Ghost Stories: The Work of the HS in the OT

Can you quote any words the Holy Spirit ever verbally spoke to someone in the Bible?

We know from Paul that the Holy Spirit speaks. He said in 1 Tim. 4:1, “The Spirit speaketh expressly.” The Spirit speaks! He has a mind, an intellect, volition, will, emotions, and He has a voice. He speaks!

In Rev. 14:13, John writes, “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” The final time we would read about verbal words spoken by the Holy Spirit was a message of hope for the dead in the Lord during the tribulation and instructions on what to write.

In the life to come, we may be having verbal conversations with the Spirit.

In Ezek. 3, Ezekiel would three times quote the words the Holy Spirit spoke to him. Look at Eze. 3:12 Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place. Look at Eze. 3:24 Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house. Eze. 3:25 But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them: Eze. 3:26 And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house. Eze. 3:27 But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

The Holy Spirit had a lot to say! There’s no question that the Spirit is speaking here. Verse 24 says, “Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me….” The point is that the Spirit is basically saying, “people won’t listen to you and I know how you are. You’re going to try to talk to them anyway. So I won’t let you speak to them.” But then when he will be made able to speak. The Spirit would say, in vs. 27, “But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.”

The Spirit is also recorded as speaking in Ezek. 11:5 saying something similar. “And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.” In both Ezek. 3:27 and 11:5, the Spirit is giving him the words of the Lord to speak to Israel even though the Spirit is the one speaking to him, which means that if you hear the Spirit speak to you, you’re hearing the commandments of the Lord.

Fascinating to me that to hear the Spirit speak is to hear the commandments of the Lord just as hearing the words of the Lord Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry was to hear the commandments of the Father. The Lord said, “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things” (Joh 8:28). He said, “I and my Father are one” (Joh 10:30). He said, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (Joh 14:10). He said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (Joh 14:9).

On the other hand, Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 14:37, “that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.” We have in the epistles of Paul the will of the Father, in the words of Christ, penned by Apostle Paul, taught to us by the Holy Spirit.

Also fascinating to me about the Holy Spirit speaking verbally is that in Ezekiel, Paul, and John, we observe the Spirit inspiring these men to write down the words that the Spirit Himself verbally spoke to them. And to hear the Spirit speak is to hear the will of the Lord just as hearing the words of the Lord was to hear the will of the Father. That’s just amazing!

The Spirit Upon Them

There were three primary functions of the Holy Spirit in the OT. First, the Spirit came upon some people. The first person whom we find the Spirit had come upon was Moses.

Numbers 11 is quite funny. The Jews are wandering in the wilderness. They had just left Mt. Sinai. Now they’re murmuring and complaining that they want to eat meat, which has irritated both Moses and the Lord.

In vs. 13, Moses says to the Lord, Num 11:13 Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. Num 11:14 I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. Num 11:15 And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness. (This verse is HILARIOUS. We have the meekest of all the men on the Earth saying to the Lord, “Kill me now, because these people are bringing out the worst in me. I just might kill some of them.” LOL) Num 11:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. Num 11:17 And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. Num 11:18 And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Num 11:19 Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; Num 11:20 But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?

Can we not first bask in the hilarity of the Lord saying you’re going to be eating meat until it comes out of your nostrils and you can’t stand it anymore? Let it be said that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself actually employed sarcasm.

The bigger point is that the Holy Spirit was upon Moses, as a form of enablement, so that he could speak accurately the words of the Lord to the people. When the Lord said, “and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them”, the Lord isn’t taking the Holy Spirit away from Moses but He’s taking from the Holy Spirit he has and He’s giving it also to these 70 elders so that they may also be enabled by the Spirit to prophesy, to speak the words of the Lord to the people accurately to help manage their ingratitude.

This brings us to our first point about the Holy Spirit being upon some of His people. It was a form of enablement to carry out one specific task, mostly to speak the words of the Lord correctly to the people. They will quote the Lord perfectly.

I went through every reference to the word “spirit” in the OT. 222 verses. As far as I could tell, roughly 68 of those verses were about the Holy Spirit. The other verses were about the spirit of man or evil spirits. In the vast majority of times you’d read about the Holy Spirit being upon someone, it was mostly an enablement to prophesy to the people, which is not always foretelling of future events, but just speaking the words of the Lord accurately to the people.

I came across a great verse that defined what it meant to have the Spirit of God upon them, which was Isa_61:1. “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” Now I think this definition was specific to Isaiah. The Spirit was upon him because he was anointed to prophesy. But we’re going to find that there were a few occasions in which the Spirit came upon someone as an enablement to accomplish something specific other than prophesy. However, we can take from this verse that the Spirit coming upon someone was an anointing to enable that person to accomplish something extraordinary.

