Living in the Shadow of His Hand

Let the Holy Spirit Speak

 

“And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.” – Acts 2:6

The day of Pentecost was 40 days after Jesus’ death.  During those 40 days He walked the earth and was seen by many people.  He visited with Mary and Martha, He visited with the disciples, and on the day before Pentecost He ascended in a cloud.

As necessary as His death was for our salvation, His ascension was equally important for us to receive the Holy Spirit, our comforter.  With Jesus being in the flesh, His Spirit was encapsulated within His body.  As we are all too sure of, a body can only be in one place.  For us all, world-wide, to be able to have the Holy Spirit within us, Jesus had to return to Heaven.  In John 14:26 it says that the Father will send the Holy Spirit in Jesus name.  He says “My peace I give to you, My peace I leave with you”.  The Holy Spirit has a purpose, and it’s to provide us with the peace and guidance we need to be believers.  He is our Helper, our Comforter, and our Guide.

There’s a lot of confusion as to what happened when the believers received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and how we receive Him now.  The difference was that they were already believers before the Holy Spirit had been sent by God.  When He did send the Holy Spirit, they incurred a “baptism” of the Holy Spirit – the indwelling.  It happened to them all at once because He was sent all at once. 

Today when we are saved, the Holy Spirit moves into us and lives in us.  In Ephesians 1:13 it says “having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”.  He is the guarantee of our salvation.  When we receive Him today, that feeling of a mighty rushing wind is sometimes felt, and sometimes not.  We don’t all feel the same way at salvation.  Not all births are the same, nor re-births.  Some come with great pain, and some come easy. 

But on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was with so very many people in the same place at the same time.  His power was strong, and they spoke in languages they did not know, but that were understood by those watching who spoke many languages.  The Jews, the Greeks, the Galileans, the Gentiles – all understood those sounds being uttered in their very own languages. 

This reminded me of another time that all the people could understand what was being said in one language.  In Genesis 11 all the people of the world were together in the land of Shinar.  From the time of creation until that day, they all spoke one language.  Because they were able to understand each other, they began to work together and built a large tower of stones that was reaching to Heaven.  But God didn’t want us to be all in one place on the earth.  We needed to be scattered around the earth.  One spot could not sustain us for the centuries we are to be here.  So God used language as a means to cause us to disperse.

“And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do [build the tower]; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” – Genesis 11:6

Fast forward thousands of years to the day of Pentecost when again, the speech is made known to all languages.  Why?  Because the message of the Holy Spirit needed to be heard by all that was present.  And what was it that they heard?  Peter explained it to all who were questioning this by quoting from the book of Joel, the prophet, who long before had prophesied of this very day.  He said

‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’ – Joel 2:28.32

The message is clear.  It’s a message salvation through Jesus Christ: Whosoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.  The whole world still needs to hear it today.  Luke 12:12 says not to worry what we should say, because at that time the Holy Spirit will teach us what to say.  And by the Holy Spirit that is within us, they can all hear it.  We just have to open our mouths and let Him speak.