The Moving of God's Spirit — Emanuel Esh

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The Spirit of God Moving Among His People

Thank God for His grace and mercy to us. Surely He has looked upon us and has saved us. He has brought us out of the mirey clay and set our feet upon a rock. He has granted us life when we deserve death.

Welcome to each one this morning. May the Lord minister to your heart today in the songs and testimonies and God's word. Since the Lord led me to study and prepare a message on the moving of the Holy Spirit, I know that today is Mother's Day and maybe the mothers would like a Mother's Day message, but I think they heard a very good children's lesson on that.

Thank you, Brother Aaron. But it also is what is known as the Day of Pentecost today. And so, I would like to share a message on, not necessarily on Pentecost, but on the Spirit of God moving amongst God's people.

I have preached on the Holy Spirit numerous times in the past and I would like to preach from a different perspective this time. Not a theological perspective, but rather from a place of observation or an observatory perspective.

And I think of going up, some people will climb a mountain or up on the face of a cliff where they can look out over the river in the valley below and they're up at a high place and they might take binoculars along and they want to go up there and they study a certain bird or maybe an eagle or something.

And so, there's people who spend a lot of time in their life going out and studying specific animals or a bird or something like that. And if you do that, you want to have the necessary equipment along to do that.

You need to have binoculars to try to get a close-up view and so forth. And maybe people take their cameras. So, that's what I would like to do is take an overview of God's Word of the Bible and see the moving of the Spirit of God there.

That would be my heart. Father, we come to you in Jesus' name. Thank you for your precious Word to us this morning. I ask you, Father, to enlighten our eyes and give us understanding in our hearts of how you move.

Lord, this is something that the prophets have looked into. And they've wondered about it and they've longed to see it. But we're here today. We have the Bible in front of us. And we can see the working of God amongst humanity for the last approximately 6 ,000 years.

So, Lord, help us today to look at this principle of how you move in the hearts of men and upon men. May you bless this congregation and this message in Jesus' name. Amen. I wish that I would have had a couple of tools this morning.

I would have brought them along. I would have wanted to have a telescope, one of those long, thin ones, where you look into a small hole here and out here it's bigger. A telescope is what you use when you want to look at something that's a long way off.

Telescopes are used to study the stars. And someone who wants to study the stars needs a good telescope. And they'll spend a lot of time adjusting that telescope and focusing in on a specific star and maybe then another star.

And that's what people do with telescopes. I also thought about bringing along some binoculars. A binocular is not the same as a telescope, although it does similar things. A binocular is more for something within a closer range, you might say 500 feet or so, or to look at a bird or something in closer vision, closer field, but to have that made bigger so you can study it also.

And I also thought of another tool which would be a magnifying glass. When you take a magnifying glass, you want to look at something that is very small. We have this magnifying glass at home that we use to look at our fingers or hands when we have splinters.

Sometimes little children will come with a splinter in their foot or their toe or their finger and say, Daddy, I've got a splinter. Daddy gets the magnifying glass out and he looks at that thing and that little speck of wood or whatever it is is magnified and I can see it clearly that way.

So I want to also today encourage us to think of a magnifying glass as we walk through this. And there could be another tool which people use and that is a microscope. A microscope is something that you want to look at germs and blood and things like that, maybe things that are too small to see with the natural eye.

But I just thought I would give that a little bit as an introduction here this morning to the message. I would like for us to look at the Old Testament first with that telescope because it's a long way off and we're going to zero in on specific things and just see and try to understand how the Spirit of God moved upon His people.

And then we want to look at the Gospels and maybe that's where we could use the binoculars. It's a little closer at hand and we have a broader field of vision there. And then we also want to go and look at the moving of the Spirit of God in the book of Acts and that's, I think, where we'll have the magnifying glass.

And then the epistles, we'll look at them also. I'm not sure how the microscope will apply there, but maybe God will give us an application. So, turn with me to Genesis chapter 1 for the opening scripture of the Bible.

Well-known scriptures to us. If we could look at them a little bit closer, we're going to use our... look through our binoculars a little bit at what happened. We don't want to look at the scriptures with our binoculars, but we want to, by faith, adjust our binoculars and look way back there and see what God was doing.

The Spirit Moving in Creation

We need to recognize that the Spirit of God is the power of God or the energy of God that is moving upon the face of the world even today. It's that same power that moves the hearts of men. Genesis chapter 1, verse 1 and 2.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Have you ever stopped with your telescope and looked at what that really was?

What does it mean when it says that the earth was without form, it was void, and there was darkness upon the face of the deep? I think I've shared some of this here before, but basically what there was, there was a glob of matter maybe hanging there in the universe somewhere.

