Why the Holy Spirit within is so important today
Dealing with reality in Israel and the Church
One of the unsettling things about coming to see the wealth of Truth found in the Hebrew used in writing the Torah and the Tanakh has been observing the almost complete lack of knowledge about the Ruach HaKodesh within.
However, the Lord corrected me this week as He reminded me that this is the same fight I have been involved with in the church for fifty years. The difficulty with the Torah and Tanakh is simple. The one mention of the Ruach HaKodesh living within a human is prophetic. In fact, truth be known, a lot of it is still unknown to the Bride of the Messiah as well.
I've written before about the problem of using only the Jeremiah reference to the New Covenant, while ignoring Ezekiel's expansion of the concept in chapter 36, verse 27.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.
I freely admit that this overwhelming concept is not taught in the institutional church, and the whole concept of the ekklesia has become as rare as hens' teeth. Again, this is because the wonder occuring during the first Shavuot after Yeshua's ascension was only a partial fulfillment. I am convinced that we will not experience the fulfillment of the New Covenant until our marriage with our Messiah is consummated some time around the marriage supper of the Lamb talked about in Revelation 19.
What little we do know about how it all works is found in the writings of Paul and John. But even here, we need the Ruach HaKodesh living within us to explain the things Paul and John wrote. It is important to understand this truth:
We need the Holy Spirit to explain scripture
However, the desire for what we can now experience was clear in the Torah. For example, Numbers 11:25--29 --- When God took of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed it on the seventy elders, they prophesied. This type of empowerment follows the revelation found within the Tanakh. Moses even expressed a longing for a future time when all God's people would have the Spirit:
26 Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested upon them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp." 28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, "My lord Moses, forbid them." 29 But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!"
But even here, Moses talks about the model found throughout the Tanakh. He uses the word upon to describe what they experienced. The Spirit within is only available in the New Covenant.
We see the same thing when Samuel prophesied to the new King Saul about the changes he would see in his life. One of the specific things mentioned was:
6 Then the spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon you, and you shall prophesy with them and be turned into another man.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul, changing him and enabling him to prophesy. However, this was not a permanent indwelling, and later the Spirit departed from Saul (1 Samuel 16:14).
King David had a real understanding about the importance of the Ruach HaKodesh. In Psalm 51:11 --- David prays after his sin with Bathsheba, asking God not to remove His Spirit:
Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. MEV
David clearly had the Breath of God come upon him. He knew what a radical thing that was. But, he never had the Holy Spirit dwelling within him permanently.
In Isaiah 63: 11 --- Isaiah recalls how God's Spirit was among His people during the Exodus, guiding and empowering them.
11 Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses his servant. Where is he who brought up out of the sea the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit,
The Spirit's presence in the midst of them only gives a glimpse the later promise of the Spirit "within" them found in Ezekiel.
Even in Joel 2:28--29 which is one of the most direct prophetic anticipations of the Spirit being poured out broadly, not just on prophets or kings:
"28 '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. 29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.'" NIV
This prophecy found its partial fulfillment in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit indwelt all those newly reborn believers. Yet, even today, very few reborn believers living in the New Covenant actually manifest the Holy Spirit within themselves. It's just not taught. Even in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles, it's not taught well.
The Holy Spirit within Jews who serve the Messiah
Many Jews who love and serve Yeshua Messiah have very little knowledge about what is available to the believer who has the Holy Spirit living within, in power. But, I want you to be assured, this is also true in the institutional Church.
Some basic understandings
Here are several biblical understandings that can help believers to see the continuity between the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Covenant concerning the Holy Spirit. One of the main things has been compromised by the way the man-made doctrine of the Trinity is taught. It's a concept that is helpful to many, even though it's not actually Biblical. That the Holy Spirit is God.
In the Tanakh, the Spirit is described as the Breath of God working in creation, revelation, and redemption.
Genesis 1:2 says:
2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Breath or Wind of God was moving over the face of the waters.
Psalm 139:7--8 affirms the Spirit's omnipresence. David recognizes that the Spirit is everywhere, just as God is.
7 Where shall I go from Your spirit, or where shall I flee from Your presence?
These passages show that the Ruach is not a created being or mere energy, but God Himself in action.
These days, the Holy Spirit is needed for survival
We are living in a time of unprecedented lies and deception. The Holy Spirit living within gives us the gift of discernment as necessary. But there is a much more important ability provided by the Spirit within us.
This goes far beyond our personal knowledge of the scriptures. We can receive amazing insights from the knowledge of what the original Hebrew meant in the days it was written. But without the Holy Spirit dwelling within, it is only intellectual knowledge.
As you have probably learned, intellectual knowledge tends to puff us up. But mainly, intellectual knowledge of God enables us to know many things about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But our minds cannot know HaShem directly unless His Spirit is within us.
Actually, it goes further than that. You cannot know what you need to know from the scriptures unless you have the Holy Spirit available to directly teach you these things.
John talked about this specifically in 1 John 2: 20&27.
20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all know.
27 but the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you; as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him.
a section on my Substack site
Yeshua's title is the Messiah---or the Anointed One. Jesus was the first human who was reborn and filled with the Holy Spirit. We are expected to follow in His footsteps. The Lord knew that was impossible without the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus asked the Father to send His Ruach HaKodesh within us as our Comforter and Helper.
I have a section on my Substack site which helps you understand how to hear Him, and shows you how to develop a personal God-given method to hear from the Lord directly.
Receiving direct guidance from the Lord Himself has become an existential necessity
This is the most important part of the New Covenant. But this simple fact is not normally taught in any part of Israel or the Church today. The staged leadership won't allow it, because they might lose control of their people. In the ekklesia, there are no trained elders to guide the sheep through these things. As a practical matter among both Jews who know the Messiah and Christians, it is simply unknown knowledge. The common phrase is: "God doesn't speak to His people any more."
Hogwash!
