One In Jesus

A surprisingly large portion of the New Testament’s teaching on the Spirit is found in the Old Testament. The New Testament provides some fresh revelations, but not nearly as many as I’d once thought. We learn from the Old Testament, for example —

1. That sometimes, but not always, when the Spirit is received, it produces spontaneous “prophecy” that’s so unlike ordinary speech the presence of the Spirit is obvious.

2. The Spirit gives gifts, but the gifts differ depending on the needs of God’s mission — and can include anything from being being a tailor, to an artist, to a judge, to a prophet, or to even a king. Continue reading →

Ezekiel

(Eze 36:24-28 ESV)  24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Ezekiel delivers a series of prophesies about the coming new age. God says he’ll cleanse the people by giving them a new heart and putting his Spirit within them — so they’ll obey him and honor him as God. Notice that the key to the new age is having a heart made right by the Spirit.

Much like the prophecy in Jeremiah 31 quoted in the last post, Ezekiel promises the fulfillment of Deu 30:6 — God himself will change the hearts of his people so that they’ll be obedient — and so they can be his people. Continue reading →

Job

In Job, we see the intriguing expression —

(Job 33:4 ESV)  4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

This parallels such passages as —

(Psa 33:6 NAS) By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host.

(Gen 2:7 NAS) Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Continue reading →

1 Kings – 2 Chronicles

(1Ki 18:1-15 ESV) After many days the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.” 2 So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. 3 And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly, 4 and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.)

We’ve seen suggestions earlier of large groups of prophets of God, and here we learn of a group of 100. We normally think that God sent the occasional prophet to announce his word, but at this time, there were evidently large schools of prophets. And these were just the ones that survived Jezebel’s purge. Continue reading →

Judges

In Judges, we see clearly that God gives the Spirit to his leaders and those charged with judging his people.

(Jdg 3:9-10 ESV)  9 But when the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. 10 The Spirit of the LORD was upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the LORD gave Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand. And his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim. Continue reading →