I don't know exactly, but it was in the beginning He created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and it was void. There was maybe a glob of matter, there was no wind blowing. There was no waves there that were moving.

It was void and it was dark and it was like without life. Nothing was moving. You see, it takes energy to move something. And before the Spirit of God moved on the face of the deep, it was dead and there was nothing moving.

But then it says, and the Spirit of God. Listen, now we're going to watch to see what the Spirit of God is going to do. The Spirit of God, it says, moved upon the face of the waters. And when the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, things began to happen.

For something to move something, there must be an energy behind it that is the mover. And today the waves in the ocean are continually moving. There is an energy somewhere that is moving them. For the wind to blow, there is an energy that makes the wind to blow.

And I don't understand all those things. This is not a theological thing, but we're looking at what we see the Spirit of God doing. Beginning here in Genesis chapter 1. In Proverbs chapter 8, it speaks about wisdom.

And I believe it's speaking of Jesus. And it says that before the hills were, I was brought forth. I'm going to turn there. Beautiful verses. I love those verses there in Proverbs chapter 8. While at the end He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

In verse 26. When He prepared the heavens, I was there. When He set a compass upon the face of the deep. When He set a compass upon the face of the deaf. When did He set a compass upon the face of the deaf?

When was there first a magnetic field placed in the North Pole? He set the compass on the face of the deaf. It's speaking of when He did something. And I believe it's when the Spirit of God began to move upon the face of the waters.

When He established the clouds above. When He strengthened the fountains of the deep. When He gave the seas the creed that the waters should not pass His commandment. When He appointed the foundation of the earth.

Then I was by Him as one brought up with Him. I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him. Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth. And my delights were with the sons of men. I believe it's speaking of Jesus.

The Spirit Moving in the Old Testament

But let's move on and look at some other areas in the Old Testament where we see the Spirit of God moving. I wonder if you have any thoughts as to where that was. I'm going to give a few and if you have some I'd like for you to mention or raise your hand.

Maybe we can talk about that also. Look now also in Genesis chapter 3. This is also a very interesting one to me. I love Genesis. I love the first part of Genesis very much. Genesis 3 in verse 8 is where Eve had eaten of the fruit of the tree.

And their eyes had been opened and they had seen they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons for they were afraid. And verse 8 says that they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. That cool of the day, the root word for that is spirit. Another word that's closely associated with the word spirit is wind or breath or air.

And the picture here is that when the evening, when the sun has gone down and there's been a warm day, often times you will feel a little soft gentle breeze come blowing across the land in the evening in the cool of the day.

That's the picture there. A breeze began to blow through the garden in the evening there. That is the cool of the day and that breeze was the presence of the Lord moving upon them there. That was a moving of the Spirit of God upon Adam and Eve there.

And they were afraid. And the picture there is that sinners, sinners when the Spirit of God begins to move, they become afraid. They become afraid. They begin to fear. Other areas where we could focus our telescope on would be when I thought of was when Noah had built the ark and the animals began to come in.

The animals came into the ark. They came. I don't think Noah was out there finding a male and female of each species. I believe they came. Maybe that was a moving of the Spirit of God. I also thought of the tower of Babel where man had become so proud and arrogant thinking he was God and made this huge tower to reach up to heaven.

And there the Lord came down and the Lord moved upon those men. The Lord moved upon the people there and divided their languages. Surely that was a move of the Spirit of God. Surely God was moving upon the people there.

And if you were to turn your telescope upon that situation you would probably see them after the Spirit of God moved upon them maybe one evening. The next morning as they came together there was utter confusion because they could not communicate with each other.

Genesis chapter 10 speaks of 70 nations. I don't know if it was divided into 70 languages or not. But he divided their languages in the tower of Babel. Does anyone else have any... I want you to think a little bit with me on some clear Old Testament times or pictures or men that the Spirit of God specifically moved.

Whether it be on a man or on the people. As we go into the time of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the nations of Israel we see that the Spirit of God moved specifically upon God's people and upon the nation there.

As a nation and not as much on a specific person although numerous times that was true also. Anyone have any thoughts this morning? Any times when you can think about that the Spirit of God would have been clearly moving upon the people's hearts.

Yes. When Elijah ran ahead the chariot. Okay. And how was the Spirit of God moving? The Spirit of God moved Elijah. Amen. Anyone else? When Noah built the ark. Okay. I think God moved upon Noah. You see God delights to show His power but He shows His power through... today it's through men.

I thought of the deliverance from Egypt and how a nation of approximately 3 million people who were in slavery and bondage were moved out of Egypt that night. And began to cross the land and then came to the Red Sea.

