Our Hope Is In The Lord

Lord, my heart is not haughty,
 nor my eyes lofty.
 Neither do I concern myself with great matters,
 nor with things too profound for me. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul. 
Like a weaned child with his mother;
 like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord
 from this time forth and forever.

—Psalm 131


Trusting in the Lord and recognizing that we don’t have to do everything ourselves is incredibly comforting. While there are aspects of our lives that we can control, there are also things that are beyond our control and are under God’s control. It’s wise to discern the difference.

Little children are indifferent to others. They desire what they want when they want it and resort to crying or making a scene to obtain it. However, as they grow older, they gradually gain control over their emotions. David exemplified this in this psalm.  

God had Samuel anoint David as King of Israel although Saul was still on the throne. The Spirit of the Lord had left Saul due to his ongoing disobedience to God's commands. Saul refused to relinquish his rule. Without the Spirit of the Lord to guide him, Saul allowed his emotions to have control. In his rage, he tried to kill David again and again. David responded to Saul by fleeing for his life. And when presented with an opportunity to kill Saul, David refused because Saul was still on the throne. David would not take the throne by killing Saul. What incredible emotional maturity on David’s part! We shouldn't be surprised. God was with David, and he knew it. He trusted in the Lord and didn’t try to take the throne until God had taken care of Saul. He exhibited maturity by behaving appropriately and calming himself, which was a clear sign of emotional control.

We don’t have to be as Saul. We can be as David. When our hope and confidence are in the Lord, we act differently. We are able to control ourselves because we don’t take all the responsibility upon ourselves. Our hope is in the Lord.

Don't Be Deceived

 

The signs of the end of the church age are evident. We are in the very final days of this era. Before judgment comes upon the world, God shall send Jesus to get His bride, His church—to bring her home. In the meantime, the enemy is doggedly and actively pursuing his evil agenda to deceive the blood-bought church of Jesus Christ.

Over the past two thousand years, Satan has discovered that the Holy Spirit-driven church has successfully withstood his attempts to steal, kill, and destroy the Gospel message. He has employed every tactic and used every weapon in his arsenal to belittle its unwavering faith and destroy its purpose. He has attempted to discredit the church from the outside, only to find that in doing so, it becomes more resilient and purposeful. Consequently, he has resorted to attempting to discredit the church from within—not only through discord and dissension, but also through deception. The enemy’s goal is to sow division and unbelief, thereby stripping the church of its power. 

The church is commissioned to carry God’s Word—His unconditional love and grace revealed in Christ’s dying on the cross for all of mankind.  When received in the human heart, Jesus exchanges sin for God’s righteousness. He imparts a new life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Jesus overcomes the enemy’s agenda to steal, kill, and destroy before it’s too late. If Satan can deceive and divide the church from within, he can weaken the church's purpose and the strip it of power to spread the Gospel. And his deception will keep people who have never known the love God from experiencing the love of Jesus and eternal life.

Spiritual deception can undermine our allegiance to the Father. It can make us question the message we have received and question ourselves in sharing it. It’s easy to recognize blatant sin, but evil is devious. It comes in where least expected and misleads those who don’t know the Word of God.  Revelations and experiences are not truth. The Word of God is truth. All prophetic revelations and personal experience must be judged by the Word. There are true prophets, but false prophets rise to deceive the body of Christ. You should humbly pray and seek God’s Word about any word or prophecy you hear before believing and declaring its truth. If it is from God, the Holy Spirit will confirm it with Scripture, imparting His wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of it. 

In Matthew 24, we read that nation will rise against nation. There will be wars and rumors of war. There will be famines and earthquakes. Many will turn away from their faith, filled with bitterness and hate. False prophets will come and deceive people. Wickedness will increase, and the love of most will grow cold. We read of these things, but do we really grasp how great the deception of the enemy will be?

Be prepared for the enemy’s deception in these final days. Things that are revealed will frighten the world to its very core. If we, the church, allow what is revealed to instill fear in us, then we are weakened. These disclosures and the explanations concerning them may appear truthful. But don’t be deceived by events or disclosures. The Word is our truth. Satan is working overtime to deceive and divide the brethren. He knows his time is short. He has an evil agenda, and he trembles at the power of a unified church.

