Pretty Amazing
Acts 2:4: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
That moment in time is the beginning of what is referred to as the Church of the Body of Christ, and at that moment, mankind sort of turned a corner in spiritual history. This was the Day of Pentecost, also referred to as the birthday of the Church. At no other time in history, prior to this, had mankind had the opportunity to take part of what Jesus Christ came to make available. I heard it referred to recently in a teaching that this would be perhaps one of the most significant days in spiritual history of all time.
1 Thessalonians 1:10: “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”
We know that someday Jesus Christ will return and gather his Church in the air and that also after a period of time after that will be established a new heaven and a new earth, wherein lives righteousness, with no more sickness and no more sorrow. All of that however, is future. With the new spiritual birth, which came at Pentecost, we can operate spiritual power: being righteous, free from condemnation.
Your mind and your body can take a breath of fresh air from the things of the world. It’s a pretty wonderful thing when you think about it.
The irony of all this is that it’s spiritual and spiritual things can only be understood by people who have the spirit of God. Not everybody’s going to understand this, but this means a lot to those of us who love God and look forward to Christ’s 2nd coming.
1 Peter 1:3: ” Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy have begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
If we rejoice in the hope regularly, spiritual things will mean much more to us and we will daily delight in the things made available in the new birth. After all it took God around 4000 years from Genesis 3:16 to Pentecost for things to be right so that Pentecost could take place. I say that figuratively, because God inhabits eternity, and He can do as He wishes. He had a plan in place and He saw to it that it was carried out. We are here to fellowship with Him, which is to love Him and to talk to Him as much as we can.
Psalm 1:1,2: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, not sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
Then the Psalm goes on to say, if you put on this state of mind, things will go well with you. Any man off the street wants things to go well with him: however, which way would he want to go? God’s way or his own way. You only have two choices, there are no other options.
If his delight is in the law of God, which in this day and time, is wrapped up in the new birth, the seven Church Epistles for us, things will go well. That doesn’t mean you’re never going to get sick or have bad moments, but things will go well, because your delight is in the law of God. I heard a man of God many years ago say, over and over, that if it wasn’t for the hope of Christ’s return, he’d have given up long ago.
I think I’m beginning to understand that a bit, because the pressure never ceases however your life flows . He saw a lot more pressure than I have, and yet it’s still there. If you don’t have your head in God’s Word and your eyes on the hope, you’ll eventually get talked out of the things that came with Pentecost. Hopefully that won’t happen.
Psalms 1:3: “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
This is one of the promises of God and it can be claimed by believing. This is the result of delighting yourself in God. A person who does not have or does not care to have the promises of God may very well prosper hugely in the physical realm because of their believing. He can do as he pleases and he does. But it stops right there: there is no new birth, the blessings of God and operating genuine spiritual power.
We on the other hand, who love the things of God and being with other people who think the same way, have the pleasure of knowing that we shall prosper because we delight in God.
Ephesians 1:19: “And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.”
That sounds like a lot of fun to me. We should be thankful for the things that came to us on Pentecost because of what God brought about because of Jesus Christ’s accomplishments. That’s it for me for now. Thanks for reading funglimpses. Respectfully submitted! Will Grove