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.