As is my custom, I plan to move through this topic piece by piece, step by step. As I do so, I’m sure I’ll write some things that will make you say “What’s that got to do with anything?” Hopefully, it will all make sense in the end.

As we look at the work of God’s Spirit in the Bible, an important passage to keep in mind is the following: “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” (John 7:37-39) John points to a change, a dividing line, a point where the Spirit’s activity is clearly different from previous times. In the gospel of John, Jesus being glorified refers to Jesus dying and coming back to life. John says that the Spirit was not “given” until after that time. [Interestingly enough, the word “given” is not in the original; the Greek says “the Spirit was not”]

This is important because we will see that the Spirit was active in the Old Testament and during the time of Jesus’ ministry. The Spirit acted through people, “fell upon” people, and “came over” people. Men were filled with the Spirit, like John the Baptist. None of these things, however, correspond to the “giving” of the Holy Spirit which occurred after Jesus’ resurrection. We live in the “last days,” after the outpouring of God’s Spirit. We are in the “after” period, set apart from the “before” by what happened in Acts 2.

As we continue to work toward our framework for understanding, let’s keep this crucial passage in mind.