Day #120 - Pentecost
The Presence - A Devotional for living in Thanksgiving, Worship and Wonder
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.
Acts 2:1-4 NIV
Have you ever spoke in tongues?
When I was 12 years old in 1993, during the biggest professional football game of the year, my Dad turned off the TV and prayed for my sister and I to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. My Dad read from the Scriptures and prayed for us. I remember the power of God coming upon me as I cried and began to speak in tongues. This experience opened up a gift, a boldness and the power of God operating in my life.
After 120 of the disciples of Jesus staid in the upper room to pray for ten days, on the day of Pentecost (a Jewish feast) fifty days after Passover were assemble the Holy Spirit came in power as Jesus told them. There were several things that happened. As they prayed in unity there was a sound from heaven like a strong wind, some type of fire appeared upon them, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke in other tongues by the Spirit. As the story continues, the crowds present in Jerusalem for Pentecost heard these people speaking their many languages miraculously by the Spirit. Peter then has to get up and explain that the disciples are not drunk, but filled with the Holy Spirit as the Scripture promised. He then gets up to preach and about three thousand people are saved that day as they repent and put their trust in Christ.
Pentecost birthed the church in the power of God. The church of Jesus is the church of the Spirit. The church of the Spirit is a church of “the Presence.” “The Presence” church is a church of sound, wind, fire and tongues. “The Presence” church is not tame and predicable but is waiting upon God for the wind and power of Pentecost to come again and again.
Tongues would become the clearest evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit repeated through the book of Acts. If you want to experience more of God’s presence in your life, ask Him for your own Pentecost. Desire this experience and pray for the gift of tongues, but even more than tongues, pray for the power and fire of God to come upon your life.
On the day of Pentecost, God launched a Jesus movement called the church. The church started in power and it should continue in power. The church gave themselves to gathering in prayer after his experience. God wants to sustain a movement of His presence and power in our lives and churches. May God send us another Pentecost in each generation.
Holy Spirit, I long for You to fill my life with Your fire and power. I want more of You. I want the same power that operated in Christ and the apostles. Fill me up. Give me the gift of tongues. Help me to press in until I receive all you have for me. Give your church a fresh Pentecost. Remove complacency from me. I want Your power to flow through my life. In Jesus name, amen.
Pentecost is about empowerment, visitations of Heaven, fullness of the Holy Spirit in us being released! Open hearts, open minds of surrender to walk as in Heaven, now on this earth in Jesus footsteps. His feet were once on this earth yet at the same time His mind was on calling down the things of God From Heaven to bless and not curse, to save , heal, deliver, setting those captive by Satan’s sin nature, free. In Jesus name I call down His Holy fire upon us to be in us greater ….that we might be “Burning Bushes” filled and flowing in the stream of His Spirit in unimaginably ways we have never know or entertained! Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is “ at work within us”! Eph. 3:20. NIV
*Give your church a fresh Pentecost. Remove complacency from me. I want Your power to flow through my life. In Jesus name, amen."
Yes, Lord Jesus, let Your fire from the Holy Spirit fall on us today. Let Him remove the scales of unbelief from us and give us the ability to see You clearly, and to know You more! Let us walk in the powerful anointing only You bring and see chains that bind be broken as You lead your children into being transformed by Your Holy Spirit this morning! In Jesus name amen!