I believe there are three distinct dispensations of the Holy Spirit on earth. Prior to Jesus, the Holy Spirit would come upon a person for a specific purpose and then leave. It could not remain [1 Sam. 16:13-14; Psa. 51:11; Exodus – building the tabernacle]. The Holy Spirit was not able to rest on or with men. He was constantly moving; coming and going.
Jesus was the first man on which the Holy Spirit remained. The Spirit rested with Jesus for his entire ministry [Jhn. 1:33; Mat. 27:46; Psa. 22:1] and worked through him to bring about the reconciliation (peace on earth). After the ministry of Jesus was completed, the Spirit returned to the Father and was sent one final time on the day of Pentecost. Now in the Church Age, the Holy Spirit remains with us and in us until the end of this age. [Jhn. 14:16]
It wasn’t God that changed; the thing that changed was who was participating in the dispensation. The Holy Spirit was able to work differently with Jesus and now with us than he could with unregenerate men. The Holy Spirit could not rest and remain on men before Jesus. Jesus was the Holy Spirit’s rest.
“And it came to pass when the Lord was come up out of the water, the whole fount of the Holy Spirit descended upon him and rested on him and said to him: My son, in all the prophets was I waiting for you that you should come and I might rest in you. For you are my rest; you are my first begotten son that reigns forever.”
The Gospel of the Hebrews
PART 4
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