Pentecost: The Grand Finale of Our Salvation***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Repetition is the way we learn and grow in or relationship with our Creator God.  The subject of our conversation is a repeat but with new understanding each time He speaks to me about the Celebration of Pentecost.

"Few understand or acknowledge the Eternal significance of the Day of Pentecost".

As I ponder His words, I realize I am guilty as charged.  The day of Pentecost is little celebrated in the Body of Christ.  Except for the “crazy” things people may do (and others may judge) in the misunderstanding of that epic moment in our redemption, little is celebrated about the day.  Yet how vitally important is the day the Holy Spirit was unleashed to indwell those who believe in the One Whom God sent to save humanity and to restore the created back into a sacred relationship with the Creator.

The day of Pentecost was the grand finale in God’s provision and plan for Salvation that Jesus died to provide.  The Holy Spirit in us completes us as part of the circle of Life.  He binds us eternally to the Trinity as “Christ in us, the Hope of Glory”.  

Col 1:26-27 Paul writes: "The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations but now has been revealed to His saints.  To them (and us) God willed to make known what the riches of the glory of this mystery are, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory".

  

Salvation through Jesus saved humanity from the consequential death that came with rebellion in the “fall”, But Pentecost is the event and day in which we have been brought to unity with the Trinity:  God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  “Christ in us the hope of glory” is the ultimate completion and goal of salvation, since restored relationship IS the goal of Salvation.

Even as we have been saved from the judgement of Hell, fire and damnation, we are not to regard that as the greatest aspect in having been save FROM something, but rather we must prioritize the priceless blessing in that we are saved FOR Someone.  We have been redeemed for an eternal relationship with the God of all creation and that begins here on earth through the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit of the Savior God: Jesus the Christ.

Let us not continue to overlook celebration on and for the day of the unleashing of the Holy Spirit of God upon His people.  For the Disciples, the day of Pentecost coincided with celebration of Shavuot as the feast of weeks, which is an agricultural feast of thanksgiving for the wheat crops.  However, more and deeper it is the anniversary of the day God gave the Torah to the entire nation of Israel assembled at Mt Sinai.  1500 years earlier the Spirit of God fell upon Mt Sinai and while the disciples were thinking of that day of celebration, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, and we call it Pentecost.  (The fiftieth day after the Resurrection.)   Biblical history records the Holy Spirit of God coming upon certain people but not until Pentecost did the Holy Spirit of God come to indwell the believer. 

This is an annual day to celebrate but one day is not enough to celebrate the ongoing Presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.   That event should be a thankful everyday celebration and acknowledgement of His vital role in our completion as being made one and whole (holy) with the Trinity forever and ever. 

“If you love Me, you will obey Me” said our Lord Jesus.  God’s love language and the way we can “speak” love to Him is through our obedience to His Word and His voice.  The Holy Spirit is the internal voice of our Lord.  The day of Pentecost is the day of the Divine One coming to enable our spirit to overcome our flesh temptations and live out our love in obedience to His directives.

The day of Pentecost is the day we look back upon as the model for the anointing and baptism (immersion) by and into the Holy Spirit of Christ and with the manifestation of Heaven’s power at work in, to and through our lives.  

It is not a day for personal “ecstasy” in a “supernatural” or even “witchcrafty” way but rather to be empowered to share the Truth and Glory of God and His "wonderful works" to the lost and dying world around us. Those who were present on that day were men "from every nation under Heaven" and yet each one heard the message spoken in their own language and not the language of the disciples. 

If we are looking for our own pleasure or a supernatural other “realm” experience to set ourselves apart we have sadly missed the reason for the great unleashing of the Holy One.  It is in our temporal bodies infused by the Holy Spirit that we are enabled to share the Gospel and be a conduit of the life and character and love of our God and King Jesus.  Anything less becomes a point of self-serving, self-exalting, misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Christ in the world of humanity.

The Holy Spirit is our Guide into all Truth.

The Holy Spirit is our indwelling Wisdom and Divine Discern-er of good and evil.

The Holy Spirit is our Enabler and Glorifier of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is the Voice of Holiness within.