Whatever you see happening in this world, whatever knowledgeable people reveal, and whatever you hear about what you have seen, don’t believe the enemy’s deception. Don’t give in to fear. Defeat it with faith in Jesus. We are the church so we are the enemy’s target. When we submit to God’s truth, the devil can’t stay in our presence. He flees from the truth that is in us.  We have the power of the blood of Christ, and the word of our testimony. We have the resurrection power of God, and a pastor, who takes his responsibility to pray and lead us into the truth of God’s Word very seriously. The Holy Spirits co-labors with us to share the love of Jesus to a lost and dying world. The enemy wants to destroy our testimony. He uses fear to torment and destroy God’s work in us. But we won’t be deceived. We have the perfect love of Jesus Christ that casts out fear. We have the love of God that overcomes. 

No matter what you see—no matter what you hear—no matter what you experience, you don’t have to be shaken to the core. You have Jesus. Be careful no one deceives you—that includes me, any preacher, teacher, or prophet. Hold whatever you see or hear or read up to the measure of God’s Word, and trust what the Word reveals to you. To trust His Word, you must know it. To know the Word, read it until it talks back to you.

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7). 

Are you washed in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? If you are, you were made for such a time as this. Sow the Word faithfully into the lives of other people while it is still day. Whatever you sow, you will reap.  May we all reap Jesus.






The Power of Agreement

“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
—Matthew 18:19


This agreement Jesus speaks of isn’t just mental. It’s a spiritual agreement. Deep within you know what God’s Word has revealed to you. Nothing can shake your belief. It’s in your heart that your mental agreement with God’s Word begins to take root, grow, reproducing, and manifesting itself. 

You become spiritually one with your Creator when you are born-again, but that spiritual oneness doesn’t benefit you until it becomes sown and nourished in your heart. When the seed of God’s Word is sown by faith and nourished in intimacy with Him, it becomes knowing. It becomes unshakeable. It becomes powerful. You know that you know. You are in spiritual alignment with the Word you have sown in your heart. His truth produces the belief that it has revealed to you. 

When two or more believers spiritually align with God’s Word—when their belief out-weights any doubt, they have prepared themselves to receive the fruit of their sowing. The Lord is spiritually one with them. He is one in belief with them. They have mentally and spiritually come into agreement with Him, and His Word manifests its purpose just as He sent it to do.

This is the power in knowing you are one with the Lord: If two or more are in agreement with God’s will, it shall be done.

Come, Holy Spirit

You form me. You fire me. You fill me. Jesus, l lay myself down at your feet again and again. I lay myself down in the hard moments that come unexpectedly. I lay myself down in the joyful moments because my joy is never enough. You are the choice I make everyday. But one choice alone isn’t enough, Father. One time isn’t enough. This morning I choose you again. I desire you in me. You come. No longer me, but you. I’m completed in you. 

The spiritual joy I have when your light touches, fires, and fills me is nothing like the joy of a moment. Your joy is eternal. Your joy is knowing that I’m known fully. It’s coming into agreement with your will in time and substance. It’s knowing that, although I might not understand what I’m praying, you are the one praying for people and circumstances beyond my knowledge. Jesus, you are praying right now in heaven. And you choose to come and pray in me. You choose to be completed in me. This is beyond my mental understanding . But my heart gets this. I receive you again and again. I pray your will and your purpose for someone or for a need. I pray your will that changes circumstances. I pray your will that heals and restores. You praying within me is the uttermost joy. It’s my privilege, Jesus. It’s touching you like nothing else touches you.

Holy Spirit, you seal Jesus in me. Thank you being my constant companion. You convict, Holy Spirit. You correct. You comfort. You teach. You reveal my Jesus to me. You reveal need to me. You come alongside me in whatever I’m facing. You empower me beyond my capability. Come and complete Jesus in me. Breathe His life. Pray through me. Be at home in me always. Be one with me forever, Father. The depths of your grace are my greatest revelations. You intercede for me in heaven. Holy Spirit, intercede through me for those you choose and for circumstances that seem to have no answer. Use me. 

