”When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” (Luke 1:41-42).
In Luke’s gospel, the Holy Spirit is first mentioned in v.15 then in v.35. The angel’s message included a reference to the Holy Spirit: He will indwell the soon-to-be-born boy from birth (v.15).
The message delivered to Mary pointed out that the Holy Spirit will cause the virgin to conceive (v.35). Nothing is impossible with God!
The text quoted above we read about the first person to be filled with the Holy Spirit (in Luke’s story): Elisabeth.
Did the news travel that quickly in those days? I don’t think so. Elisabeth was in her 6th month of pregnancy and Mary did not know about it (v.36).
But when it comes to the Holy Spirit, the news can travel very, very quickly.
Elisabeth’s blessing reveals that she knew that Mary was pregnant…that she was bearing a blessed child.
It was an information that only the Holy Spirit could have revealed to her.
In Elisabeth’s case the Holy Spirit imparted knowledge of things unseen (God’s things) and prompted her to speak highly of the mother of (her) Lord (v.43). Keep in mind: the Lord has not yet been born.
Later Paul would write to the believers in Corinth, ”What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”- the things God has prepared for those who love him – these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (1Corinthians 2:9, 10).
It is hard to miss the presence of the Holy Spirit as the “behind the scenes” influence in the lives of God’s people (Zechariah, Elisabeth, etc.). In those “early” days of the gospel, the Holy Spirit revealed God’s mind to His people, directed their movements, and spoke through them. He is at work!