And how the wind blew that night and it opened up a channel in the middle of the sea and that huge multitude of people spent all night crossing the Red Sea on dry ground. Surely the Spirit of God is moving His people in a place like that.

Also it says that the Spirit of God moved upon specific men in the time of the building of the tabernacle. There were in Exodus 28 verse 3 the Spirit of wisdom was given to all those who were wise of heart.

And also in Exodus 31 the Spirit of God was given to Beziel. The Spirit of God was given to him that he might know how to build the tabernacle. Specific work was ordained there and the Spirit of God was given to that man to do the work.

I think of when Moses got 70 elders to help him. And God said, I want you to call these 70 elders up and I will take of My Spirit and put My Spirit upon them, He said. So that they can help Moses with the work.

Joshua, Caleb, they were men. It specifically says of Caleb he was a man who had another spirit. He was different. There was something different about that man. He stood out from the rest of them. He didn't go with the flow.

He stood against those things. But he was a man who had another spirit. Joshua had the Spirit of God upon him. In Judges we read of Othniel, the judge who the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and moved him mightily to go to battle and win the war.

Likewise, Gideon, Japhthah and also Samson. We could turn our telescope and we could look in there at the days of Judges and see and watch Samson. Samson began to exercise the power that God gave him.

He misused it. He didn't use it properly. But it says that the Spirit of the Lord moved upon Samson at times. The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times. The Spirit of the Lord began to move this man.

And numerous times when he would be in a difficult situation, the Spirit of the Lord would come upon him and he would do some mighty thing. But there came a time in Samson's life when he was laying on Delilah's lap.

She shaved off his hair and she said, the Philistines are upon him. And he got up and shook himself like at other times. But he did not know that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. He didn't know it.

So we see that the Spirit of God had been moving upon this man's life and then departed. And the man was without the power of the Holy Spirit in his life. Samuel, the prophet, anointing Saul. He told Saul that Saul, you will be changed into another man.

And Saul went down the road and his heart was changed. And the Spirit of God came upon him and he was a different man. But then there came a time when Saul disobeyed God. He no longer listened to the Spirit of God, but he went his own way.

He didn't follow the will of the Lord, but he followed his own will and he lost the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God specifically departed from Saul. And God sent Samuel to go and anoint David to be the next king.

And from that day forth, when David was anointed king, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. Moving him and so forth, preparing him for the work of God. The prophets. Isaiah. Beautiful prophecies. Many, many beautiful prophecies of the coming king.

Isaiah 59. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Isaiah 61 -1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek.

He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives and opening of the prisons to them that are bound. Many beautiful prophecies by the Spirit of God of what would happen in the days of the Messiah.

The coming king. Jeremiah likewise. Ezekiel. I love the one where Ezekiel had a vision of the dry bones. And if you and I could look at that and what's pictured there is Israel is in the focus. But those dry bones in Ezekiel 37.

The Spirit of the Lord showed Ezekiel a valley full of dry bones and they were very dry. And the Lord asked him, he said, can these bones live? And Ezekiel said, thou knowest, Lord. And the Lord told him to begin to prophesy.

He begins to prophesy and as he prophesied, as he preached, it says the bones, there was a shaking and a moving. And the bones began to come together. And the flesh came up on the bones and the bodies became whole bodies but there was no life in them.

And then it says that he was to prophesy to the wind. Wind, blow out of the north and out of the west and come. And the breath of God came into these dead bodies and they stood upon their feet and they became a mighty army.

Surely that's a picture of something unusual. Something is happening there. There's a shaking and a moving going on. That's the moving of the Spirit of God. I especially love the place in Ezekiel 36 where it talks about that day.

He says, I will give you a new heart. And I will put my Spirit within you. And I will cause you to walk in my statutes and to keep them. There's a prophetic picture that the day is coming when God would put his Spirit into his people and he would give them a new heart even like he did King Saul.

And when that new heart is given, something would happen that would cause them to walk and obey God. That must be one of the greatest, finest things that could happen to mankind. That God would be able, that God would do that.

We could look at Daniel. The Spirit of God was within him. We could look at Esther. When her people were in danger of annihilation and God's people, they gathered together and they fasted and prayed. And God moved by his Spirit.

And he moved the circumstances in such a way that Haman, the wicked man who was out to kill the Jews, that man lost his life, was hung on his own gallows. And it was by the moving of God's Spirit through his people.

Haggai, Zechariah, prophesying of the temple. Let's look at Jonah. Just turn that glass over to the city of Nineveh and look what happens. What happens to those millions or thousands of people in that city of Nineveh as you see the prophet Jonah stumbling across the desert sands and entering into that city.

