Promise of the Holy Spirit

The OT foretold and Jesus Christ reaffirmed that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on God’s people, transforming, empowering and gifting them.

Promise of Holy Spirit

OT promises of the Holy Spirit fulfilled in the OT

The promised Spirit enables prophecy

1 Samuel 10:6 NIV

The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.

1 Samuel 10:10 NIV

When he and his servant arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he joined in their prophesying.

The Spirit fulfils the promised presence of the Lord

Exodus 33:14 NIV

The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Isaiah 63:11 NIV

Then his people recalled the days of old, the days of Moses and his people— where is he who brought them through the sea, with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them,

Isaiah 63:14 NIV

like cattle that go down to the plain, they were given rest by the Spirit of the Lord. This is how you guided your people to make for yourself a glorious name.

Haggai 2:5 NIV

‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’

OT promises of the Holy Spirit fulfilled in the NT

The Spirit implements the promised new covenant

Jeremiah 31:33–34 NIV

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Romans 8:2 NIV

because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:9–10 NIV

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

2 Corinthians 3:3 NIV

You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

2 Corinthians 3:6 NIV

He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Hebrews 8:10–11 NIV

This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

The promised Spirit will renew Israel

Ezekiel 11:19 NIV

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 NIV

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Ezekiel 37:14 NIV

I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ”

The promised Spirit is the guarantee for Israel’s future

Isaiah 32:15 NIV

till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.

Isaiah 44:3 NIV

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

Isaiah 59:21 NIV

“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord.

Ezekiel 39:29 NIV

I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

The promised Spirit will empower the life and work of the Messiah

Isaiah 11:2 NIV

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—

Isaiah 61:1–2 NIV

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,

Luke 4:18–19 NIV

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The Spirit is promised for all people

Joel 2:28–29 NIV

“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

Acts 2:17–18 NIV

“ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

Promises of the Holy Spirit in the NT

The promise that Jesus Christ would baptise with the Spirit

Matthew 3:11 NIV

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John 1:33 NIV

And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’

Acts 1:5 NIV

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 11:16 NIV

Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

The Spirit is promised by Jesus Christ

Luke 24:49 NIV

I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

John 15:26 NIV

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.

John 16:7–15 NIV

But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

Acts 1:5–8 NIV

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The Spirit is promised for the time after Jesus Christ’s resurrection and ascension

John 7:39 NIV

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.

Acts 2:4 NIV

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Acts 2:33 NIV

Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

The promised Spirit fulfils God’s word to Abraham

Galatians 3:14 NIV

He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

The promised Spirit guarantees to believers their future inheritance

Ephesians 1:13–14 NIV

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.