He is the Spirit who breathed in Creation and sustains all life on earth. He is the Spirit who empowered the mighty acts of those who served God over many generations.

He is the Spirit who spoke through the prophets, inspiring their commitment to speak the truth and to stand for justice. He is the Spirit who anointed the kings, and ultimately anointed Christ the Servant-King.

He is the Spirit whose coming in power was anticipated in words of almost unimaginable cosmic transformation. And he is the Spirit through whom the whole creation will finally be renewed in, through, and for Christ.

Do we know him? Do we know what we ask for when we ask to receive him?

Chris Wright has already argued, in Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament, that we cannot fully know Jesus without the Scriptures that shaped his identity and mission. In this book he makes the same claim for the Holy Spirit. We could not, of course, know the Holy Spirit clearly apart from Christ and the New Testament. But we can know him in all his mighty, biblical, divine fullness only through tracing his presence and power in the Old Testament as well.