Having grown up as a Messianic Jew, David Tokajer knows that most believers treat Holy Spirit as a “New Testament phenomenon.” But, Tokajer says, we must not forget that Holy Spirit can be found all over the Old Testament—a concept that many simply miss.
Two years ago, Rabbi Tokajer, the son of Charisma contributor Rabbi Eric Tokajer, began an in-depth Bible study to teach his congregation that idea and spread the message that Holy Spirit has been around since Genesis.
“Most of the teachings I have ever encountered on the Holy Spirit begin with Acts 2, and most of the body of Messiah focuses primarily on the New Testament, and that’s it,” Tokajer told Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast Network. “There are nice, neat, little Sunday school devotional stories that are drawn out of the Tanakh, or the Old Testament, like Joseph and his coat of many colors, or Jonah in the big fish.
“Very rarely do we actually look at, within the greater body of Messiah, the Tanakh of the Old Testament, the foundation of what the New Testament is written upon. So if we’re looking at the book of Acts, or we’re looking at the Pauline letters, discussions of the gifts of the Spirit or the move of the Spirit, it’s important to understand that these were not concepts that were suddenly thrust upon the first century body of Messiah.
“These are concepts that have been a part of what God is doing among His people since the very foundations of time itself. And now, instead of on an individual basis, it is revealed in a corporate expression through faith in Messiah and through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Elijah had the mantle of the Holy Spirit. A double portion was placed upon him. And we see that Elisha did an even greater ministry than what Elijah did. His ministry was even greater through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
And, Tokajer says, it is the Holy Spirit that will eventually unite Jews and Gentiles.
“We can understand that the Holy Spirit wasn’t given to us to be a divider, but instead, to be a uniter,” Tokajer said. “We recognize that Jesus isn’t coming back for thousands of brides; He’s coming back for one. If we operated in that mindset of Holy Spirit, we can truly and completely change not only our lives and the lives of our families, but the world around us.”
For more about the Old Testament ideal of the Holy Spirit, listen to the entire podcast.