In these dark days of confusion and chaos, the Holy Spirit is our Source of Peace.

There is no end or limit to the working Power of Christ within the heart of the Believer, or to the victories He brings in all our trials and challenges here on earth. 

If we have not yet grasped the significance of that day, I believe it is time we settle into the Blessing of Pentecost and acknowledge with thanksgiving the Gift of the Holy Spirit within.

Lord, I long to be in right relationship and under the ruling authority of Your Holy Spirit within.  Thank You for the promise of our Helper sent from You to enable us to live filled and led by Your Holy Spirit.

 

Lord Jesus, I pray you bring me to experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit in the way You experienced Him when You walked in the flesh among men.   Thank you for this poignant reminder and please give me ears to hear what the Spirit is saying and a heart to obey His Voice.  In Your Powerful Name above all Names, I make my request Lord Jesus.  

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?   

   

Rapture as a Divine Precedent***

The Holy One calls to me this morning with an interesting beginning to our conversation today.  In the non-verbal ways that He guides me into all truth, today He reminds me:

“I am the God of Precedents.  To understand what lies ahead, you must look to the past.”

My thoughts are laid bare before my indwelling Counselor so He takes up my thoughts and speaks to my questions.  Today I am thinking about the promise of the “Rapture” that will wrap up this chapter of His eternal plan for humanity and delightfully so, for those of us who believe.

One thing I have noticed over the years as I study the Word of God: He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  His Word speaks to all generation and over all of time. What God did at the beginning of the history of man’s days upon the earth, He will repeat during the end of man’s days upon the earth.  (Matt 24:40) His Word is a “living” communication between the Creator and the created.  In that it speaks wisdom and has application to every person born of woman regardless of the time in which we were born.

This morning He takes me back to His word to confirm my thoughts about the coming “rapture”.

I usually look to Elijah as our hope in the promise of a rapture, but today the Lord shows me another man whose circumstances might actually be more similar to our own.

He takes me back to Genesis to remind me about a man named Enoch, who lived and as scripture tells us in Gen 5:22-24, “After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 hundred years and had sons and daughters.  So, all the days of Enoch were 365 years.  And Enoch walked with God and He was “not” for God took him”.

To further explain what happened to Enoch, as a man who “walked” with God even before the flood of His judgment, the Lord takes me to Hebrew 11:3-6, “By faith Enoch was taken away so he did not see death, and was not found because God had taken him; for before he was taken, he had this testimony: that he PLEASED God.  But without faith it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him”.

This is an Old Testament precedent for the “rapture” that we current believers are looking forward to. 

The Lord honored the man who “walked” with him in the days of such depravity and called him out before the flood of judgment came.  There is much symbolism for us to glean from this account of the way God works with His people and especially those who walk with Him.   

As I look to this account for wisdom, I understand that we must have and demonstrate faith, not only in the fact that He exists, (even Satan knows He exits!) but also faith in the goodness of His character that He will reward those who diligently seek Him.  

While not everyone will experience transition by rapture, the point remains that some of us will. Many have died in the Lord Jesus and they are at peace awaiting the completion of God’s eternal plan and reunion with all who have trusted in the good will and reward He has promised.

There is a day on the earth calendar when “when the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words (1 Thess. 4:16-18)

In these days when darkness seems to cover the land and evil seems to prevail, our loyalty to the Lord gets tested and our faith in His good character gets challenged in a myriad of ways. The devil has one goal and that is to separate us from the Love of God and our Savior Jesus. One of his ancient techniques is to convince us that God is not a good, gracious, merciful and loving Creator but rather is out to harm or deprive us of things we want or need. 

If we go with that misrepresentation of our God, and we doubt His goodness, faith gives way to fear or rejection and we lose our walking unity with Holiness.

I am thankful for these vital words and the encouragement that comes from knowing that the life and rapture of Enoch represents a Precedent in God’s will and His ways.  We have been told of what pleases our Lord and what “faith” He is looking for that makes us eligible for that great event called the Rapture of the Body of Christ. 

Walking with the Lord has been made far easier for us due to the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit. But there still remains a choice that we all have to make: that is to “walk” with Him each day and in the ways where our faith pleases Him.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?