The Holy One calls to me this morning. So much is happening in the world, it seems like the end is near. Ancient prophecy is unfolding before our very eyes in real time on the 6:00 news.
The times can be very dark and scary.....or.....the times can be very exciting. I have heard it said that the same wave that would drown a swimmer, provides a surfer with the ride of his life.
The Holy One presses in on my perspective and takes me to His Word in Acts 2. By this time the historic record was set, Jesus had come, died, resurrected and ascended. His visible Presence was no longer with the Disciples. Gone was His voice, His laughter, His touch, even His stern rebuke which set boundaries to their over zealous flesh and calmed a raging storm.
They had a life experience to draw from, having watched God interact with His creation. But now they were just ordinary men with an awesome memory and a story to tell.
Jesus lived His earthly life as a man; flesh, blood, emotions and He knew the weaknesses within. He knew that, in their flesh, not one of them could complete the eternal life or death assignment He had left them with. All that He came to accomplish associated with the message of our salvation, His sacrifice and the restored relationship between the Creator and the created, would require a strength and power beyond their humanity to convey.
The Holy One whispers to my heart, "Those days for the Disciples are not unlike your days today. Apart from Me you can do nothing."
The Spirit takes me back to read one of the last commands from Jesus before He ascended into Heaven. Acts 1:4, "On one occasion while He was eating with them He gave this command, "Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift My Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about. For John baptized with water but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit".
And in Acts 1:8, when discussing the restoration of Israel, Jesus said, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth". Those were His parting words to them and then He was taken up and a cloud hid Him from their sight.
With that very limited description of what was to come, the Disciples went to Jerusalem and waited. I wonder if some might have been tempted to rush out and share the super-natural event they had just witnessed, by-pass Jerusalem, and go in their own powerful self-sufficiency?
Thankfully they did not. Thankfully they obeyed the Lord and left us with a completed story of the indwelling Presence of Holiness and passed on a legacy of the power and authority available to all of us who call Jesus our Lord.
I cannot begin to imagine the anticipation of that event we now know as Pentecost. But I know that I need to experience my own "Pentecost" today.
"The fields are white unto harvest and the laborers are few." And again, "How can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them and how can they preach unless they are sent?
Jesus is the One sending. But.........the task for any believer who calls Him Lord is too much to take on unless Jesus provides us with His authority to operate and His love to share.
We are fortunate to have the written record of the life and times of the Disciples at our fingertips. We can go to the Bible and read the historical account of what happened on the day of Pentecost but the Disciples had not yet experienced the great event when Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem and wait.
I can't begin to imagine the anticipation over what was about to happen. What they had already seen was so off-the-chart supernatural and miraculous. The deaf hear, the blind see, the dead are raised. They had been able to see, feel, and touch the Savior who was crucified then resurrected. They ate, drank and shared more of life with the One who died and then came back to them.
And then, wonder of wonders, they watched Him ascend up, off planet earth and into the Heavens. Pentecost came just like the Lord told them. A day when they received the special "Baptism" different than the water baptism that identified them with Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. The baptism with the Holy Spirit was the necessary component and power to LIVE the resurrected life and enable them to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth.
The Holy One speaks, "and it's no different today".
I am thankful to know that I need more in order to answer the call of the Lord on my life. The much more that I need is the very thing Jesus promised to provide more of: His Holy Spirit. Odd as it sounds to me, there is great relief in realizing that in and of myself, I can do nothing.
The power and Presence of the Holy Spirit has been given to every Believer who calls Jesus their Savior. Yet it is up to each one of us to yield to His Presence and operate in His power.
The day of Pentecost is a symbol of the Divine Habitation of Holiness in humanity and our intense anticipation should be in the awe and wonder of what He's going to do next.
Acts 2:17 and Joel 2:
"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women I will pour out My Spirit in those days and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord and everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved."
Every once in a while in our history comes a time of revival where we can see and feel the powerful move of the Holy Spirit that captures the attention of the world. Most of us believers live and operate in a deeply personal pentecost experience if one at all since, sadly, few churches teach and operate on and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
What happened in Asbury and other places recently should be the life of the Ekklesia of Yehshua since He told us before He left planet earth, "Even if you do not believe My words, at least believe on the "evidence" of the miracles, signs and wonders" He performed. But then He said, "Greater things will you do because I am going to My Father in Heaven" and that He would send another comforter Who would enable us to do all that He did.
We can and should continue to cry out for the Holy Spirit of Christ to be poured out on us who believe so that those who don't can come to the saving knowledge of God's Only Son Who came to save humanity from the dominion of darkness that permiates this earth.
I don't know about you, but the excitement and anticipation of that is almost killing me. Come, Holy Spirit and fall afresh on me. Abba Father, Please bring us the understanding of a modern Pentecost that the revival in Asbury has revealed, and the ongoing role the Holy Spirit plays in our world today!
The Holy Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
