Five Week Study of the Holy Spirit
I am beginning a discussion and study concerning the Holy Spirit. I will post notes and questions for each of five weeks. I am no authority. However, I thought we might explore some resources, scriptures, and questions together. Please note that I monitor any post and decide about appropriate posting of replies and questions.
HOLY SPIRIT.
WEEK ONE – NOTES
Opening scripture and prayer
Young's Literal Translation
the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness [is] on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters
Thank you Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ for all your mercies, love, and grace. We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit and ask that you help us to understand what you want each of us individually and our group collectively to understand so that we may grow.
We thank You for Your promise that as two or three gather together that You will be with us. Holy Spirit we ask that you guide us in all that we are to know.
Some of you might wish to listen to or read the lyrics of the following song before beginning.
Song: “Holy Spirit” by Bryan and Katie Torwalt
Questions:
1. What thoughts, ideas, and questions came to mind this week as you read the introduction?
2. Why do you think that sometimes people are hesitant to talk about the Holy Spirit?
3. Did you ever consider the work of the Holy Spirit in creation?
Additional information:
The study of the Holy Spirit is called pneumatology from the Greek pneuma. Pneuma (πνεῦμα, Lat. spiritus) is connected etymologically with πνέω, breathe or blow, and has a basic meaning of 'air in motion', or 'breath' as something necessary to life. Strong’s literal translation has this word present 385 times. (Some have 383) Our word pneumatic comes from this Greek word. (1 : of, relating to, or using gas (such as air or wind): a : moved or worked by air pressure. b(1) : adapted for holding or inflated with compressed air. (2) : having air-filled cavities.)
Does this information provoke any thoughts about the Holy Spirit and Genesis 1?
Genesis 2:7 Young’s literal
7 And Jehovah God formeth the man -- dust from the ground, and breatheth into his nostrils breath of life, and the man becometh a living creature.
Questions:
1. Do you have any new thoughts about the Holy Spirit’s part in creation?
2. What do you see in Acts 15:28 and 2 Corinthians 3:17-18?
Is there anything we can compare Old Testament terms with New Testament?
Comparison of Old and New Testament
Isaiah 6:8-10 and Acts 28:25-27
Isaiah 6: 6-10
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts,and turn and be healed.”
Acts 28: 25-27
25 They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:
26 “‘Go to this people and say,“You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”27 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heartsand turn, and I would heal them.”
Jeremiah 31:31-33 and Hebrews 10:15-17
Jeremiah 31:31-33
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenantwith the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestorswhen I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,”declares the Lord.33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord.“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Hebrews 10: 15-17
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord.I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
Psalms 95:7-11 and Hebrews 3:7-9
Psalms 95: 7-11
for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
Today, if only you would hear his voice,8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,9 where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did.10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
Warning Against Unbelief
Hebrews 3:7-9
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.
Questions:
1. What did you notice that was made very clear in the New Testament quoting that might have seemed less evident in the original Old Testament scriptures?
2. What does this information reveal to us?
3. Does it make a difference to you? If so, how?
4. What are any general thoughts or questions you have after this week’s study?
5. Do you have special requests for next week?
Prayer concerns and Praises
Comments