11. EFCA Primary Doctrines: Article 6 "Holy Spirit" (Part 1)

So, Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is just what the text says.

He's a spirit.

God is spirit.

The spirit appears in the creation story in Genesis chapter 1.

He hovers of the deep.

And I love how we talked about this in our Genesis discussion, that the idea of the Holy Spirit hovering gives us a first clue that of what God's Spirit does.

And we see in Deuteronomy, as well as in Genesis 1, this idea of hovering is the fluttering of a bird as it comes into the nest and brings its eggs, chicks, offspring under its wings to protect it.

Yeah, there's

a care and a concern involved in that.

There's an intimacy and a protection.

There's an involvement.

In Deuteronomy, the idea is that the eagle is hovering over its nest and protects its chicks, just as God has taken the people of Israel and shepherded them through, cared for them, nurtured them.

Loved them, shown them grace over the years, starting with really the Genesis story, but all the way to Abraham and then through the story of Egypt and then into the promised land.

So this idea that God is hovering over his creation, we people, humankind, are his creation.

And he is specifically interested in us.

So the Holy Spirit then has a very important role in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament.

I think that's what I'd like to emphasize in that, just that statement, the idea that this is not something that's New Testament only.

Oftentimes we think of the Holy Spirit as only coming in the New Testament, but no, this is a reality from Genesis.

This was one of the foundational truths of the Spirit of God is hovering over his creation.

This is part of the reality of the Israelite walking in the wilderness with God, right? This is part of the reality of the building of the kingdom and the coming of Christ, all of this.

Um, involves the spirit of God.

So the old Testament is not, um, the spirit is not absent in the new old Testament.

He's he's powerfully present.

For sure.