THE PERSON OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: THE THIRD PERSON IN THE GODHEAD, PART 2.

The Scriptures say, “You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” Psalm 23:5. Oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Some of the work of the Holy Spirit seen in the Old Testament is the following: We see examples in the Old Testament of how people are anointed by the Lord’s prophets to become kings! We see Samuel, a righteous prophet, anointing Saul as the first king of Israel at the direction and in the name of the Lord. “Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, ‘ Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over His people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies.” 1 Samuel 10:1. But we also see how he loses the anointing when he decides to disobey God during his reign, and so he loses his kingship! So we see here that when we are anointed to accomplish something for God, we need to follow and obey Him closely!

We also see Samuel anointing Israel’s second king, David, as replacement for Saul: “The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners…and fight against them until they are consumed.’ “ 1 Samuel 15: 17-18. We see David obeying God as a warrior with power ,throughout all his kingship, even though he wasn’t perfect in other areas, and God blessing him!

A concept found in the Old Testament and the New Testament is the baptism with the fire of the Holy Spirit: Gideon was a man of God, mentioned in the book of Judges, who was called by the Lord to be used to save His people from the hand of their enemies, the Midianites. So that His people, the Israelites, would know it was Him using Gideon, God told Gideon to use only 300 men to destroy the many thousands of their enemies! So the Lord told Gideon to tell his men to have a trumpet in their right hands and a jar with a lit torch inside, on their left hands! So then they went to the camp of their enemies, blowing their trumpets, shouting ‘A sword for the Lord and for Gideon’ and smashing the jars , so that the whole camp was bright with the fire of the torches; and so all the enemies were confused and if they did not flee, their swords came against each other! And so the Israelis were saved! (Read Judges 7: 10-22).

This is symbolic of God’s people being baptized with fire and saved, as their enemies are convicted of judgment! “And when He (Holy Spirit) comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” John 16: 8. The fire is also symbolic of when the unbelievers are around believers who are burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit and so that these unbelievers will be convicted and might be saved if they believe in the Lord Jesus, and so they will come into the kingdom of God! We see all of Jesus’ ministry was conducted by the power of the Holy Spirit, and He wants that to happen through us too, His church! “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Matthew 3:11.