And there he says, this city, 40 days this city is going to be destroyed. And just watch what happens as he walks into that city and he keeps prophesying about 40 days, in 40 days there is going to be destruction.

This city is going to be destroyed. What began to happen? You might see people running to the king, running to tell the king of this strange man who is prophesying these things. And you might see the king sitting there listening to that.

And you might even see him begin to think and ponder. And you might see him even tremble on his knees as he heard the word of God coming. And he began to fear for his people and he made the commandment that no one should eat or drink for three days, neither cattle nor beast nor man.

And such a sobriety came upon the people. Why? Because the Spirit of God was moving upon the whole city. There was a moving of God's Spirit. Bringing the people to repentance. We could look at Joel prophesying of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon their sons and daughters and so forth.

Let's go into the, maybe someone else has a thought about in an Old Testament setting where they could see that. You haven't given much thought but I have, but is there someone? Yes, Lester. Joshua, in the battle, he asked his son to stand still.

Surely he was being moved by the Spirit of God because that's the only way it would happen. God's Spirit is a Spirit of power. Let's look now at the Gospels. As we come to the Gospels, we might lay down that telescope now and we pick up the binoculars and just kind of, you know, we're doing more of this.

Just going around, watching what's happening all around. And what we see is, we see a man. We don't see a nation anymore, we see a man. The focus has now turned from the nation of Israel and is focusing now upon a man.

Specifically, his name is Jesus Christ. Let's go to the book of Luke for an introduction there. Luke speaks more about the power of the Holy Ghost and the power of the Holy Spirit than any of the other Gospel writers as I would understand it.

Luke is speaking about the human side of Christ and he brings this point out over and over again about the power of the Holy Ghost. It's a very clear picture to me that we, as human beings, without the Spirit of God, without the power of God within us, we fail.

We amount to nothing. We're done. We are humans. We must have the Spirit of God within our hearts and lives and Luke gives a very clear picture of that. He speaks of the prophet Zechariah who was in the temple doing his duty that day and an angel appeared to him and spoke to him and told him he would have a son.

In his unbelief, he had questions about it but he couldn't talk until the prophecy was fulfilled. His wife, she bore a son and when they gave the son his name, his mouth was opened up and he began to prophesy.

Likewise, when the angel Gabriel came to Mary and spoke to her that the Holy Ghost would come upon her and the power of the highest would overshadow her. Therefore, the holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Here we have a moving of the Spirit of God upon Mary and Mary conceives in her womb the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is a moving of God upon her. Likewise, when Jesus was born, the shepherds came, the wise men came.

They went into the temple there for the purification and Simon he prophesied and likewise, Anna spoke of him to all the people thereafter. We see that Jesus was born. He was conceived of the Holy Ghost.

Even before his birth, when Mary met the mother of John, he left in the womb and he was filled with the Holy Ghost before he was born. John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit of God before he was born.

We see the Spirit of God begin to move in a different way. Then we could go and let's look at Jesus and his baptism. Let's look at Luke there. I'm in the book of Luke. We could look at it in the other Gospels also.

Verse 21 of chapter 3. Luke 3 verse 21. Now when all the people were baptized, this is by the river with John, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved son.

In thee I am well pleased. Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age. Jesus here at about the age of 30, it was at the age of 30 that the priests were initiated into the priesthood. Before that they were considered to be too young and they would be initiated into the priesthood or their ministry with certain rituals in washing and so forth and anointing of oil.

Here we have Jesus who is now being initiated into his ministry at water baptism and at that point in time as he's praying, it says the Holy Ghost came down from heaven in the form of a dove. Maybe a pigeon or a dove.

It came down and it sat upon him and a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Here we see the Spirit of God coming down upon Jesus. He had received the fullness of the Spirit of God.

It was given to him not by measure. One of the thoughts I have about that is that when we come to the book of Acts, we see the Spirit of God being given unto the church and it's divided out to each one severally but not here.

Here the Spirit of God comes down specifically on the Son of God and he is full of the Holy Spirit. He is now being led by the Spirit of God. In chapter 4 of Luke you see Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

Being 40 days tempted of the devil and in those days he did eat nothing and when they were in the end he afterwards hungered and the devil said to him, If thou be the Son of God, command these sons that they be made bread.

And we see how he's being tempted here but he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. He withstood the temptations and he overcame them how? By the power of the Spirit.

He overcame the temptations by the power of the Spirit. And I do believe that that is probably the greatest power of God working in our hearts and lives that we could ever expect or desire. Many people might desire to see the power of God in miracles and healings and so forth but as for me, I need the power of God in this area.

