Canadian Pentecostal Seminary
By Roger Stronstad
Before they research the subject many Christians think that on the stage of salvation history the Holy Spirit occasionally appears in guest roles rather than as a main player. These Christians remember that the Holy Spirit was present at creation (Genesis 1:2), enabled the virgin Mary to conceive the baby Jesus (Luke 1:35) and was poured out upon Jesus’ disciples on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-41). Apart from these guest appearances in the unfolding drama of redemption many Christians think of the Holy Spirit as a deus absconditus, i.e., as an absentee God. But, to the contrary, a simple reading of the Bible shows that the Holy Spirit is a marquee player on the stage of biblical history from first to last.
At the beginning of Israel’s history the Lord speaks to Abraham in a vision (Genesis 15:1). Now dreams and visions are the media of prophetic revelation (Numbers 12:6). Therefore Abraham is the first man in Israel’s history to be identified as a prophet (Genesis 20:7). But though he is the first he is not the most important prophet. That honor goes to Moses, who is the fountainhead of two streams of prophecy for Israel, the Messiah and the church. The first stream begins with his earnest desire that all of God’s people would be prophets because God would put his Spirit on them all (Numbers 11:29). The second stream is Moses’ prophecy that in an age to come the Lord would raise up a prophet like him – a second Moses – to lead His people (Deuteronomy 18:15). These two streams of prophetic anticipation flow down through the ages until that new covenant era when God raises up Jesus to be that prophet like Moses, and who, in turn, subsequently – on the day of Pentecost – pours out his Spirit upon all of his disciples. This inaugurates that prophethood of all believers which Moses so earnestly desired.