I pray for those you have called to lay themselves down at your feet. I pray for any hesitation, religious thought, or fear of your baptizing fire to be denied. I pray that the desire of all of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is greater than any fear, distraction, tradition, circumstance, or opinion. You come to complete and empower us. You come to impart gifts that fire the body. You are always reaching for us. I pray we receive from you. Your flame wants to ignite us. Lord, ignite me and fill me. Ignite our pastor and fill him. Ignite and fill our church. Ignite the whole blood-bought church with power to share your gospel of grace with this world. Ignite and burn within us. May we use the gifts you have given us. May we step out in faith, believing we have received even if we haven’t evidenced it. May we exercise the authority you have declared is ours. You collect our prayers in your golden bowl in heaven. You wait for our intercession to pour your answers. Others have not received because of a lack of intercession. When we intercede in the Spirit, Father, you are the fire within us. We pray, believing, and mountains move.

May I always run to you, Father, as you have run to me. You never leave. It’s in you I move and have my being. Form me, fire me, and fill me again and again. Though I might not physically see you, I see and hear you in my spirit. I believe you are in me, and I am in you. I rejoice with a joy inexpressible and full of your glory. For you alone are my glory and my joy.

May you come to life in us, working in and through us more abundantly than we ask or think. May we exercise the gifts you have given us. May we hunger again and again, and walk after you, Holy Spirit, all the days of our lives.

Come, Holy Spirit. Complete the work you wish in me. 

The Father's Love

We believe Jesus came to save us from our sins, but if we only stay focused on this, we miss the profound reason of the story of the Father’s love for us. Saving us from our sins was never His ultimate purpose. His greatest purpose was to bring us home to the Father.

The story of the Prodigal Son isn’t only about a son who sinned and required forgiveness. It’s primarily about a son who left home, took his rightful inheritance, and lived his life as if his father didn’t even exist. When he had finally squandered his inheritance on sinful behavior, the Bible states that he came to his senses and headed home.

The Father wasn’t waiting for his son with “I told you so.” He didn’t watch for his son’s return determining what would be expected of him. No! The Father had been longingly looking for his son’s return for a long time. One day he saw his son in the distance coming home. The Father didn’t hesitate. He ran to him. He didn’t walk. He joyously ran. He threw his arms around him before he could complete his prepared apology. The Father didn’t need to hear anything. The son that had been lost was now found. The son who had been dead to him now lived again.

This is the love of the Father Jesus brought to you. He’s not waiting to beat you up because you left home and squandered your life in sin. He doesn’t require for you to appease Him so you can come to him. He’s not a Father who loves you in proportion to how good you are. He doesn’t wait for you to get your life together before He comes to you. He’s your Father who sees you in the distance struggling home, and runs to you.

Many today have constructed their faith on a God who bears no resemblance to the Father depicted in this story. Instead, their faith is built on a God who judges how well they manage their sin. They see God as distant and needing to be approached carefully and in the right way. They see God’s love as just beyond reach until they have done enough to be eligible for it. God’s love is the power that casts out our fear, but this image of God produces fear and a striving that doesn’t please Him. It creates believers who are worn out from trying to overcome a separation that no longer exists. The separation was never on the Father’s side. The separation was on the son’s side. We, like the son in the story, left home, and moved away.

“If you have seen me,” Jesus said, “you have seen the Father.” Jesus died for us when no one else would. He ran to us.  Jesus mirrored the Father’s true nature. Jesus is how we can know the loving nature of our Father.

The cross wasn’t God deciding to punish Jesus so that He could finally love us. No, God has always loved us. The cross was the love of God destroying everything that separated us from Him. It was His love reaching its utmost for our lowest. It was the ultimate love of the Father, wiping out every barrier between a son and his Father. 

Coming home isn’t impossible. Jesus says that he’s the way, the truth, and the life. He’s the way home. He’s the one who shows you what home looks like, and the one who takes you there. Home is the Father. It’s knowing the Father, being known by Him, and trusting Him with everything within you. It’s trusting Him without the fear that He will withdraw His love from you. Home is resting in the knowledge that your Father sees you, knows you, and loves you, not because of what you do, but because of who you are.

