I/W: 2023 General
Overview of God’s Spirit Abiding in and Leaving People in History
Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” Genesis 6:3
Because God’s spirit ceased to abide in people it means it once abided in them. After God says this, lifespans decrease gradually until people start to live less than 120 years old. Before the decline in lifespans, humans lived an average of around 900 years old. The start of the drop in lifespans into an eventual drop of around 120 years old, indicates when God’s spirit began to not abide in people, which is at the time of Noah. I created this chart which shows the lifespans of people in the Bible from Adam to Joshua where you can see this. Enoch was taken and didn’t live his full life (Ge 5:22-24) but I still included him. There’s a degree of ambiguity around Moses’ death, but the text says he died (Deut 34:5-7), so I included him. Both of their times here at their times of living here came to an end.
If you eliminate Sarah, Ishmael, and Joseph (maybe Joshua too) from the chart, who were of the same generation as one other person each, there will be a more streamlined descension in age as it will have each person representing a generation.
What This Indicates
The way to determine if God’s spirit is in people is them living an average of around 900 years old, which the chart shows was the average lifespan before lifespans started decreasing.
The way to determine if God’s spirit is not in people is if they live less than 120 years old, because the verse says “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The verse states how long humans live when his spirit isn’t in people. They live around 900 years old when he says this and their lifespans start to decrease. People today are living less than 120 years old, therefore, God’s spirit is not abiding in people.
How Long Did It Take for God’s Spirit to Leave People?
The process of God’s spirit stopping abiding in people happened over the passing of 17 generations from Noah to Moses (15 in between them), which is in the chart below. Looking at this, you can determine how long it takes for God’s spirit to leave humanity.
| Name | Age at son’s birth | Years lived | Reference |
| Noah | 500 (at 3 sons) | 950 | Ge 5:32, Ge 9:28-29 |
| Shem | 100 | 600 | Ge 11:10-11 |
| Arpachshad | 35 | 438 | Ge 11:12-13 |
| Shelah | 30 | 433 | Ge 11:14-15 |
| Eber | 34 | 464 | Ge 11:16-17 |
| Peleg | 30 | 239 | Ge 11:18-19 |
| Reu | 32 | 239 | Ge 11:20-21 |
| Serug | 30 | 230 | Ge 11:22-23 |
| Nahor | 29 | 148 | Ge 11:24-25 |
| Terah | 70 (at 3 sons) | 205 | Ge 11:26 |
| Abraham | 100 | 175 | Ge 17:1-2; 17; 21, Ge 18:10; 14, Ge 25:7 |
| Isaac | 60 | 180 | Ge 25:24-26, Ge 35:28 |
| Jacob (Israel) | n/a (50) | 147 | Ge 47:28 |
| Levi | n/a (50) | 137 | Ex 6:16 |
| Kohath | n/a (50) | 133 | Ex 6:18 |
| Amram | n/a (50) | 137 | Ex 6:20 |
| Moses | n/a | 120 | Deu 34:7 |
From Jacob to Amram, their ages when they had their son aren’t mentioned. I used the number 50 which is the mean age of having their son from Shem to Isaac (“age at son’s birth”). I left out Noah because it would have skewed the number, and he appears to be alive when the Ge 6:3 verse at the top is decreed.
Approximately 750 years passed from the birth of Shem to the birth of Moses, and approximately 1250 years passed from the birth of Noah to the birth of Moses. The middle ground between those numbers is 1000 years, so you can say it approximately took 1000 years for God’s spirit to leave people.
How Do You Know if God’s Spirit Is in People Again?
When people consistently start living over 120 years old and lifespans continue to increase from there, you can determine God’s spirit is in people again and coming back into people again. When people are living on average over 900 years old, you can determine the process of God’s spirit living in people again is done.
How Long Will It Take for God’s Spirit to Abide in People Again?
The time it took for God’s spirit to stop abiding in people gives a rough idea of how long it will or may take for God’s spirit to enter back into people, 1000 years, from when the process starts. That is with the assumption that the process of it returning is the same or similar in nature to it leaving.
Because the process hasn’t happened before in history, you can’t really say. It could be faster or it could take longer. An important factor to consider is if humanity is ready to receive it and wants to. It left everyone and will return to everyone, so everyone will have to be ready.
The estimate aside, you would technically have to wait at least 900 years to confirm if God’s spirit is abiding in people again, as the average lifespan is greater than that when his spirit abides in people. Unless if there’s another way to determine it. But again, if people’s lifespans are increasing, I think it will be clear that something has changed.
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