Luke 24:49-53

Luke 24:49-53 "I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

Acts 1:1-5 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them 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.”

Acts 2:1-4 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

As we come to the end of Luke, we see Jesus promise his followers that He would send the Holy Spirit and power. The completion of this promise connected the Jesus of Earth to the Lord of heaven. Before the fulfillment of this promise, his followers knew Jesus had returned to heaven, but they lacked understanding of what would happen next. Would they know when the Holy Spirit would come upon them? Would they become an integral part of God's plan for the future? In the upper room some probably wondered what they were doing; perhaps the ascension ended everything. But God completely defeated any negativism on the Day of PENTECOST: Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. This supernatural event, the coming of the Holy Spirit, was a bigger miracle than Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, for God brought life to all believers. He brought power to them as He clothed his "newborn" children with his presence. He would never leave them again in Jerusalem without his presence; the Spirit would be with his children forever. Truly, the new church was clothed with power from on high and is clothed with this same power today. God's children walk this Earth clothed with his divine power and godly authority.

However, some of us live our lives as if the Spirit has not come. Filling our personal temples with self instead of the Holy Spirit, our fleshly spirits demand center stage most of the time. Pushing God's sensitive Holy Spirit to the background of our lives, we do our own things without asking his guidance. Rather than yield our words or temperaments to God's control, we blunder through our days as a bull in a china shop. Such willfulness leads to pain and destruction, hurting ourselves and others. In this fleshly state, we lack the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, for we are out of sync with the Holy Spirit. Daily, we need to unstop our ears to hear the Spirit's voice. As we ask the Holy Spirit to direct our lives, our prayer life should be first and foremost. If we open our ears and hearts to God each day, our innermost beings will reflect God to the world, and the fruit of Spirit will rule our thoughts and actions. However, if we ignore the miracle of Pentecost, we will live and act in the flesh, without direct communication with the Lord through the Spirit. Jesus said, wait in Jerusalem until you are filled with the Holy Spirit. He knew people needed power to be victorious. His words alone would not sustain their lives in God. They needed the presence of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit came from on HIGH, connecting man with God. If our lives are full of all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16), we will be no different from the world.

Many of us need to go to Jerusalem, to find an upper room. In God's presence, we should also pray in the Spirit as Paul encouraged the Ephesians: pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. As we pray with all kinds of prayers in a language we understand and with a language we do not know, we will find power and victory over sin; we will love our brothers and sisters more than ourselves. Some of you pray in tongues. Paul said, I pray in tongues more than you all. Therefore, pray in tongues, believing by faith that God is using your tongue; if not, pray in words you understand, meditate in the Spirit, BUT MOST OF ALL, PRAY. Praying and listening facilitate hearing God's voice. The Spirit will speak to you in his still small voice if you willingly come to him. My Christian friend, food and drink and the ways of this life will not sustain you: you are sustained by every word that comes from the Spirit of God. He keeps our lives viable and powerful. No other life will ever satisfy a Christian; we must be full of the Spirit, hidden with Christ in God.

I will be taking a week off to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance on what to study next. Use this time for your own study of the Word and for prayer.