Today is Pentecost Sunday (June 8,2014 )--the day we celebrate the birthday of the Church. I encourage you to take some time today to read about the story in Acts 2. Pentecost turned boring religion into an amazing adventure, and it transformed ordinary people into bold missionaries. It can do the same for us today.
Here are four vitally relevant reasons why we should celebrate Penetcost.
Many Christians view Pentecost as just a symbol—or a nice image they've seen in a stained glass window. But please don't reduce the Holy Spirit's work to an event in history. The early Church could not fulfill its mission without the wind and the fire of the Holy Spirit. And the Lord wants to make Pentecost personal in every Christian's life.
In some paintings of Pentecost, the fire resting on the heads of the disciples has been depicted to look like tiny flames from Bic lighters or birthday candles. I doubt the Spirit's power looked so puny. When His anointing flows through us we receive power to share our faith, heal the sick, cast out demons, speak His inspired message and receive His divine direction. Don't minimize the Spirit's potential in your life. Dare to catch on fire!
Pentecost interrupts us. The Bible tells us that the wind of the Spirit blew into the upper room "suddenly" (Acts 2:2)—and His arrival was not on anyone's timetable. Jesus Himself said the Spirit is unpredictable. Like an invisible wind He blows where He wills (John 3:8). We cannot control Him. Yet Jesus expected His early followers to wait for His interruption.
Pentecost propels us. There is nothing static about Pentecost. Although Jesus told His early followers to "stay in the city until you are clothed with power from high" (Luke 24:49, NASB ), He never intended for them to linger there after the fire fell. Once they had been baptized in the Spirit they were energized with hot zeal. They could not sit still or keep their mouths shut.
From that moment the book of Acts becomes a blur of noisy commotion. The newly ignited saints darted back and forth through Jerusalem like spiritual pyromaniacs, spreading the fire of God as they healed lame beggars, baptized new converts and miraculously broke free from prisons. After Philip the evangelist took the gospel to a Samaritan village, he was literally picked up by the Spirit and carried to Azotus in an instant.
Pentecost was an accelerant—it seemed to speed up time, and it gave Jesus' followers an uncanny mobility. Pentecost turned boring religion into an amazing adventure, and it transformed ordinary people into bold missionaries. It can do the same for us today.
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