But in terms of having the Spirit upon you to prophesy, this meant that through the Holy Spirit, the Lord had put His words into the mouth of His prophet to speak accurately to His people. We find a few chapters earlier in Isa 59:20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. Isa 59:21  As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.

The Lord is saying that His covenant with Israel is that the Redeemer shall come to Zion. He also makes the point, that the Holy Spirit was upon Isaiah to anoint him to speak His words to His people, that he’ll always remember those words, and His words shall abide forever. He would say that with the Spirit upon him, He has put His words into Isaiah’s mouth, which meant that Isaiah would speak accurately when he quotes the Lord.

David would make the same point. In 2Sam. 23:2 he’d say, “The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.” When someone had the Spirit upon them and they said, “Thus saith the Lord,” the people were hearing with complete accuracy the very words of the Lord and the Spirit would convict the hearers when they spoke.

You remember how Stephen said in Act 7:51, “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.” There were occasions in the OT in which a prophet resisted the Spirit by refusing to do what the Lord told him to do, as in the case of Jonah. But what Stephen is talking about is how the people resisted the conviction of the Holy Spirit when the prophets spoke the Word of the Lord to them, just as the people were resisting what Stephen was telling them when he was filled with the Spirit. Just as the Spirit convicts us through the Word, the Spirit also convicted the people of Israel when the prophets spoke accurately the words of the Lord to them, and when the people resisted the prophets, they were also resisting the Holy Spirit.

Another quick point is that when the Spirit was upon someone, He also taught them when they studied His Word, just as the Spirit teaches us when we study His Word. David would write in Psa. 143:10, “Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.”

Additionally, keeping the Spirit upon you was conditional based upon the quality of your walk as seen in Saul (1 Sam. 16:14) and David, who after committing adultery and murder, famously wrote in Psa. 51:11, “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.” Loss of the Holy Spirit was not in any way indicative of loss of salvation. Romans 4 taught us that salvation in the OT was by faith alone and they had eternal security. The loss of the Spirit upon them only meant a loss of that special enablement they had by the Spirit. So when David wrote, “Cast me not away from thy presence,” I suspect he didn’t want to lose the fellowship with God he had through that enablement of the Spirit.

For the sake of time, we’re just going to highlight one example in which the Spirit was upon someone as an enablement to accomplish something extraordinary other than prophecy.

And you don’t get much more extraordinary than Samson.

In Samson, we find that the Holy Spirit moved Samson at times (Jdg. 13:25), the Spirit came upon him once (Jdg. 14:19) to enable him to kill 30 men in Ashkelon, and twice the Spirit came mightily upon Samson (Jdg. 14:6, 15:14). One of those occasions was in Jdg. 15, in which Samson took the jawbone of an ass and slayed 1,000 Philistines. Plus, in Jdg 14, we have the story of Samson and the lion, which I love. We’d read that a lion in a vineyard roared at Samson, and Jdg 14:6 tells us that “the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.” This was a learning experience for Samson. This battle with the lion helped Samson to grow confident of his strength in the Spirit before he’d take on bigger battles.

Just as David had to take on a lion and a bear to build confidence in his strength in the Lord before he’d take on Goliath, so too, Samson would take on a lion so he could build confidence in his strength in the Spirit in the Lord before he’d take on those 1,000 Philistines. And there’s application for us in that. We find in the story of Samson a literal illustration of what, for us, would be a spiritual principle. When Paul talks in 2 Cor. 12 about his power resting upon us, I suspect it’s a spiritual principle of a literal reality in the OT. The big point is that the trials of life builds our confidence in His power resting upon us in our times of weakness. So, generally, when the Spirit was upon someone in the OT, they were anointed to be empowered to accomplish something extraordinary, mostly prophesy.

Filled with the Spirit in the OT

There are only 3 occasions in the OT in which a person was filled with the Spirit.

Ezekiel was filled with the Spirit, which was its own unique story. In a vision, Ezekiel was caught up in a whirlwind with all these creatures that had 4 faces and 4 wings. He was brought into the presence of the Lord. Ezekiel would say in Eze 1:28, “As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.”

The Lord told him to stand up, but he couldn’t do it. The Holy Spirit had to stand him upon his feet, and Ezek. 2:2 would tell us that the Spirit entered him so that he could hear the voice of the Lord. I suspect that Ezekiel was so overwhelmed being in the throne room of God, overwhelmed by the glory, the visuals, and the sounds, that the Spirit had to enter him so he could hear and comprehend the words of the Lord.

In Ezekiel 3, when he had finally returned to his house, he was still so overwhelmed, that the Spirit had to enter him again in order to force him to stand upon His feet again before He spoke to him again.

