Moses’ Prophecy about the Outpouring of the Spirit • Deshen Daily

But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29 ESV)

When many of us hear the promise of the outpouring of the Spirit, our minds go back to Joel 2:28. And that is correct because Joel’s prophecy is the explicit prophetic promise of the giving of the Spirit (Acts 2:16). However, Moses, the prophet par excellence of the Old Testament had spoken about the outpouring of the Spirit—in passing!

In Numbers 11:29, Moses responds to Joshua’s request to stop two elders of Israel who prophesied in the camp after God had instructed Moses to choose 70 elders that would help him in ministry. In denying Joshua’s plea, Moses prophesied exactly what God would do thousands of years later.

Moses said, “would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them”. There is no indication in the scriptures that the Lord had explicitly told Moses that this is what He would do. For Moses, it was just a wish he had; he wished that one day, God would give His Spirit to all His people and make all of them prophets.

In Acts 2:4, Moses’ Spirit-quickened wish was fulfilled: God poured out His Spirit on all His people, essentially making them prophets. As I have taught before, there has been a radical shift in the New Testament. God has given His Spirit to every one of His children. Consequently, every believer is by birth prophetic, a prophet, able to know God’s will and speak Spirit-filled words.

God still has the gift of prophecy and the office of the prophet in the Church. However, His ultimate purpose is not for the Church to be like Israel with one prophet or few prophets that heard God. God wants a prophetic family of kings, priests, and prophets!