The Holy Spirit In Old Testament & New Testament

…AND HOW HIS SPIRIT STILL WORKS IN BELIEVERS TODAY!

Because I’m a “spiritual mutt” by heritage (Mom charismatic, Dad Quaker, and paternal grandparents Pilgrim Holiness/Wesleyan), I was pretty frustrated when their “dinner talk” turned to the Holy Spirit. It was like our own “holy war” fought at the kitchen table.

Thankfully, no blood was shed, but my insides withered in the chaotic verse-after-verse proof of opposing opinions. How could the Bible be true with so many contradictions? By the time I was a teenager, I wanted nothing to do with religion, God, or the Bible.

Through God’s intervention with a high school friend, He opened my heart to become curious about what “beliefs” had changed him during his freshman year at a Texas Christian College (LeTourneau). When I finally gathered the courage to ask about his change, his first answer blew me away:

“The Bible is a single story–a love letter–to me. And to you. WE are in His story, waiting with His Church for the final page turn.”

Within 3 weeks, Roy led me to Jesus. Not by debate and conflict, but because he lived out a CHANGED LIFE THAT DISPLAYED JESUS’S LOVE AND GRACE. We were married seven months later.

Delving Into the Holy Spirit

After finding a Bible-teaching church, we eased our way into the “Holy Spirit topic.” I was so nervous! When I asked what Roy believed, he said:

“I don’t know much about the 3rd Person of the Trinity, but we can learn together.”

And we have learned together–for 42 years–about ALL 3 Persons of the Trinity. As we get older, however, I realize we’ve barely scratched the surface of who God is. The best “study aid” for my Bible reading has been to keep in mind that the Bible is one story–HIS story (History).

Gathering Knowledge for King David’s Brides

As part of my research for the upcoming 3rd book in King David’s Wives, NOBLE: The Story of Haggith, I needed to research how the Holy Spirit worked in OT times.

First Stop: David’s Experience:

“So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. 1 Samuel 16:13 (emphasis added)

Second Stop: the Spirit’s Visitation on Others in the OT:

Right away, I realized David’s experience differed from the Spirit’s visitation on other OT lives. Though God Himself never changes, the ways God, His Spirit, and His Son express themselves to humans DO change from OT to NT.

Consider the ways God’s expression of the I AM changes from the first Garden (Genesis 1) to the eternal Garden (Revelation 22):

• from personally walking with humanity in Eden’s Garden to the Flood that wiped out all but one righteous man’s family.
• from the Flood to Abraham, the man chosen to declare God’s covenant promise to all nations.
• from Abraham to the prophets and kings, the faithful and unfaithful men who made the same choice as Eve–deciding for themselves what was right and wrong.
• from prophets and kings to the Jewish people who were exiled to Assyria/Babylon, showing that God’s presence dwelt not only atop the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem, but He also speaks to those in foreign nations.
• from the silence between the OT & NT (400 yrs) to His Son’s birth, God-in-Flesh, whose earthly life, death, and resurrection proved His love and grace for all nations.
• from Jesus’s birth, life, and death to His resurrection that crushed Satan’s attempt to destroy Him.
• from Jesus’s Resurrection to Pentecost, where the Spirit came upon ALL NATIONS and indwelt those who believed Jesus was fully God, fully human.
• and from Pentecost to the Church, past and present-day believers, who await Jesus’s second coming.

The Same Spirit in OT & NT

When we read the Bible as a single story of God’s lavish love for humanity, the Holy Spirit often shows up as a gift. In both OT and NT, the “Spirit of the LORD” guides, comforts, and empowers us to take the next step toward restoring the intimacy between God and humankind that was shattered by sin. It’s obvious that our God STILL WANTS TO BE IN RELATIONSHIP after the Garden sin.

In the OT:

If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you… Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 14:15–21 (emphasis added)

After Jesus’s resurrection, He appears to His disciples and others in a different form–an eternal Body–and promises He will send His own Spirit to dwell inside them. Fifty days (Pentecost) following Passover, after the eternal Lamb’s blood was shed, Peter addresses those gathered with him. While he speaks, the promised Holy Spirit fills them all and gives two visible signs:

1. A small flame appears over their heads.
2. They speak in “other tongues,” so all nations could understand the Holy Spirit’s coming and know Eve’s promised Seed can save them, too.

Do YOU Believe God’s Promise to Eve?

Two verses in God’s Story prove He can also rescue me from sin’s powerful chains. The first time, God speaks to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after they sin. Their choice to eat the forbidden fruit wasn’t just disobedience. It was adultery. Their choice to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a declaration of independence. They chose to follow the serpent’s coaxing rather than obeying the One who lovingly created them for Himself. They set aside their love and allegiance to God and became their own versions of a god–as the serpent promised. UGH! If only they’d chosen the Tree of Life, which would have led their hearts to eternal life with their Creator!

Instead, their eyes are opened to the knowledge of both good and evil. Now, they KNOW both good and evil. They become mortal (subject to death) but remain redeemable by God’s mercy. When God comes for His evening walk with them, He finds them hiding, just as His Spirit “finds” sinners today. God curses the serpent but gives Eve hope for all of humanity.

[The LORD said to the Serpent (Satan),] “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity (war) between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. Genesis 3:14–15 (emphasis added)

The second verse, you can likely recite from memory:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (emphasis added)

God’s one and only Son fulfilled His promise to Eve. Satan’s Offspring struck Jesus’s heel (the Cross), but Eve’s offspring (Jesus, God in human flesh) crushed Satan’s head (Resurrection). Those who believe Jesus crush the serpent’s dominion over sin and death are given God’s gift of eternal life.

The Good News of God’s victory over my sin not only grabbed my attention, but also promises eternal life with Him in a new, eternal Garden:

Then the angel showed [the Apostle John] the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.Revelation 22:1–5 (emphasis added)

How the Holy Spirit Expresses Himself In Today’s Believers

Remember, my mom is charismatic and she used to believe that only those who speak in “other tongues”– as the early church did–will see God’s eternal Garden. Through the years, however, she’s accepted that the Holy Spirit is at work through Roy and me. So, now she believes that some who don’t speak in tongues will, indeed, spend eternity in God’s presence. I believe the same, but I also believe that only some who speak in tongues will see Jesus face-to-face.

Vibrant, growing disciples show their authenticity when, through the Spirit’s empowering, they SHOW JESUS’S LOVE and offer His GRACE to imperfect people–people like you and me. Roy neither judged nor approved my sinful state when he shared the Truth of God’s single story. He extended grace to a sinner, offering a life vest to a nineteen-year-old girl who was dancing with the Devil.

Ultimately, our only and final judge is the Lamb who was slain for all whose belief moves them to obedience. In Revelation 20, the “final scene” in God’s True Story shows us the end of Satan and the destiny of all those who enjoyed a redeemed life on earth. Eve’s prophesied Seed, Jesus, will assign the crushed-headed serpent to eternal fire and welcome into His presence those who faithfully followed the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit during our earthly lives. THEN…

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:4

The Mysteries of God

Do I understand how the Holy Spirit worked in David or in me? Not everything. God-in-three-Persons is still a mystery too wonderful to conceive.

It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. Proverbs 25:2

So I will continue searching His Word until I see Him in eternity. Only then will I know Him as He fully knows me:

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12