Yes, Jesus came to give us forgiveness and a way to heaven. Yes, He came to give us freedom from sin, but the ultimate purpose was a restored relationship with the Father. Jesus gave us the Father Himself. The Christian life isn’t proving to God you have a reason to come home. It’s accepting that Jesus is the reason you can. It’s learning to believe that God created us to receive His love. It’s believing that His love is genuine, allowing that truth to penetrate every hidden place within us, and letting the Father to be as good as Jesus showed us He is. 

When you truly perceive the love of the Father, everything transforms. You cease striving to attain what you already possess, cease fleeing the One you were created to pursue, cease managing the distance, and simply return home. 

You run to Jesus because you know He’s already run to you.
 

No Longer Divided

Division wasn’t God’s original design. Life had been perfect in the Garden of Eden. Since the Fall, heaven and earth had been ripped apart. Sin had caused it. This impervious barrier between the natural and spiritual worlds remained intact until Mount Sinai when God began the process of dissolving that barrier and restoring His creation.

Prior to God giving the Law to Moses, no man could stand in God’s presence and remain alive. Man was protected by the veil separating the natural and spiritual worlds. However, at Mount Sinai, the situation changed. Moses stood on the mountain, enveloped in the cloud of God. Seventy elders climbed the mountain and witnessed the God of Israel. In His presence, they shared a meal and drank together (Exodus 24:9-11). Since the Garden, this was the first time man had stood in the glory of God’s presence.

Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
—Exodus 19:18

Alan Didio uses a Jewish rabbi’s illustration of a burning candle to explain the connection between the spirit and the body. The flame ascends higher as it burns, but the wick keeps it joined to the candle. In the same way, the wick joins your spirit to this world. Without your body, your spirit has no way to connect with the physical world. 

God is a spirit (John 4:24). In the Bible, He comes frequently as a fire. Yet, because of man’s sin, these appearances were short term. Without a wick, God would eventually return to the spiritual realm beyond the veil.

God’s love could no longer stand any division. Man couldn’t bring down the barriers. This is why God becoming flesh is so important. Jesus didn’t temporarily assume a physical body; He completely and fully became flesh, destroying sin and revealing that the physical and spiritual worlds could live together forever.

“Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them” (Acts 2:3).

In Acts 2, the Spirit of God, did not merely linger over the disciples; it “sat upon each of them.” As the Spirit of God found a wick, single flames rested upon each disciple and remained. His glory, which had long filled the temple and the tabernacle, moved into its new dwelling—man. 

Pentecost is the celebration that marks the reunion of the physical and spiritual worlds. At Pentecost, the power of the Spirit destroyed the barrier sin had erected since Eden. The spiritual and physical realms that the Fall had divided became as one.  

God created you to be One with Him spiritually. You have a hunger to be joined again to your Creator. He created you as a human being in His image and likeness. The Holy Spirit needs you to experience this Oneness with Him. You were created to carry His light on this earth. Pentecost is the assurance that you are no longer divided. The flame wants to sit upon you, and remain. Receive, and let Him burn.

No Longer Divided

Division wasn’t God’s original design. Life had been perfect in the Garden of Eden. Since the Fall, heaven and earth had been ripped apart. Sin had caused it. This impervious barrier between the natural and spiritual worlds remained intact until Mount Sinai when God began the process of dissolving that barrier and restoring His creation.

Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
—Exodus 19:18

Prior to God giving the Law to Moses, no man could stand in God’s presence and remain alive. Man was protected by the veil separating the natural and spiritual worlds. However, at Mount Sinai, the situation changed. Moses stood on the mountain, enveloped in the cloud of God. Seventy elders climbed the mountain and witnessed the God of Israel. In His presence, they shared a meal and drank together (Exodus 24:9-11). Since the Garden, this was the first time man had stood in God’s presence.

Alan Didio uses a Jewish rabbi’s illustration of a burning candle to explain the connection between the spirit and the body. The flame ascends higher as it burns, but the wick keeps it joined to the candle. In the same way, the wick joins your spirit to this world. Without your body, your spirit has no way to connect with the physical world. 

God is a spirit (John 4:24). In the Bible, He comes frequently as a fire. Yet, beacuse of man’s man’s sin, these appearances were short term. Without a wick, God would eventually return to the spiritual realm beyond the veil.

