The Holy Spirit And Healing Anointing

You might be very surprised at just how much the Old Testament talks about the Holy Spirit and about how active He was in the course of human history before Jesus came to the earth. I cannot possibly give you a comprehensive list of all the Old Testament verses that talk about the activity of God's Holy Spirit. But let me list some of them for you. I will list some of His Old Testament activities and give one or more Scripture references for each activity. As you will see, the Holy Spirit was quite busy interacting with mankind even before Jesus was born.

(By the way, I did my research using the NKJV, so if you look up a verse in your favorite translation that does not seem to fit my description or show it as clear activity of the Holy Spirit, then try looking at it in the NKJV.)

Here is what the Old Testament tells us about the Holy Spirit:

• The Holy Spirit was involved in the creation - Genesis 1:2, Job 26:13

• The Holy Spirit gives life to people - Job 33:4

• The Holy Spirit interacted with man back from the beginning. As their sin and wickedness grew, He began to contend with man (this may mean that He was actively trying to convict them of their sin). After a while, He got tired of contending with man and shortened man's life span down to 120 years (it was previously about over 900 years) -- Genesis 6:3

• The Holy Spirit gave artisans skills to build the tabernacle - Exodus 28:3, Exodus 31:2-4

• The Holy Spirit provided a leadership anointing -- first on Moses and then on the 70 elders appointed to help Moses govern the people - Numbers 11:17

• The Holy Spirit enabled men to prophesy - Numbers 11:25, 1 Samuel 10:6, 1 Samuel 19:23, 2 Chron 15:1-2 (And many other verses not

• He protected God's people from being cursed by Balaam - Numbers 24:2

• He anointed and prepared future leaders and developed their character before they were ready to assume leadership, such as Joshua and David - Numbers 27:18, 1 Samuel 16:13

• The Holy Spirit hardened the hearts of ungodly leaders so that God could win a victory over them - Deuteronomy 2:30

• The Holy Spirit gave wisdom to military leaders - Deuteronomy 34:9

• The Holy Spirit empowered some of God's elect for battle - Judges 6:34

• The Holy Spirit was directly involved in spiritual warfare - Isaiah 59:19

• The Holy Spirit came upon skilled people to increase their skills to be used for His purposes, and enhanced their natural abilities, such as giving increased strength to Gideon and increased wisdom to Daniel - Judges 13:24-25, Daniel 5:12

• The Holy Spirit gave personal direction to godly people - 2 Sam 23:1-2

• The Holy Spirit taught and instructed God's people - Nehemiah 9:20

• The Holy Spirit provided supernatural transportation for some of God's servants, instantly relocating them from one place to another for God's purposes. Some people use the term "teletransportation" to describe this - 1 Kings 18:12, Ezekiel 11:1

• The Holy Spirit anointed some of God's prophets to perform miracles and signs and wonders - 2 Kings 2:9, 2 Kings 2:15

• The Holy Spirit made people change their political alliances to better line up with God's purposes for them - 1 Chronicles 12:17-18

• The Holy Spirit testified and prophesied against the ungodly - Nehemiah 9:30

• The Holy Spirit brought God's presence to His dedicated servants - Psalm 51:11, Psalm 139:7, Ezekiel 39:29

• The Holy Spirit restores joy - Psalm 51:12

• The Holy Spirit renews physical creation - Psalm 104:30

• The Holy Spirit leads God's people - Psalm 143:10

• The Holy Spirit changes our circumstances from negative to positive - Isaiah 32:15

• The Holy Spirit is greater and wiser than man (and man cannot advise Him or tell Him what to do) - Isaiah 40:13

• The Holy Spirit blessed and provided for His people's descendents - Isaiah 44:3

• The Holy Spirit sent people forth with assignments from God - Isaiah 48:16

• The Holy Spirit entered into personal covenant with individuals - Isaiah 59:21

• The Holy Spirit set captives free - Isaiah 61:1

• The Holy Spirit is grieved by rebellion against God and does not tolerate it - Isaiah 63:10

• The Holy Spirit filled God's people - Isaiah 63:11

• The Holy Spirit gave rest to His people - Isaiah 63:14

• The Holy Spirit was involved in giving visions and He was involved in helping people hear God's voice - Ezekiel 3:12, Ezekiel 8:3, Joel 2:28

• The Holy Spirit empowered people to obey God - Ezekiel 36:27

• The Holy Spirit was involved in dream interpretation - Daniel 4:8-9

• The Holy Spirit had (and still has) unlimited power and can do whatever He wants to do - Micah 2:7, Zechariah 4:6

• The Holy Spirit caused justice to be released - Micah 3:8

• The Holy Spirit remained among God's people and did not leave or abandon them - Haggai 2:5

As you can see, the Holy Spirit was active in the Old Testament doing many of the same types of things we know Him to do in the New Testament. This should not surprise us since He is God, and God does not change. A lot of people are under the misconception that the Holy Spirit did not begin to minister on the earth until the day Jesus was baptized. As you can see from these verses, He was very involved in humanity since the moment when God first created humanity. He has been working with us for a long time.

But there was a change that happened when Jesus ascended into Heaven -- because Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to reside inside of His own. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit merely came upon people and He did not take permanent residence within them. But now He lives inside of us as our helper, teacher, transformer, guide and friend -- and He empowers each of us to do the same things Jesus did (John 14:12-14). Our next lessons will take a look at the role of the Holy Spirit in Jesus' life and in the lives of New Testament believers.