This is where I need to have the power of God working in me. Without, without this power I will not overcome temptation. Without this power I will fall into sin. Without this power working in me, I will be an old man.

But the new man, being born of the Spirit of God, we could go right into John 3 where Jesus preached about the new birth. This must be one of the most miraculous things ever happened that ever could happen to man.

It can happen to every one of you. I still remember the song that was sung years ago, There's a miracle in me. I've never seen Him raise the dead. I've never seen Him heal the sick. But there is a miracle and that miracle is within me.

And that's what you and I need. You and I, if we do not have the moving of God's Spirit within our hearts and soul and life, we are as dead men. We're like those dead bones and we are very dry. And except a man be born of this Spirit, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.

Can you see the Spirit of God throughout the whole Bible? Or is Pentecost the only time you see the Spirit of God moving and working? It's throughout the whole Word of God. And it's full of the moving of the Spirit of God.

We see the focus in the Gospels is on Jesus. We see holy men of old who were inspired by the Holy Ghost. They took account of those things. They wrote them in this holy book. We have the records. We have the records of what He said by the power of the Spirit in His preaching.

We have the records of what He did. We have records of how He healed the people. We have records of how He raised the dead. We can read of how He cast out devils. Many such things He did. And as we look upon Him with our binoculars, we're watching Him day after day after day.

And I'm wondering, are you observing Him? Do you enjoy watching this man? Or don't you care? I want to see what He's been doing. I want to pick up my binoculars if I were to live in His day. If I would be a journalist or a newspaper writer, I would be very, very interested in what He was doing.

I want to be there when it happens. I want to see what He's doing. I want to see Him when He raises up that dead person. I want to see how He does it when He heals the blind and heals the sick. He opens the ears of the deaf and so forth.

I'd like to see those things. I can see them here. Or don't I care? Don't I care enough to read it? I'm more interested in the news that happened out in town last week than I am in what God's Word is saying.

And when we open this book, having been born of the Spirit of God, then that Spirit begins to work in me. And the Spirit of God in this book begins to connect with the Spirit of God in me. And there's life.

There's life. We can see some. He imparted some of this power to His twelve disciples. He sent them out to do the same thing He's doing. He told them to go preach the gospel of the kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead, and so forth.

And they went forth. And when those twelve disciples came back, they were so excited about all those things that Jesus at one point said, He lifted up His eyes and He rejoiced with great joy. And they came back.

Do you see the moving of the Spirit of God? Now, in the book of John, He tells us that unless we're born of the Spirit, we cannot see the kingdom of God. Many times we love to see power without. That's what the world sees.

The world sees the power without. The world sees the healing. And they make great things of that. But let's look a little bit at the power within. This man was possessed with a Holy Spirit. This man, Jesus, was possessed with a Holy Spirit.

He spake of the Spirit which should be given. He spake of the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it sees Him not and neither knows Him. He spake of the Comforter that would come whom I will send from the Father.

He spake of the Spirit of Truth which proceeds from the Father. He shall testify of me. He said when the Spirit of Truth has come, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak of Himself, but He will speak whatever He shall hear.

That shall He speak. He said when that Spirit comes, He will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. I wonder what that's going to look like. Place yourself there with Jesus' disciples.

If they heard these words, they didn't understand it. Let's look a little bit at the power of Christ within. He demonstrated His power outwardly. But did you ever stop and focus on the power that He had inwardly?

I think of His passion. I think of the time when He was being arranged before the judge. I think of what happened in His heart when Judas came up to Him and kissed Him and betrayed Him. He said, betrayest thou me with a kiss?

And He sees Simon pull out his sword and begin to swing and cut the man's ear off. One of the soldiers. Jesus just kindly admonished him, put your sword away. He that lives by the sword must die by the sword.

This is where the power of God really comes in. How do I handle it when someone betrays me? When someone is condemned before the judge. When he's beaten with a lash 39 times and the mocking and the spitting.

What's happening in his heart? What's happening in your heart when someone misuses you and mistreats you? This is where the power of God is needed. This is the greatest need of the power of God in my life.

For me to be able to go through difficulties. He was mocked. He was spit upon. They took Him out there and they laid Him on a cross and they nailed His feet and His hand to the wood. And there you could hear Him saying, Father forgive them, they know not what they do.

This is where the power of God is needed in our lives, brothers and sisters. And without the Holy Spirit moving in your heart, you'll never be able to forgive. Without the Spirit of God moving in your heart, you can't forgive those people who hurt you yesterday or last week.

You won't be able to forgive when they reject you and they move against you and say, All men are evil against you, but as Jesus said, rejoice in that day. For great is your reward in heaven, He said. This is where the power of God is needed, brothers and sisters.