Dear family,
We continue with our study of the Holy Spirit in various books of the Bible. As we continue, I’d recommend that you begin each lesson by praying in tongues to stir up your hunger for a greater revelation of the Person of the Holy Spirit.
There’s a lot more in Genesis. In Genesis you meet several individuals such as Enoch and Noah who chose to walk with God. (Gen. 5:22, 24; 6:9) They had a revelation of God when it was not common. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of wisdom and revelation. No one can know God without the revelatory ministry of the Holy Spirit. Enoch walked with God and was by faith translated or caught up into heaven without dying. (Heb. 11:5) That was the action of the Holy Spirit. Before he was caught away, the Bible says Enoch prophesied about the second coming of the Lord. (See Jude verse 14.) All prophecy happens by the inspiration and enabling of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 12:4, 10-11)
In Genesis 32:9-12 Jacob was praying, reminding God of His promise and beseeching Him to protect him from his brother Esau whom he had cheated out of the blessing of the firstborn. In verse 1-2 of Gen. 32 he had seen angels of God meet him. I believe they were there to protect his return home. The only way to see angels is by an open vision given by the Holy Spirit. After he was left alone, he prayed and received further revelation. God visited Jacob and verse 24 says he wrestled with ‘a Man’. If you do further study of this incident in Hosea 12:3-5, you’ll find that the ‘Angel’ that appeared to Jacob was the Angel of the Lord…actually a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. The ‘wrestling with the Angel’ is actually referring to the supplication Jacob made with God. Otherwise how can a human being actually wrestle with God physically and prevail? Jacob prevailed because he held on to his vow from Bethel (Gen. 28:19-22) as his strong reason to be rescued from his brother Esau. Then the Spirit revealed to him about his old name of supplanter, (trickster, swindler, schemer, deceiver) and changed his name to Israel (Contender with God) because he had prevailed in prayer.
Is this too deep for you? The Holy Spirit is the One who takes us to the deeper things of God; our Helper in prayer. He meets the cry or hunger of our own human spirit. That’s what the Bible refers to as the deep calling unto deep. (Psalms 42:7.)
One major thing the Holy Spirit does in our lives is to reveal, protect and fulfill God’s dream or vision for our life. Think of Joseph in Genesis. So many chapters (Gen. 37, 39-45) cover his story but it all began with dreams from God the Holy Spirit. Scripture shows us that Pharaoh recognized the work of the Holy Spirit in Joseph. (Gen. 41:38) The Holy Spirit guarded Joseph’s vision at times through prophetic interpretations. It was the Holy Spirit who would give the dream and then reveal its interpretation while influencing different people that were involved in Joseph’s life.
How about you? It is the Holy Spirit who reveals the plan of God for your life with clarity and works out what is necessary to bring it to fulfillment as you cooperate with Him.