The Day of Pentecost – Fifty days after the Passover. Just before the Passover, our Savior had been crucified. The first day of the week after the Passover, He rose from the dead and before He was taken back into Heaven to be with His Father, He spent forty days appearing off and on to His disciples, along with the women who had ministered to Him. Ten days before Pentecost, He was taken up into Heaven with many looking on, and especially the twelve. Right before this, Jesus told them to wait for the promised Holy Spirit Whom He had spoken of back in John (see John 14:16, 26, 15:26 and 16:7). In that dingy, hot and stuffy upper room where they had, forty days before, eaten the Passover with their Lord, that day finally arrived. This coming of the Holy Spirit, also called the Helper and Comforter, showed up with the sound of a great wind and settled on them like split tongues of fire. The first results came as they spilled from that upper room into the crowded streets on that final day of Pentecost. There they spoke in the languages of all present, culminating in a simple, but powerful message from Peter that resulted in the salvation of three thousand people.
Today, many still seek that experience. While I do believe in what has been termed, “the Baptism in the Holy Spirit,” I have come to know from the scriptures that it is so much more than an experience and speaking in another language. After the disciples were filled, they became witnesses as Jesus had instructed them, not only in Jerusalem on Pentecost, but spreading out to the Samaritans and into the entire world. But the experience is even greater than just missions (although missions are extremely important).
It was the birth of a people, a gathering, not just in one building and not designated as a building, but in the hearts and lives of those who make up the kingdom of God. It marked the change that saturated the very souls of men and women all over the world, and takes place in the hearts of all who accept that salvation which only comes through the death, sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What a great work. What a magnificent accomplishment – to actually provide a way to reverse the destruction of the soul caused by the sin of man way back in the lives of our first parents, Adam and Eve. What they lost for all of mankind, Christ restored – but only to those who believe in Him.
I have come to see that what we call the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is so much more than an event. It is the awakening of the heart to a deep relationship with Christ. We come to Him in salvation and yes, if we have believed and confessed in true repentance as described in Romans 10:9-10 we are saved. But the day will come when we realize just how much that salvation actually means. We realize just what He has saved us from. It makes us want to share with all we know and come into contact with because we don’t want them to be eternally doomed as we once were. This realization allows us to open up to the Holy Spirit and He uses us uniquely in those gifts of the Spirit – gifts which are a mere piece of the characteristics of God Himself. Many who I know may disown me because of this deeper interpretation of the experience, but I am obligated to God the Father, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Giver of the baptism, the Holy Spirit, to speak the truth in its more significant meaning. It isn’t a shallow experience but a deep understanding, a greater commitment and an anointing into a farreaching service into which we have been ordained and called. To be anointed as a part of God’s people and assembly is an honor and privilege that is worth everything we are and all God has made us to be.
It happened more than two thousand years ago and is an old calling. But it is a new thing, a wonderful new thing, that can happen individually in each life that comes to this realization and comes completely to Jesus Christ – complete in mind, soul, spirit and body into His kingdom. It becomes first in our lives. It is the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:46) and a greater treasure than all the gold in the entire Earth, could represent. Are you ready for a new thing in your life? Have you been searching for a treasure that you really couldn’t describe? Have you been missing something in your life, knowing that somehow you weren’t complete; knowing that there has to be more? This is what you have been looking for. Christ is the fulfillment of your life. Are you ready to accept the old in order to receive the new? Can you believe in an old thing in order to obtain the new thing you have been needing? Today is the day. It’s right here, right now. You only need to receive and believe, then study and pray until you are completely saturated – baptized, submerged and permeated – into the presence and mission of God Almighty for you and your life.
— Jerry D. Ousley is the author of “Soul Challenge”, “Soul Journey”, “Ordeal”, “The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional” and his first novel “The Shoe Tree.” Newer books include “Finality” and “Dividing God’s Church.” Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.