God’s love could no longer stand any division. Man couldn’t bring down the barriers. This is why God becoming flesh is so important. Jesus didn’t temporarily assume a physical body; He completely and fully became flesh, destroying sin and revealing that the physical and spiritual worlds could live together forever.

“Then there appeared to them ]divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them” (Acts 2:3).

In Acts 2, the Spirit of God, did not merely linger over the disciples; it “sat upon each of them.” As the Spirit of God found a wick, single flames rested upon each disciple and remained. His glory, which had long filled the temple and the tabernacle, moved into its new dwelling—man. 

Pentecost is the celebration that marks the reunion of the physical and spiritual worlds. At Pentecost, the power of the Spirit destroyed the barrier sin had erected since Eden. The spiritual and physical realms that the Fall had divided became as one.  

God created you to be One with Him spiritually. You have a hunger to be joined again to your Creator. He created you as a human being in His image and likeness. The Holy Spirit needs you to experience this Oneness with Him. You were created to carry His light on this earth. Pentecost is the assurance that you are no longer divided. The flame wants to sit upon you. Receive, and let Him burn.


 

You Were Created for Completion

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
—John 1:1

The Word existed in the spiritual realm before God’s creation of the universe. It was with Him in the beginning, absolute, perfect, and complete.

God created the world because He desired a place where time and substance could respond to the truth of His Word. He created man in His own image so His Word could live and produce fruit. The Torah, the Law and teachings of the Pentateuch, existed in the beginning before it was ever given to Moses on Mount Sinai. There, God gave the Ten Commandments, speaking to those He had delivered from oppression. He spoke the Word that had existed before time began.

“Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live” (Deuteronomy 4:33)?

When God spoke His Word, His voice was heard by Jewish men on earth, and they lived. They didn’t die. His Word is creation. It's life. God’s voice met no opposition because the world was the Word’s creation. It was His life. The world had been saturated with the Word from the moment it was created.

You are God’s creation. When your spirit is quickened and you  receive the Word, you aren’t receiving something unknown. You are coming into agreement with the Word—aligning with who God created you to be. The Word works in you as God intended for it to work, reproducing its life within you.

Although, the Word existed long before creation, man lived in this world thousands of years without knowing the reason for his existence. God never gave His Word to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. But on Mount Sinai man finally discovered his purpose. God wrote it on stones at Sinai and later on hearts gathered in Jerusalem in anticipation of the Spirit. Both Sinai and the descent of the Spirit came with a sound and a demonstration of God’s presence. One event gave the Word, and the other gave its revelation. Pentecost is the moment God’s eternal Word touched His creation, revealing its purpose to those He had chosen.

You are God’s creation. You are chosen for His purpose. He created you to receive. The Holy Spirit stirs hunger in you for the completion of the Word in your life. And only the Holy Spirit breathes life into the Word that He’s given. Only He fills the spiritual hunger that He created in you. The fullest of God's fullness is available.  He never withholds. He pours. Just believe. 

The Jubilee of Pentecost

 

And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.
—Leviticus 25:10


In the Bible, the number fifty holds great significance. It symbolizes completion. This verse in Leviticus describes the Year of Jubilee, which was celebrated every fifty years. During the Year of Jubilee, debts were forgiven, slaves were freed, and property was returned to its rightful owner. The Year of Jubilee represented a complete restoration. When the fiftieth year arrived, it signified the completion of what had been and the release of something new.

The period between Passover and Shavuot is called Omer. It consists of forty-nine days, which forms a perfect square, symbolizing balance, stability, and divine order. During Omer, there are seven weeks of seven days. The number seven represents completion or fullness. When multiplied by itself, seven signifies the completion of completion, or the fullness of fullness. Pentecost, which occurs fifty days after Passover, follows a pattern of seven sevens, similar to how the Year of Jubilee follows seven sevens or forty-nine days. This period following Passover is the countdown to Pentecost, when something perfectly complete is released. The fullness of the fullness of God is set free.

“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” (Acts 2:17).

