John 7: 37 – 39: In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
In the Old Testament, and up to the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the Holy Ghost had not as yet indwelt the heart of man. We know this to be true because the Bible makes it very clear in John 7: 39, saying that the indwelling of God’s Spirit did not come until after Jesus’ ascension to Heaven, following His death on the cross of Calvary. Until Jesus gave His life on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sin, man had been offering the blood of bulls and goats to temporarily atone or cover his sin. Even in the Book of Job, which is the oldest book in the Bible, we find Job offering sacrifices well before the Law was given to Moses.
The blood of bulls and goats was never a perfect sacrifice to erase sin and change the nature of a man, because the life of an animal could not come back on the offeror. The person that offered a sacrifice for whatever transgression would walk away afterward unchanged in their heart, and go right back out and do the very same thing. But when the Holy Ghost came at Pentecost and indwelt the heart of man, this was the very life of Christ coming into the believer, giving them a changed nature and character in order that they might live a victorious life above sin.
Understanding that man did not have the Holy Ghost in His soul before Pentecost is very important to grasp, because when we read the Old Testament and the Gospel accounts, the wording of some passages does seem to imply that man did have the indwelling. If this was so, then Jesus gave a false prophecy in John 7, in foretelling that flowing rivers of living water should flow forth from the belly of those that would believe on Him.
Let us look at some scriptures that would seem to imply that the Holy Ghost indwelt the soul of man before Pentecost. Of Moses it is said in Isaiah 63: 11: Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? David said in Psalm 51: 11: Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Of Elisabeth it is said in Luke 1: 41: And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: Of Zacharias it is said in Luke 1: 67: And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, And of Mary it is said in Luke 1: 35: And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
These scriptures would all imply at first glance that the Holy Ghost had already been given like a trickling stream in comparison to the opening floodgates of Pentecost, but this is not so. Even the scripture concerning John the Baptist leaping in the womb of his mother upon hearing the name of Jesus uttered from Mary’s lips by no means implies that John had the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb. The only person who was ever born not needing a new birth because the Holy Ghost was in Him from conception was Jesus Christ (Matthew 1: 18).
In the Dispensation of the Father, from the Fall in the Garden of Eden to the conception of Jesus, the Holy Ghost was always above the people and would anoint them from time to time to do a specific work. The Old Testament saints who lived under this dispensation had the seed of God in their soul, but the rain to quicken the seed would not fall on the soul until Pentecost. What they did have or did experience was “A” Baptism of the Holy Ghost upon their body and spirit, but they did not have “THE” Baptism of the Holy Ghost in their soul. However, if these saints had been alive at Pentecost, then they would have truly received the Holy Ghost as did the apostles and so many others.
In the Dispensation of the Son, the Holy Ghost was with the people in the person of Jesus Christ, and whilst Jesus was with us, He promised that after His ascension the Spirit that was in Him would come back upon the believer that they might do the same works as the Son and display the same nature that He had. This was indeed accomplished from Pentecost onward and is why the blood of bulls and goats was no longer needed, because Jesus’ perfect blood had been shed, and His life had now come back upon those whom His blood was shed for.
The terms “Holy Spirit” and “Holy Ghost” are used interchangeably throughout the Bible in order to show the different ways that God would manifest Himself. “Holy Spirit” appears in both the old and new testaments, whereas “Holy Ghost” only appears in the New Testament. Now why is this? It is because the translators of the Bible clearly understood that there was a distinct difference in God’s manifestation as the Spirit compared to His manifestation as the Ghost. A spirit is that which is invisible, but when a spirit can be visibly seen, then it is called a “ghost” or an apparition. So we learn that the Holy Spirit speaks of an invisible manifestation of God whilst the Holy Ghost speaks of a visible manifestation of God.
At Pentecost, the invisible Spirit of God would come into the heart of the believer, meaning that God would be seen again (as He was in Jesus) living in the flesh of a multi-membered Church body. However, even in those passages before Pentecost, of Elisabeth, John the Baptist, Zacharias, and Mary who were effected by the Holy Ghost, it is written thusly of them because the invisible Spirit was quickening their bodies to manifest something supernatural (to prophecy, to conceive, to bring a dead baby to life in the womb etcetera).
Let us go now a little deeper when speaking of the Holy Ghost to understand more clearly that it speaks of either an anointing or an indwelling. We shall look at Luke 4: 1 which states: And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Next we shall look at Acts 10: 38 which says: How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. Jesus was born with the fulness of the Holy Ghost, but when He went to the River Jordan to be baptized, He received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, or the anointing for His ministry. Thus when the Bible states that Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost following His baptism, it has to do with Jesus being full of POWER to carry out His ministry (Luke 24: 49; Acts 1: 8), for it was after His baptism and subsequent anointing that Jesus went about doing all kinds of miracles that would ultimately lead Him to the cross, whereas beforehand we have no record of Him doing those things.
We therefore learn that the saints of God up till Pentecost had the seed of God in their hearts, but the rain to quicken that seed and make the Word live was not yet given. David himself would say in Psalm 119: 11: Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. The Word seed was in David’s heart (and the hearts of all the saints up till Pentecost for that matter), but because the rain had not yet come, there was no way for that seed to be quickened and bloom out, to display the Word in a life that perfectly reflected the Lord Jesus.