The outpouring of God’s Spirit on the saints is unique to the new covenant, for under the old covenant the Spirit of God only came upon three categories of saints, i.e. the prophet, the high priest and the king. The purpose being so that they could operate in the callings that God had placed upon them. All other believers under that covenant had no contact with the Holy Spirit at all. Under the new covenant however, all saints encounter the person of the Holy Spirit, but as we will see in this series, there are different levels of encounters that believers can have with the person of the Holy Spirit. The earlier quoted passage of scripture for example, refers to our second encounter with the Holy Spirit and not our first. All believers’ experience the first encounter, some go on to experience the second encounter and still others go on to experience many subsequent encounters. And so, it is precisely because there are these different levels of encounters, that it is important for us to know how to interact with the Holy Spirit, so that we do not grieve Him in any way. To have an encounter with the Holy Spirit is to have an encounter with the supernatural. And so, because most believers have never been exposed to the supernatural before they come into the kingdom of God, if they are not taught correctly, they can be vulnerable to having encounters with the wrong spirit and can thus be misled.
Michael E.B. Maher
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