Infilled.

Sometimes when we read our Bibles and we look at the “contrast” between the Old Testament and the New Testament, we may think that surely, God changes over time, right? Wrong. In Malachi 3:6 God says, “I am the Lord, and I do not change.” You may think, well that’s in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

You may be wondering, what does this have to do with Holy Spirit, is this a new series? No, same one, lol. The same Holy Spirit in the Old Testament who hovered over the waters in Genesis 1 is the same Holy Spirit we have today, but something happened somewhere that shifted things for us.

Back in the Old Testament, Holy Spirit did not indwell people. Holy Spirit would come upon people from time to time and when he did the miraculous happened. Let’s look at some examples. We know Moses from the Old Testament. He was a good leader but after a while his father in law helped him realise that he could not govern the Israelite people by himself because it was wearing him out. So the Lord told Moses to find 70 leaders that he could share the load with and the following verses say in Exodus 11:24-25:

“Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He brought 70 men from the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent. Then the Lord descended in the cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed the Spirit on the 70 elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they never did it again.”

From our verse we can see that Holy Spirit was “on” Moses not “in” Moses. One of the most prolific leaders of the Old Testament who led Israel through some of the craziest miracles and he did not get to experience having Holy Spirit living in him.

If we look at Samson, mighty warrior and judge of Israel. In Judges 14:18-20 it says, “So before sunset of the seventh day, the men of the town came to Samson with their answer:

“What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?”

Samson replied, “If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have solved my riddle!”

Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to the town of Ashkelon, killed thirty men, took their belongings, and gave their clothing to the men who had solved his riddle. But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he went back home to live with his father and mother. So his wife was given in marriage to the man who had been Samson’s best man at the wedding.”

What! If you think the Bible is boring, I don’t know what you have been reading. There’s a lot going on in there! But putting Samson’s personal drama to one side, we see that when Holy Spirit came upon Samson, he was able to powerfully and mightily destroy the enemies of God’s people and fight back against the enemy.

Then comes a prophet called Joel and God tells him to say this in Joel 2:28-29 “Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants—men and women alike.” This was being said about us and Acts 2 in the New Testament was the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise.

We no longer have Holy Spirit come upon us from time to time to help us fight the enemy or prophesy or empower us to do things, we have Holy Spirit living within us all-the-time. All day every day. He will never leave us nor forsake us, Hebrews 13:5.

We are so blessed to have Holy Spirit indwelling us. We sometimes forget what our lives were like before we were filled with Holy Spirit but the people in the Old Testament would probably look at us and think how good we have it. If they could do all they did with God occasionally coming upon them, how much more can we do with God living on the inside of us?

You have not even scratched the surface of the potential God has placed on the inside of you. Most of us are living beneath what we are capable of. What does God want to do in your life and with your life? Ask God the question, the answer may surprise you.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.