1S10-15: The Holy Spirit Coming Upon Men With Power Is NOT A New Testament Thing

I wanna kick things off with an incident from the New Testament today.

Check out these verses from the Book of Acts:

“The festival of Shavu‘ot arrived, and the believers all gathered together in one place.  Suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.  Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them. They were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and began to talk in different languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.”-Acts 2:1-4.

What we have here is the famous incident when the Holy Spirit descended with power upon the disciples and other Jewish believers from other lands.

Of course, in the gentile Christian world, this event is known as Pentecost…

The term Pentecost comes from the Greek Πεντηκοστή (Pentēkostē), meaning “fiftieth”.

However, it is anything but a Christian holiday…

It’s actually the Jewish festival of Shavuot celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover.

It is also known as the “Feast of Weeks” and the “Feast of 50 days” in rabbinic tradition.

Now why am I bringing this up?

Because it’s commonly misunderstood the Holy Spirit descending with power upon believers as depicted in the Book of Acts was an unprecedented event.

But that ain’t true homies.

This was NOT the first time in history the Holy Spirit descended with power the way it did in Acts Chapter 2.

How can I be so confident in that assertion?

Well, just take a look at what we got here in 1 Samuel Chapter 10:

“When they arrived at the hill, and there in front of him was a group of prophets, the Spirit of God fell on him and he prophesied along with them.  When those who knew him from before saw him there, prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, ‘What’s happened to Kish’s son? Is Sha’ul a prophet, too?’  Someone in the crowd answered, ‘Must prophets’ fathers be special?’ So it became an expression — ‘Is Sha’ul a prophet, too?'”-1 Samuel 10:10-12

See what I mean?

We’ve got Saul arriving at a place called GIV’AH ELOHIM (literally “Hill of God”)...

And when he ran into the group of prophets Samuel told him he’d encounter…

The Spirit of God descended upon him…

And he too began prophesying…

Jaws were dropping all over the place when that happened.

In fact, the people were so stunned, they asked the question “Is Saul a prophet too?”.

They were confused because everyone knew Saul didn’t hail from a line of Prophets…

Nor had God ever declared him a prophet…

He was just a normal dude…

Yet here he was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesying away with the best of them.

So what’s the takeaway?

The lesson here is the Holy Spirit overtaking men with such profound power ain’t some unprecedented New Testament thing.

It happened centuries earlier in the so-called “Old” Testament era.

Again, there ain’t nothing new in the “Old”.

In fact, the New Covenant IS the “Old” Covenant carved onto the hearts of believers.

Ya feel me?