Not every manifestation of spiritual power is holy or wholesome

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Samson and Delilah
Samson and Delilah (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With Samson it seems that even Spirit-given power, power that had been promised and given by God, can be misused and exploited for very questionable behavior. 

I don’t think the narrator of these stories means us to assume that God necessarily approved of all that was done in the power of his Spirit. 

There is a growing excess in Samson’s raging violence. Not every manifestation of spiritual power is unambiguously holy or wholesome.

There is something mysterious about the manifestations of the Spirit of God at this earlier period of Israel’s life. The Spirit of God, it seems, can be very good, positive and enriching, giving people ability, competence and power, or filling people for skillful and creative tasks. 

The Spirit can give people great powers of leadership and courage. 
  • The Spirit can also be unpredictable, sudden and surprising. 
  • The Spirit can be abused by those who run wild and willful, indulging in excess, out of control. 
  • The Spirit can be withdrawn from those who persist in disobedience or folly.

There is something of a caution here for us. The power of the Spirit of God can be tied up with the very ambiguous powers of men. Not all so-called manifestations of the Spirit are in and of themselves welcome signs of the wholesome activity of God. They can be mixed up with the unwelcome manifestations of self-serving human ambition. And sometimes they can be deployed in ways that are out of control and potentially devastating.

We need wisdom and discernment. “Test the spirits,” says John, “to see whether they are from God” (1 Jn 4:1). Not everyone, says Jesus, who claims to do miraculous wonders—often associated with the Spirit of God—is necessarily in the kingdom of God (Mt 7:21–23). We shall return to this warning again in the next chapter when we look more closely at the question of false prophets.


Wright, C. J. H. (2006). Knowing the Holy Spirit through the Old Testament (p. 41). Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.

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