The Christian As Prophet
Several texts state that the Holy Spirit was the ruach that inspired the utterances of the charismatic leaders of the Old Testament. The word of Christ affirms this: “David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said . . .” (M 12:36). And Peter declared: “Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David, concerning Judas . . .” (Acts 1:16). And in the second epistle of Peter we read concerning the prophets: “no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Pt 1:21) (f. Acts 4:25; 7:51; 28:25).
A larger number of texts says the same thing with regard to Christians. First, Luke reports of the Pentecostal outpouring of the spirit of God: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). This recalls the ruach coming upon Saul and the prophets in 1 Samuel 10:10, whose prophecy was the praise of God. But more particularly the event is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, as Peter, immediately afterward, attests, quoting the passage: “But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and our daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour our my Spirit; and they shall prophesy’” (Acts 2:16-18 [Jl 2:28-29]) (Notice that where Joel has “in these days” in verse 29, Peter substitutes “in the last days,” knowing what the authority of the newly given Spirit that Joel was referring to Messianic times. Cf. also Is 32:15; 44:3; 59:21; Ezk 36:25-27; 39:29).). The gospel, the new word of God, is then preached “ . . . through the heaven-sent Holy Spirit” (1 Pt 1:12), who is the source of the word.
Through baptism the prophetic Spirit abides in the Christian. At the end of his first sermon on Pentecost, Peter’s listeners asked: “’Brethren, what shall we do?’ And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:37-38). The Christian is said to be “full of the Holy Spirit” (cf. Acts 6:5; 7:55; 13:52), and this is his usual condition: “Did you,” Paul asks some Christian disciples at Ephesus, “receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” When they confess their ignorance of the Spirit’s existence, and Paul learns that they had received only John’s baptism, “ . . .they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke in tongues and prophesied” (Acts 19:2-6). God’s indication to Peter that the Gentiles also should receive baptism was the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and his household before they were baptized (cf. Acts 10:44-47; 11:4-18; 15:8).
Because the Christian is filled with the Spirit, it is the Spirit who does the speaking when it is a matter of witnessing to Christ. Jesus tells this to the Apostles: “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Mt 10:20) (cf. Mk 13:11; Lk 12:11-12). An example of this is seen in the case of Stephen and his disputants: “But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke” (Acts 6:10). The Church increases in numbers “in the comfort of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:31).
This same Spirit of prophecy guides the early Church, indicating the divine will. It is the Spirit who tells the deacon Philip to attach himself to the Ethiopian official (Acts 8:29); and Peter allows himself to be taken to Cornelius’ house at the instruction of the Spirit, as he admits (Acts 10:19; 11:12). The Spirit warns of a coming famine (Acts 11:28), tells Paul not to go to Jerusalem through the Christians at Tyre (Acts 21:4), and indicates Paul and Barnabas for a missionary journey (Acts 13:2) (cf. Acts 15:28; 20:23; 21:11). As John resoundingly sums it up: “Let him who has ears listen to what the Spirit says to the assemblies” (Rev 2:7, etc.) (cf. Acts 13:4; 16:6-7; 10:28). As Filson notes:
“The fact of the Spirit’s presence and aid is so frequently noted in the New Testament that it obviously is a common point in the experience and teaching of the Apostolic Church. We have no evidence of a section of the Church which did not know the gift of the Spirit . . . Moreover, just as in the case of the relation to the risen Christ, the relation to the Holy Spirit included all of life.” (Floyd V. Filson, The New Testament against its environment, p. 72)
In view of the above-quoted texts, and others cited in the notes, we conclude that the evangelists, Luke in particular, regard the gift of the Holy Spirit as charismatic, as source and power for the Christian in his relations with the Father, with Christ, and with creation. The Spirit is to the Christian what he was to the prophets. (Dom Wulstan Mork, The Biblical Meaning of Man [Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Company, 1967], 92-94; emphasis added)
