PENTECOST: THE MAIN EVENT

PENTECOST: THE MAIN EVENT

                Our study on the feasts, or divine appointments of the Lord, has now brought us to the Feast of Pentecost. So as I am teaching on the Feast of Pentecost, Our pastor is also covering the subject of Pentecost as a parallel to the classes I am teaching. There is plenty of room for discussion concerning the meaning of Pentecost, believe me. It is an exhaustless subject and one of critical importance to the Body of Christ in this day and age.

                Pastor Akers, as a life time Pentecostal, pointed out some of the uses and abuses of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He said that contrary to what the skeptics claim and to what some Pentecostals have tried; you can’t work up the Holy Spirit. You CAN work up your emotions, but that is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not react to our emotions. The Holy Spirit comes when Jesus is worshipped and glorified. The Holy Spirit did not come to represent Himself, but to represent Jesus. The presence of the Holy Spirit is, by design, the presence of Jesus in our hearts and in our lives. You cannot accept Jesus, but reject the Holy Spirit. There is no such possibility.

                The coming of the Holy Spirit is a sovereign act of God. Jesus explained this to Nicodemus saying: “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

                After His resurrection Jesus breathed on His disciples and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  Jn. 20:22 thus demonstrating that He was the same One who had breathed into Adam‘s nostrils the breath (Spirit) of God (life) and Adam became a new creature in the image of God. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that God merely breathed air into Adam’s lungs. He breathed His Spirit into Him and that is what makes us beings in God’s Image and not animals. Jesus proved that by breathing His Spirit into His disciples.

                So when Adam believed the serpent and rebelled and the Spirit of God departed from him, the human race began its descent toward the animal kingdom, ruled by flesh rather than by the Spirit of God.

                Furthermore we can mark it well in our minds that the Day of Pentecost was not in any way brought on by emotions. The disciples followed Jesus’ instructions. They were in the appointed place at the appointed time, on the appointed Feast and they were there praying as instructed and they were all in one accord, not knowing exactly when the fire would fall. So as a sovereign act of God according to His own timing and place, He poured out the Holy Spirit and if the people appeared drunk that day, it was not because they had brought on the Holy Spirit by working Him up.

                The appeared drunk because the power of the Holy Spirit is almost too much for mortal flesh to contain. So God had to give them a mere down payment or earnest of the Holy Spirit and we who are living in the last days, must learn, not only how to correctly use the gifts, but to prepare our hearts for a final harvest outpouring that will be 7 times greater than Pentecost. We may appear drunk too! But we will also have the power to do what Jesus did during His ministry and the harvest will come in.

                The Holy Spirit is well able to separate the wheat from the tares and there will be no faking it in those days. In this final move of God, He is going to shake the heavens and the earth and this will undoubtedly be a shaking of our mental, physical and spiritual existence… so that all that is not of God will have to go and with that, any vestige of middle ground that we may have deluded ourselves with will have vanished.

                We often underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit and God for that matter. The Holy Spirit fluttered over the waters of the deep and whatever God said, that is what He did. “Let there be light.” “Let there be land”” Let there be sun, moon and stars. And oh, by the way, as you place the sun, moon and stars in their places and in their courses, be sure to set the timing of them to match My plans for the ages and My Feast Days, and let them order the steps of My Son when He walks the earth and let them order the events that will appear in their proper time at the end of the age too. Let them point to My Son’s return.

                Everything in all of scripture points to Jesus as the true Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world and that is returning again in great glory to take us home. So if we want the Holy Spirit to be poured out in our day, then we must be in the right place at the right time, giving all glory and honor to Jesus Christ the coming King of kings.

                This is something we just can’t fake. We talk a lot about the gifts of the Spirit and speaking in tongues, but if we are not bearing the fruit of the Spirit we are not much more than noisy gongs or clanging cymbals. 1 Cor. 13:1. Many who have the gifts of the Spirit and even operate in them will say to Jesus in that Day, “Lord, lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons… but He will say to them, “Depart from me, I never knew you.”

                Nevertheless, the gift of tongues is a part of God’s Holy Spirit program and it should be functioning in the body of Christ. And I might add here that pride is the greatest deterrent to tongues or any other of the other gifts. WE are afraid to step out simply because we are more self-conscious than God conscious.

                So Jesus is looking for maturity in His Body right now and that means rightly using the gifts and rightly producing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives by being connected to the Vine. (Jesus) And the Holy Spirit provides that connection.

                And now as for those who scoff and make fun of Pentecostal people… for those who despise the gifts and feel too modern and sophisticated and intellectual to receive the gifts I want to say this:

                Everything that Jesus did in His life, death and resurrection meant nothing to us until the day of Pentecost when Jesus, as our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, sent His Spirit down to breathe life into the church and there the church was conceived and born and if you haven’t received that same Spirit, then you are not a part of the Body of Christ and you don’t even belong to Him. Read Romans chapter 8 my friends and read it well. “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” Rom. 8:14

                And the Holy Spirit is not just a distant name that we invoke in our traditions. He is the very living and vibrant essence of our life in Christ. Jesus came to restore what Adam lost in the fall and if you don’t receive that, you are simply not a child of God.

                “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.” Romans 8:16, 17. It is because of the Holy Spirit in us that we can call Him “Abba Father.” Romans 8:15

                There are so many churches, denominations and sects in the world, all claiming to be the one true church because of this doctrine or that, but as for me, I will take my chances with a church that is centered in Jesus Christ and His Word and filled with the Holy Spirit. That is the whole enchilada.

                And I will walk in the Word and obey the Word and I will walk in the Spirit and obey the Holy Spirit for He speaks only according to the Word, but I am not going to take it second hand from, from one of the “isms” that claims to be the only way, for Jesus Christ Himself is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father but by Him.

                In the great shaking that is coming, many churches are going to fall away. They will be shaken away by their false programs and manmade traditions and many have majored in doctrine but minored in Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. They have built their houses on sand and when the storm comes they will be washed away. We must begin taking this to heart much more than we have in the past: “On Christ the solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.

                Our goal in this life was never to be conformed to this denomination or that, but to be conformed to the image of Christ. It is time to follow hard after Jesus Christ and that means seeking His Holy Spirit with every fiber of our being.

                How do you identify yourself? Are you this denomination or that sect? Or are you a born again, spirit filled child of God… being conformed to the image of Christ, who dwells in you by His Holy Spirit?

                Jesus said that in the last days, the works that He did and even greater works will be do. Now, how are we going to pull that off without also having His power? Think about it. Pray for it. Now is the appointed time!