The thing about life is none of us ever get to do exactly as we please. When we were little we were trained to say *Please* & *thank you*, to wait our turn, to follow the road rules & now we are grown most of us do those things automatically. We don't think about them, They are a part of us. They form the bedrock of societal good manners & civilised behaviour. Those who did not learn those things as children become society's rejects. We consider them ill~mannered & uncivilised. When we have our own children we patiently train them & put rules in place for their safety & well being. We understand how this works in the secular, yet invariably fail to apply this to spiritual things.
I want to point that out because in everything our Lord said after His resurrection, before He returned to heaven, He gave a very particular command: Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." [Acts1:4/5]
The Holy Spirit was a promise. Acts 1:1
Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised... And in 2:39 Peter clarifies For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself, but the command was not to leave Jerusalem until the promise had come because without Him there is no power.
When we discussed the baptism of the Spirit we looked @ how The Holy Spirit baptises us into Jesus, water baptises us unto repentance then Jesus baptises us into the Holy Spirit. Matthew 3:11 says of Jesus He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire...& He is given for a very particular purpose: but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth...
For clarity's sake the Greek word for fire is pyr [as in pyromaniac] but in Hebrew it would carry the force of an adjective as in fiercely, firey & power of course is our word dynamis ~ dynamite. Without the fire & the power it is actually impossible to do what Jesus asked because we have no kingdom authority to do it. To do the Kingdom work we need Kingdom authority & that authority is vested in us through Jesus & His empowering by His Spirit.
Now Most Christians get as far as receiving Jesus. That's neat. And they're ok with the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete, someone who comes alongside to help & comfort & seal them unto the day of redemption. Most get baptised in water whether by sprinkling, dunking or full immersion~ but many are less comfortable with fire & power.
There is a problem with that. To reject the fire & the power is an act of rebellion. It sows seeds of disobedience because Jesus' very last instructions before leaving earth were:
but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth~ Acts 1:8.
The Holy Spirit was not given primarily for our own comfort, though we love & revere His presence in our lives. He was given to equip us for the ministry of reconciliation. [2 Corinthians 5:18] Now, it is very obvious from scripture that the Holy Spirit operates in multiple ways: teacher; guide; advocate; helper but his primary purpose is to equip us for the Kingdom.
The disciples were expressly told to wait on the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Out of the hundreds, & even thousands, who followed Jesus earthly ministry there were only 120 on the day of Pentecost who actually were where they were told to be, doing what they had been told to do. The key to a victorious life in Christ is obedience. You must wait & receive the Power of the Holy Spirit for without it you will be defeated.
As you study the scriptures out you find Jesus died @ Passover & rose on First Fruits but from Passover the Jews counted 50 days known as *counting the Omer* which led them into Shavout: the Festival of Weeks. Originally a harvest festival, by Jesus time it was celebrated as the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai. Pentēkostē is simply the Greek word meaning 50th. I do not think this is a coincidence. When we talk about being empowered by God's Spirit one of the things we mean is being empowered to live out His moral Law. Not the ceremonial Law, which was done away with @ the cross, & not the cultural Laws, but the Spiritual Laws that form the foundation of moral & ethical living: which is why the New Testament writers are so forceful in telling us to put away the old man & put on Christ, to reject everything that we once were because the Holy Spirit rejuvenates us & empowers [Titus 3:5] us to live in a new way. Without the Holy Spirit that sort of lifestyle is impossible. The Jews tried it & Jesus showed them that not only could they not keep it, they had no real understanding of it's purpose!
Jesus made it very clear that the Spirit was given for evangelising. Now there is something very interesting about the word dynamis. It is almost always translated power & that is a correct translation but it also means potentiality. In other words the giving of the Holy Spirit brings us into our full potential in Christ. We need to understand that simply being sealed with the Spirit does not bring us into our potential. We need to be empowered.
And the next aspect is the sort of power we are talking about when we talk about the dynamis of the Holy Spirit because it is not power as the world understands power. It is not about being pre~eminent, not about controlling others, not about being *boss*. It is about self~control.
I am going to be very blunt but if you are walking by the Spirit there is nothing to worry about. I have heard many, many Christians say that their life is their witness so they don't need to preach the gospel. My answer to that is simple. Unless your life consistently displays the fruit [fruit, not gifts] of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control [Galatians 5:22~23] then your life is no witness @ all! This is a very small island. I cringe when I watch Christians short~tempered & impatient with the checkout girls @ IGA, complaining loudly about ques, waiting & the slowness of the service. I squirm @ the backbiting, the gossip & the slander. These things are not from the Holy Spirit but they are rife in Christians who are in disobedience to the command to be filled with the Spirit.
The scripture says very clearly that faith comes by hearing, & hearing by the word of God. There is no way of squirming round this one. One's life, no matter how exemplary, is no substitute for the Word of God!
What's more, when you step out in obedience God confirms His word. Mark 15:16 These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues...
Obedience brings gifts in its wake. I find this particularly fascinating because in Jewish culture a potential bride indicated her acceptance of a proposal of marriage by accepting the gifts proffered. Refusal of the gifts meant refusal of the proposal. If the church is Christ's bride then her acceptance of His gifts indicates her acceptance of Him & she will display her gifts for the common good. According to Paul: But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit;9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. [1 Corinthinas 12]
Jesus made the value of our obedience very clear: John 5:30
So Jesus replied, "Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does.
If Jesus, the son of God, needed the Holy Spirit [John 1:32] needed the Holy Spirit to walk in obedience then how much more do we! He delights in doing so. It is His delight to point us to Christ & to transform us into His likeness. We are meant to be like Jesus. Not like the world. We cannot transform ourselves on our own. We need the Holy Spirit's help but there is a catch. Do not complain that you have not been shown the Father's will if you have not obediently followed that which He has already given to you!
The apostles were empowered because they obeyed the command to wait & be filled. Do not dismiss the blessing of a life submitted in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Just as we trained our children & our parents trained us, so will the Holy Spirit train us in obedience because that is the key to walking fully in the freedom & authority we have in Christ.
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