it came in at a time when watches were boring and then they really took over so Titan actually wanted designer so they went to this college they took some people and they actually had a competition they said if a student actually designs something and we approve of that design and we want to use it then this you get to prize money and so on and you get to work with us and so on so the mother actually came upon this was 31.1 35 so she said the way you filled with your spirit the same way God you fill my daughter and she would pray over that over the daughter the same way God you fill my daughter and so that let her creativity be enhanced even more she is naturally creative but Lord let her creativity be enhanced even more and she went on to design a watch face which was approved which was used by the company and she won the prize money and I think they wanted her to work with them and so on so the thing is that Holy Spirit does this Holy Spirit God he is the most creative person he is the greatest designer you look at creation you look at the stars you look at the flowers the colors that are there and you look at the human body and you can't just look at that and not go wow he is the greatest designer not only is he the greatest designer but he imparts that ability and each one of us carry it to some degree carry it to some degree but then he imparts that ability so this mother prayed that over the daughter and and God just greatly enhanced that ability that she had naturally and she did this just wanted to share that just to encourage us that God he he dwells in an approachable light but he also is very very integral with the affairs of man and he does this he is so creative if you would just call upon him and say God use me so we see this in the Old Testament we see that God giving artisans skill and ability then let's move on to Numbers verse 11 um sorry Numbers chapter 11 and we are looking at um verse 17 onwards Numbers 11 and verse 17 okay Numbers 11 verse 17 now the Lord said to Moses 16 sorry gather to me 70 men of the elders of Israel whom you know to be elders of the people and offices over there bring them to the tabernacle of meeting may stand here stand there with you then I will come down and talk with you there I will take off the spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them and they shall bear the burden of the people with you that you may not bear it yourself alone and gives them gives Moses the instruction ask them to consecrate ask them to come and you know so then I'm going to do this so he's saying I'm going to take the spirit that is upon you and I'm you know and I'm going to do the same thing upon them upon these elders and they what is the objective of that that they will bear the burden of the people so here's Moses in leadership with this with these people who are you know if you actually read that chapter 11 you see that the people complained they complained so much they said we want to go back to Egypt at least we had garlic, leek and you know fish from an island what is this wilderness they had a very short memory about their the fact that they were slaves the fact that they had to every day right from dawn to dusk they had to they had a very short memory about that but they complained and so you know here's the Lord saying this leadership ability or this role that you are carrying out now I'm going to take of the spirit in other words he's saying I'm going to empower 70 others who are elders so that they might carry the load so they might help you in this whole process of leadership of leading these people and so when we read through we see that the Lord says he gathers the people Moses gathers the people and there were 70 who were supposed to come to the tabernacle around the tabernacle and the Lord actually did that work and something supernatural happened that that the people started prophesying, speaking forth about God and the Bible records that they actually did not do that again but something supernatural happened that the Holy Spirit came upon them and empowered them for leadership that they would be leaders who delegated leaders who would help Moses with leading this nation well something happened two guys did not follow the memo they saw the message but they did not show up there were only 68 there and two decided to stay back in their own house in their tents Eldad and Medad but the beautiful thing is that the Holy Spirit comes upon them also and they were also prophesying and Joshua is like they did not show up they did not come for the meeting and how dare they they kept this how dare they deceive this and then Moses says something are you zealous for my sake all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord will put His Spirit upon them that was Moses perspective that all of them that they would speak forth that they would hear from God that they would speak forth to them and God's instructions and so on and that the Lord would put the Holy Spirit upon all of them that was His heart that everyone should encounter God that was His heart those who came for the meeting those who did not come for the meeting Moses heart was that but the beautiful thing is this that we see that the Holy Spirit empowering people for leadership empowering people empowering Moses for leadership we know that and here we see empowering the elders for delegated leadership so maybe you are leading a ministry you are leading a church and this is something that we can pray we see God doing this Lord say God give this people whomever you have chosen God give them the same vision empower them Lord to carry out the vision and maybe saying God my shoulders are tired I've been carrying this Lord for a long time I've been carrying this vision for a long time and and God I'm tired people are complaining right so God will do that God will bring the gather the people give the people the vision give them empower them for leadership of course you know we need to understand how he does that this is Old Testament he came upon them scripture says they prophesied when he was there and then they did not prophesy again right I think it's worse sorry yeah verse 25 okay number 11 verse 25 the Spirit rested they prophesied they never did that again and again about Eldad and Medid also said verse 26 and the Spirit rested upon them now they were not among those listed but they were among those listed but they did not go to the tabernacle yet they prophesied right so this is something that we see so we see that Holy Spirit Creator Holy Spirit Creative God Holy Spirit leadership ability Holy Spirit interpreter of deems Holy Spirit wisdom and strategy right and we see that hey we see that God did does all this if he did then he will do it even more so in our day and time because we are in a better covenant and a better promises and and that is something that we can expect right expect to receive from him and expect to walk in it walk in the reality of it okay let's look at one more thing and then we'll take a break okay so we read about Balam in Numbers 24 and verse 2 and about the fact that he prophesied so let's quickly go there Numbers 24 and verse 2 and Balam raced his eyes and saw Israel encamped according to their tribes and the Spirit of God came upon him and then he goes on to prophesy so and we are going to we see that all the prophets the Spirit came upon them there were different ways in which that is mentioned that the hand of the Lord came upon okay we have a question does this mean that there was lack in the amount of Holy Spirit in which Moses was operating once it was passed I don't think so because see the thing is God is infinite right he never decreases there's always more and that's why we always we can always hunger for more of God because he doesn't deplete like his love his power it's never ending right so so because that is nature because that's a stability so we know that we can conclude that there's no depletion of the you want to use the word amount of Holy Spirit or the amount of power that was upon Moses once that the Lord was distributed yeah correct yeah so that's that's the usage you know that's the way it is written there but knowing the the ability of God knowing the nature character and the nature of God we know that it's he gives and he keeps on giving there's no end yeah okay okay so we see okay let me just read that so numbers 24 and verse 3 then he took up his oracle and said the utterance of Balaam the son of Bia the utterance of a man whose eyes are open the utterance of him who hears the words of God who sees the vision of the Almighty who falls down wide with eyes wide open and you know he explains the process of how he actually prophesies how he receives the word in fact and you know when we there is a course about the prophetic which you will have in the second year and it's very interesting and we're going to look at the details of that you know one of this this is be one of the scriptures that you look at in the Old Testament the Spirit came upon and how the Spirit gave the message Holy Spirit right so the Spirit came upon him and this is what he says the utterance of Balaam whose eyes were opened who hears the words of God who sees the vision of the Almighty who falls down with wide eyes wide open and right so Balaam prophesied he spoke forth what he heard because he says here that whose eyes were open to see which means that he saw certain things maybe the spiritual realm and then he spoke that out or he heard the words of God and he spoke that out or followed the words of God and he says who sees the vision of the Almighty the Holy Spirit causes people to see the vision see vision the supernatural ability to see something supernatural maybe it's like pictures maybe it's like you know like a movie but it's a vision vision just means to see something right so here we see the vision being mentioned the vision of the Almighty and he falls down with eyes wide open referring to a trans maybe so we see all this okay okay we stop here and then we'll take a quick break we'll come back at 10 okay