Greetings to all our listeners. Blessings in Christ. Today is our fourth talk in this series of twelve. This is also the second session on our coverage of the law in the Old Testament. In our last talk, we introduced the category of law and highlighted the major themes it covered, including God, creation, humankind, sin, salvation, Abraham, Israel and God's national covenant with Israel. We shall now outline the content of each of the books of the law. And these are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. We shall go book by book.

Restoring Our Soul

God desires us to yield our soul—our mind, emotions and will—to Him. He restores our soul and helps us to increase our capacity and grow in wholeness. Our natural mind is argumentative, cynical and inclined to follow the wisdom of the world. It needs to be renewed daily after the mind of Christ (Romans 12:2 and 1 Corinthians 2:16). What does this involve?

Greetings dear listeners, welcome to our third talk in our series on the Old Testament Survey. In our last talk, we introduced all the four categories of books that make up the Old Testament; law, history, wisdom and prophecy. We mentioned that we will look into each category on its own. So today we begin with the first category “the law”and will speak two sessions on this category. For this first session, we will explain the purpose and significance of the law in the Old Testament.

Welcome dear listeners to our second talk in our series on the Old Testament Survey. As we move forward in this study, please refer or re-listen to the previous talks to give you continuity and see progressively what makes up the Old Testament of the Bible. Our first talk in particular should be revisited from time to time to help you understand the key concepts that underpin the Bible. The terms: scripture, revelation, canon, history and theology were identified and defined in that talk.

When Jesus was baptised at the River Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended on Him, and the Father affirmed His delight. Similarly, the Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered disciple will see the heavens opened, experience the delight of the Father and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. What does it mean for the heavens to be opened and closed? The principle is found in Deuteronomy 28—obedience to the voice of God brings blessings (vv. 1-14) and disobedience brings curses (vv. 15-68). Blessings and abundance occur when the heavens are opened.

Welcome, dear listeners, to our series entitled Old Testament Survey. This is a 12-part series in fifteen-minute segments on a survey of the Old Testament of the Bible. But in order to understand what is the Old Testament, we need to begin with understanding what is the Bible. We will explain some foundational concept that helps us to grasp what it is and what it says. The Bible is the scripture of the christian church.

Being Spirit-filled and Spirit-empowered starts with this foundation of God’s mercy and grace based on His righteousness which is by faith and not by works (Philippians 3:9). For the Spirit’s empowering to be effective, we must first allow Him to have His way in our lives. And we must also remove the blockages that hinder Him from operating. We are to be sensitive to Him, learning to tune in to His voice, and knowing what grieves and quenches His Spirit. There are four ways we can consider, to be Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered believers:

1. Surrendering to the Spirit

Scripture refers to the Jordan River almost 200 times, often as a crossing point or a boundary marker. You remember Joshua and the new generation of Israelites? Picture them: they stood nearing the end of a long journey, at the threshold of reaching the land flowing with milk and honey. There they stood with only this waterway separating them from the Promised Land (Joshua 3:14-17). It was also this same river that Elijah struck its waters and it parted, allowing him and Elisha to cross over on dry ground.

Dear Brothers and sisters, peace to all of you. In the previous episode, we talked about the relationship between the church and me and the relationship between people and their churches. How can we join the church and be part of it? I have shared about the need to repent, believe and be born again. These three points are intertwined. We must be determined to act on them.

Strongholds derail us and we veer off the path of life. Momentarily, we are in the presence of God and we experience a bit of joy, but the strongholds in us cause us to leave His presence and we lose that experience.

Similarly, at the Lord’s right hand, we experience a satisfaction and fulfilment of our significance and security in the Lord. But strongholds will divert us from that true knowledge of God. Hence, the Jerichos remaining in our lives will continue to block us from entering into an increasing measure of the true knowledge of God.