The two other occasions in which men were filled with the Spirit both took place in the book of Exodus.

In Exodus 31, Moses is constructing the tabernacle. Exo. 31:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Exo. 31:2 See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: Exo. 31:3 And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, Exo. 31:4 To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, Exo. 31:5 And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.

These verses are pretty straightforward. The Lord had anointed Bezaleel to construct all the artifacts that would go into the tabernacle and he would do that with supernatural wisdom and skill by being filled with the Spirit of God.

Back in Exodus 28, we have the first reference to being filled with the Spirit in the OT. Here, the Lord is talking to Moses, and He’s establishing the priestly office of the Levites.

Exo. 28:1 And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons. Exo. 28:2 And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty. Exo. 28:3 And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.

After this he gives instructions about how the priestly garments are supposed to look.

Notice again vs. 3, “And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.” Aaron and his sons were wise-hearted – why? Because they were all filled with the spirit of wisdom, which would enable them to properly make the priestly garments and minister unto the Lord in their offices.

The spirit of wisdom.

This brings to mind Isa. 11:2, which says, “And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD…” We have 7 Spirits here and one of those 7 Spirits is the spirit of wisdom. Rev. 1:4 reveals that there are “the seven Spirits which are before his throne.”

How can we not conclude the Holy Spirit is 7 in 1?

Could it be that Aaron and his sons were only filled with one of the 7 Spirits, the Spirit of Wisdom, in order to carry out their God-ordained roles? By filling them with the Spirit of Wisdom, they were miraculously and supernaturally made wise, filled with knowledge, to perfectly construct those priestly garments and to perfectly carry out their roles as priests.

What did the Lord mean when He said of Aaron, “he may minister unto me in the priest’s office”? How would Aaron minister to the Lord? To minister, in the verb intransitive, is to serve, to perform a service in an office, and minister also means to give, to supply. You consider 2 Cor. 9:10, in the context of cheerful giving, Paul speaks of he that ministereth seed to the sower, he that gives seed to the sower. Paul would also say in Eph. 4:29 that we should speak words that are “good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” We speak words that give grace to the hearers, our words administer the work of grace in the hearts of our hearers. Aaron and the priests were giving back to the Lord in their service to him.

We should also point out that being filled with the Spirit was not a betrayal of one’s free will either. You remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 who were filled with the Spirit? Yet, Peter told them that Satan filled their hearts to lie to the Spirit and they were able to still sin while being in that state.

Holy Spirit Crazy Transportation Service

The third, and my absolute favorite function of the Spirit is what I lovingly like to call the Holy Spirit Crazy Transportation Service. I already wrote an article on that. Check it out!

To quote myself, “The Holy Spirit Crazy Transportation Service is not some arbitrary bit of trivia. I’d suggest these stories exist because they foreshadow life in the Kingdom for all the world. Do you need to travel halfway around the globe to bring an offering to the Lord Jesus Christ upon His holy mountain in Jerusalem (Isa. 66:20)? The Holy Spirit will take you there instantly. Have you received an invitation from the Lord to partake of the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God (Rev. 2:7)? The Holy Spirit will take you there instantly. Or maybe you’ve received an invitation from the Lord to dine with Him at His table in Zion (Luk. 22:30)? The Holy Spirit will take you there instantly.”

That is totally EPIC.

Conclusion

Consider this.There were many prophesies in the OT about the Lord pouring His Spirit onto His people, which was fulfilled at Pentecost, but I love Ezek. 37.

This is amazing.

Everything Israel experienced with the Holy Spirit in the OT would merely be a taste of the greater blessings to come when the Lord returns for His people at His second coming, when He has cast Satan and his army into the pit, and when He establishes His kingdom on Earth.

Eze 37:13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, Eze 37:14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

Just imagine. When all the kingdom saints, all the saints from the OT, when they are resurrected at the Second Coming of Christ, not only will they have glorified resurrected bodies, but they’ll also be filled with the Spirit, which means that for all eternity they’ll be sharing with the Spirit in all His wisdom and knowledge.

Will the same be true for us? I believe so, because Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:28 that in the eternal state God will be “all in all.” We will be in Him and He will be in us.

We won’t simply be rewarded at the Bema Seat. We won’t simply possess Heavenly, sin-free glorified bodies. We won’t simply be free from sin with glory emanating from us that can’t be compared to the sufferings of this present time. We won’t simply be co-inheritors with Christ reigning with Him from our Heavenly seats. We’ll also be in God and He’ll be in us. We will share with the Holy Spirit in all his wisdom and love and joy and peace for all eternity, which is beyond anything we’re capable of experiencing right now.

I also suspect that we’ll be able to take a ride on that wonderful Holy Spirit transportation service and go anywhere.