I appreciate all these answers...they're sincere and helpful. It indeed is a great question Onegod. And I've gleaned from all the responses.
Let me offer my input as well for what it's worth.
Before Calvary there was no Holy Spirit given...because "Jesus was not yet glorified." It was not that God didn't want to give it...in fact He desired to but had to figure out how... it was at one time not an issue. Adam had the Holy Spirit. God breathed (Himself) into Adam and it was then that Adam became a living soul. Adam was at that moment the son of God. Now, when Adam sinned the sonship of God left him. We no longer hear God reference man as His son...the sonship is lost from man...and God is no longer a father (only the creator).
When we arrive at the end of the old covenant testatment for the soon coming new covenant testament, we see Jesus referenced by a voice out of heaven saying "this is my son". God was so excited because He had come Himself with and in sonship. In another place He says His only son...because no man was any longer a son of His. You see, when Adam sinned...He became the source of a race of people. For every human that would now be born would be able to trace his lineage to one man...Adam. But man would not be able to call God Father...for Adam has now become the everlasting father.........of sinners.
The last Adam, Jesus, was God Himself in the flesh...to restore the lost sonship that was in Him and once in Adam. He would be the source of a new race of people as it is prophesied in Isaiah 9:6 -"for unto us (humanity) a child is born (that's the flesh)...unto us a son is given (that which was lost to man) which brings the priviledge relationship between God and Man...It goes on to say that he would be the "everlasting Father"(of the sons of God), "the Mighty God" , etc.
So who was this Jesus?
Well, in John 16:5-9 Jesus implies that He and the Father are one. In fact He blows Phillip and the rest away by responding to their question of "show us the Father that it satisfies our desire to see Him." Jesus says to him..."have I been so longtime with you, and yet have you not known me, Phillip? he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how sayest thou...show us the Father?" Wow, what a statement.
He continues on saying believe in me and that I am in the Father and the Father in me (God the Father coming in sonship). Now He warns them of His leaving... but reassures them of a comforter in vs.16. Now... He has been their comforter in human form for 3 1/2 years but has a desire to be forever in them (as He once did in Adam when Adam was His son). But this will require another form than the one He's in. So vs. 16 He's sending another comforter...vs. 17 "the Spiirit of truth". Now listen to this..."the world cannot receive it (take it) because it (the world) can't see Him (Him?). Who is He then? Let's see.
It continues "they can't see Him neither do they KNOW Him:"but........"you know Him" (now no one knew the Holy Spirit), but Jesus says you know Him. He advances the thought and says "for He dwelleth with you and shall be (future tense)...in...you." But who is He?
Vs. 18 "I will not leave you
comfortless .......I ...WILL ...COME ...TO ...YOU." WOW! But He can't do that in the form He now is in. But in the form of the Holy Spirit He can.
But that cannot happen until the death burial and ressurection has come to pass AND THEN...He must be glorified (His body). Why? Because until He's glorified...the Holy Spirit cannot be given! The glorification is what makes it possible for the form change.
And when the day of Pentecost had fully come.......He came!
The world couldn't see Him...and neither could it receive Him.
Vs 20 and "At that day...you shall know" (who I was and who I am) when I said "I am in the Father, and YOU in Me...and I...IN...YOU."
The Holy Ghost or Spirit, in my humble opinion, was God our Father...breathing back into us HIMSELF (Spirit)...giving to us the sonship! He will now be a Father to us and we will be His Son. But He will not dwell in us eternally with Adam being your father...He won't do it. He can't do it or He would have already done so a longggggg time ago.
But how do we do this?...........You MUST be born again!
Until that happens...your father is Adam!...Not Jesus.
So the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament moved ON them and they prophesied, etc. . .Even at times against their will. It was never something they sought after. God used them.
"He breathed on them and said receive ye the Holy Spirit"...and they did at Pentecost. Other than that the Holy Spirit moved ON them.
Now, before Calvary...Jesus forgave men and women for THEIR sins...BUT...after Calvary...Jesus could and would FORGIVE and REMIT sins that didn't belong to them...which was their father's sin (the source of their sin by birth) which was ADAM!......and Jesus would become their new Daddy!!!! We now can say ABBA...FATHER. Wow...I'm getting happy here...sorry.
This is God's doing. God all by Himself!
Sorry to be so long winded....but that was the short version. hahahaha
DMP