Bill's Bible Blog

God’s Spirit is a major player in the Bible. He appears from the beginning in Genesis 1 to the end in Revelation 22.

The Bible word used for ‘spirit’ is also used for breath, life, (if you’re breathing, you’re alive), and wind (a breath of air). Jesus uses this latter to talk about God’s Spirit in that we can’t see where it’s coming from, nor where it’s going, we can only see it’s effect around us like wind rustling the leaves of a tree.

Wind can be a gentile breeze or a raging storm. In 1 Kings 19, we see where God passes by the prophet Elijah at a time when he needed a new glimpse of the God he had been serving. First there was a windstorm like a tornado, but Elijah saw that God was not in the wind. Next was a great earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake either. Next was a firestorm, but God was not in the fire.

Then came a gentle blowing wind and Elijah recognized the Spirit of God that had been a part of his life as a prophet.

God’s Spirit touches the earth lightly. Mostly He indwells people, giving them supernatural insight and understanding, power to perform supernatural acts, provides glimpses of the future…

In Isaiah 11, a prophecy of the Messiah, six characteristics are listed from the Spirit of the Lord residing on Him: wisdom and understanding, insightful counsel and strength, knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

In Isaiah 61, another prophecy of the Messiah, it says the Spirit if the Lord is upon Him because He has been annointed to bring good news to the afflicted…and more.

Actually we have an intersection of the Old Testament and New Testament here because recorded in Luke 4 we have Jesus visiting his home synagogue after His ministry had started, and He reads this very passage from Isaiah, then declares, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

God’s Spirit had descended and rested on Jesus at His baptism. THIS was the element the disciples lacked, even after their 3 1/2 years of intensive discipleship with Jesus.

God’s Spirit in a person has often been described as a lamp. If it doesn’t give off light, it’s just another decoration. Jesus had given His disciples a light bulb through His teachings, but without plugging the lamp’s cord into an electrical receptacle, still no light.

Hence Jesus last command to them, recorded at the end of Luke and beginning of Acts, was to stay in the city until God’s promise of an outpouring of His Spirit occurred.

And it did on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit changed Peter who, 7 weeks before, was so frightened for his life that he denied even knowing Jesus, to a powerful, confident orator who confronted the crowds who had gathered around the building and and he testified to the resurrection of Jesus.

The exciting part of this event to me was, it wasn’t just God’s Spirit empowering a single person as was typical in the O.T., but God’s Spirit was also working on the hearts of the crowd of Jews there from all around the world, to convict them of ‘sin righteous and judgment,’ just as Jesus said He would.

It’s God’s Spirit that makes all the difference. It requires more than a desire, more than a plan, more than a fancy presentation to carry out God’s Great Commission. As Zechariah prophesied, it’s ‘…by my Spirit says the Lord.’