From the very beginning of the Creation story in the Holy Bible, we are introduced to the Spirit of God:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)

Written in Hebrew, the Spirit, or breath, of God (Ruah Elohim) is present. God then says to the Spirit:

Let us make mankind in our image. (Genesis 1:26)

This Spirit of God plays a major role in man’s experience on Earth as we read through God’s word. The creation of man invokes the breath of life (nishmat chayim in Hebrew):

God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

Man, named Adam, received God’s Spirit, and he and his wife Eve were placed into the Garden of Eden, where God dwelled on Earth, a paradise for mankind. There was one restriction:

You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die. (Genesis 2:17)

Adam and Eve failed to keep this rule, and God’s response was life changing:

“The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden… (Genesis 3:22-23)

Man disobeyed God, and instead of dying physically, he died spiritually and was removed from God’s eternal presence in the garden. The tree of life that gives eternal life is now out of man’s reach. God did provide a way back into His eternal presence in a warning to the serpent who deceived Adam and Eve:

… I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

Eve’s offspring will defeat the serpent, despite its attack on humanity. This offspring is revealed in later readings of the Bible to be the Messiah or Anointed One. He would restore the permanent presence of God and eternal life with Him as it was in the Garden of Eden.

Until that occurs, man has a broken relationship with God, and attempting to resolve it becomes futile. Adam and Eve’s first-born son Cain finds this out when his offering to God is rejected and his brother Abel’s is accepted. God tells him:

… sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:7) Being unable to master sin, Cain killed his brother Abel. Without the power of the Spirit of God, man is hopeless to make himself right with God.

Throughout the early history recorded in the Bible, the Spirit of God presents Himself in different ways and in different people. To reconcile His covenant after Adam’s fall, God chose one person as an example of His unconditional love for all of mankind:

No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. (Genesis 17:5) By adding the Hebrew letter associated with breath “hei” to his name, along with changing his wife’s name from Sarai to Sarah, God puts the breath of life into their new name.

The power of the Spirit of God is also recognizable to a non-believer (Pharaoh) when one of Abraham’s descendants is in Egypt:

So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.” (Genesis 41:38-40)

The Spirit of God manifests Himself physically in the Exodus story:

By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. (Exodus 13:21)

The Spirit of God can even be shared, as the power was taken from Moses and placed on the 70 elders:

Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. (Numbers 11:25)

This gave Moses hope for the future:

I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them! (Numbers 11:29) The Spirit of God gave Samson super-human strength:

The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands… (Judges 14:6)

God speaks to Saul, the first king of Israel:

The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. (1 Samuel 10:6)

The next king, David, cries out to God for His Spirit:

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. (Psalm 51:10-13)

The famous story of Job and the debate over man’s righteousness before God tells us how we cannot even understand God’s ways without His Spirit:

But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding. (Job 32:8)

As the wisest man of his time, King Solomon states some of his final words:

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come … and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it … Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:1,7,13-14) We shall all return to dust, our human spirit returns to God and judgement will occur. Man must reconcile himself with God.

The Lord shows us how long His faithfulness to us lasts and where to put our trust:

Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—he remains faithful forever. (Psalm 146:3-6)

The Spirit of God was used many times to speak to His people using the voice of His prophets:

For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you warned them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. (Nehemiah 9:30-31)

The prophet Ezekiel brings us some good news. This is an answer to Moses’ wish in the book of Numbers for the Spirit, as quoted earlier:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

God gives us hope and salvation from the prophet Joel:

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. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance. (Joel 2:28-32)

The prophet Isaiah provides more clarity to our hopes to restore our relationship with God:

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you … The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the Lord. “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 59:1-2, 20-21)

Isaiah explains how this will happen:

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth … This is what God the Lord says—the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. (Isaiah 42:1-7)

The servant of the Lord will free us from the prison of sin that started with Adam. Israel will bring this message to all of God’s breathed creation (Gentiles), who will have their eyes opened by the same Spirit of God.

Isaiah also gives us a reference to the lineage that this servant of the Lord will come from roughly 1000 years in advance. Jesse was the father of King David:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. (Isaiah 11:1-5)

The prophet Jeremiah declares a new covenant:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord…“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31-33)

As a final reference from the Hebrew Scriptures (or Old Testament), this prophet of the Lord speaks:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor… (Isaiah 61:1-2)

This passage is read out loud at a synagogue in the Israeli city of Nazareth around 1000 years after Isaiah wrote it. This reader is from the lineage of King David and His name is Yehoshua, which means salvation. This same passage is found in Luke 4:18-19, in the New Testament. Yehoshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus/Joshua. Whereas Joshua brought His people into the Promised Land, this One brings salvation to the world. The lineage of Kind David to Jesus is listed in the very beginning of the New Testament in the book of Matthew, a disciple of Rabbi Jesus.

To begin His ministry, Jesus is baptized by water and the Holy Spirit:

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)

Immediately after that, Jesus was tempted by Satan, and each time He responded with quotations from the Hebrew book of Deuteronomy:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1)

Jesus knew that some of those who heard His message would not believe, because the Spirit must enable them:

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” (John 6:63-65)

The last words from Jesus before He ascended to Heaven:

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-8)

Jesus calls His followers to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to baptize them and have the power to take His message to all of humanity. Their last question to Him is about restoring the kingdom of Israel, as all of them were Jewish. He promises to return and fulfill their wishes.

Ten days later the Holy Spirit arrives:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (Acts 2:1-4) One of His disciples addresses the crowd and quotes the Hebrew scripture referenced previously (Joel 2:28-32). These connections between the Jewish people, the Jewish Jesus and the invitation to all of God’s children to come together as one is powerful.

This passage has two direct quotations from the prophet Isaiah that ties it all together:

However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived— the things God has prepared for those who love him” (Isaiah 64:4) — these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” ( Isaiah 40:13) (1 Corinthians 2:9-16)

The writer of 13 books in the New Testament, Paul, a member of Israel’s religious sect (the Pharisees) writes:

For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body-whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (1 Corinthians 12:13)

I hope and pray that God’s Spirit allows the word of God proclaimed here to reveal the promise for all of mankind—restoring us to eternal life with Him. The Messiah Jesus made the way of salvation and will return to restore His kingdom by stepping foot on the Mount of Olives one day. We must all receive the Spirit of God by believing that Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for our sins through His death on the cross and resurrection from death. The Passover Lamb will return as the King of Kings and we will all rejoice!

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

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