Luke was quoting Joel’s prophetic message from the Lord. The Lord’s words are full of absolute authority and determination. “I WILL,” God declares. God didn’t say that he might pour out His Spirit, or He was thinking about it. He didn’t say that His Spirit depended on how much the people equipped themselves. Instead, He spoke with unwavering determination about the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The disciples faithfully followed Jesus’ instructions and did nothing but wait in one place. They could not make the Spirit descend. It was all God’s timing. When the time of completion arrived, the Holy Spirit descended as a powerful rushing wind. God Himself filled each one present. The Holy Spirit infused each one with dynamic power, liberating them from their limitations and perfectly empowering them to spread the Gospel.

No effort you make can earn the promise of the Spirit. God pours out His Spirit on all flesh. This outpouring of God Himself isn’t limited to those who have tried to prepare themselves, but is true for all who expectantly wait with open hearts. God Word is true. When God says He will pour himself out on all flesh that is what He means. We can’t make anything happen. The Holy Spirit shall fill us if we choose to make ourselves available. 

Do you expect Him? He’s near. Abandon every preconceived notion and believe He wants to pour Himself into you. He’s determined for you to receive His promise.

The First Pentecost

 

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
—Acts 2:1-4

We read of Pentecost as that incredible moment when the Holy Spirit descended from heaven, fulfilling Jesus’ promise and empowering the church to go into all in the world with His Good News. 

However, do we realize that Pentecost wasn’t the first Pentecost? The first Pentecost was called Shavuot. 

Pentecost comes from the Greek word, “pentekostos,” which means fiftieth. The Hebrew name for Pentecost is Shavuot and comes fifty days following Passover.

Shavuot is one of three pilgrimage feasts. Deuteronomy 16:16  says that God required Jewish males to travel three times each year to the temple in Jerusalem. Shavuot was one of these fixed times. God wanted to meet with His people in one place. Now consider the fact that we celebrate our New Testament Pentecost fifty days following Passover. Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead at Passover. Before He ascended to the Father, He told His disciples to gather in one place and wait for the promise of the Spirit to come. It wasn’t an accident that “Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven” were gathered in Jerusalem on the day the Holy Spirit would come (Acts 2:15). They were there to celebrate Shavuot.
 
Passover celebrates the Israelites being delivered when the angel of death “passed over” them because the lintels and door posts of their homes were marked with lamb’s blood (Exodus 12:13, 23, 27). God's divine punishment that killed all the firstborn sons of Egypt, except for those of the Israelites, convinced Pharaoh to free the Israelite slaves. Fifty days after the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt, Shavuot, the first Pentecost, took place at Sinai. Moses came face to face with the Spirit of God (Exodus 33:11). He received the Law, which required the Israelites’ perfect adherence. Knowing we could never meet His Law, Jesus came as the Lamb of God to be slain at Passover one time, once and for all, to meet the Law in our place (Romans 6:10). On the cross, Jesus delivered us from the Law’s condemnation (Galatians 3:13). Fifty days later at Shavuot (Pentecost) the Holy Spirit came from heaven, to empower the great exchange that had taken place at Passover.

The Old Testament Shavuot pointed to a promise that that had not yet occurred. God had freed Israel from Egypt so they could meet the Spirit at Mount Sinai. Jesus freed us from the Law so we could receive the fulfillment of the Spirit. Jesus didn’t bring us out of bondage just to deliver us. He brought us out of bondage to bring us into His presence to fulfill His purpose in and through us.

At Passover, the kindling was lit, and at Pentecost the Holy Spirit breathed an inferno into each one present, eagerly awaiting His presence. God didn’t merely save you from hell; He saved you so that He could fill you and bring His purpose to life within you, allowing the world to experience the same new life you have received.

On the cross Jesus delivered you from death.Three days later He rose, giving you new life. Pentecost was the purpose of Passover. Without it, the Israelites would never have known the God who had delivered them. Without Pentecost, the church would have died, and we would have never known the grace and love of our Father. Without a personal Pentecost, your faith won’t come to life in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The day Hebrews celebrate each year is coming. The day Christians celebrate Pentecost is coming. The Holy Spirit has already come. Have you experienced a personal Pentecost? Has His tongue of fire rested upon you, filling you? Does He continually fill you?  

Come, Holy Spirit. Reveal to us Pentecost.