SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/28/2017 7:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Might”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 1:4-5,
8
Message of the verses: “4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;”
We are looking at the promise that the Father will give
to the apostles, and not only them but for all believers, but especially for
the apostles He will give the gift of the Holy Spirit in a special way, and
they had heard of this promise from the Lord Jesus Christ while He was with
them.
Now we want to look at the words from verse five “for
John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not
many days from now.” Let us look at a
statement that John the Baptist said from John 1:33 “"I did not recognize
Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ’He upon whom you see
the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in
the Holy Spirit.’” This promise was to
be fulfilled not too many days from now as the disciples would be “baptized
with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
MacArthur writes “ten to be exact.
Jesus promised that after He departed, He would send the Spirit (John
16:7).”
Now as I have been thinking over how the Holy Spirit
works in lives I have come to the conclusion that the Spirit’s work in the
lives of the apostles is different than it is in the lives of people
today. As I was thinking about this I
read the following from MacArthur’s commentary telling me that he too believes
this. “Despite the claims of many, the
apostles’ and early disciples’ experience is not the norm for believers
today. They were given unique enabling
of the Holy Spirit for their special duties.
They also received the general and common baptism with the Holy Spirit
in an uncommon way, subsequent to conversion.
All believers since the church began are commanded to be filled with the
Spirit (Eph. 5:18) and to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). Yet these early apostles and believers were
told to wait, showing the change that came in the church age. They were in the transitional period
associated with the birth of the church.
In the present age, baptism by Christ through the agency of the Holy
Spirit takes place for all believers at conversion. At that point the Spirit also takes up His
permanent residency in the converted person’s soul, so there is no such thing
as a Christian who does not have the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9; cf. 1 Cor.
6:19-20).
“The baptism with the Holy Spirit is not a special
privilege for some believers, nor are believers challenged and exhorted in
Scripture to seek it. It is not even
their responsibility to prepare for it by praying, pleading, tarrying, or any
other means. The passive voice of the
verb translated ‘be baptized’ indicates the baptism by Jesus Christ with the
Spirit is entirely a divine activity. It
comes, like salvation itself, through grace, not human effort. Titus 3:5-6 says ‘5 He saved us, not on the
basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy,
by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He
poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.’ God sovereignly pours out the Holy Spirit on those He saves.
“The Spirit’s presence, leading, and might were absolutely
essential if the apostles were to be effective in continuing the Lord’s
unfinished work. They had already
experienced His saving, guiding, teaching, and miracle-working power. Soon they would ‘receive’ the ‘power’ they
needed for ministry after ‘the Holy Spirit’ fell on them.
“Power translates dunamis,
from which the English word ‘dynamite’ derives.
All believers have in them the spiritual dynamite for use of gifts,
service, fellowship, and witness. They
need to experience the release of that power in their lives through not
grieving the Spirit by sin (Eph. 5:18).
The latter takes place as believers yield moment by moment control of
their lives to Him, and is the same as yielding their minds to the Word (Col.
3:16). The result of being filled with
the Spirit is expressed by Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:16, 20 ‘that [God]
would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with
power through His Spirit in the inner man…Now to Him who is able to do
exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power
that works within us…’”
I have to say that after our study of the letter to
Philemon that I am doing in the evening that I will be taking up the challenge
of studying the book of Ephesians which has much to say on this subject of the
Holy Spirit.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I believe that as
long as I don’t grieve the Holy Spirit that He will fill me to do the works
that God has planned for me to do in eternity past as described in Ephesians 2:10.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to give me the peace needed
for the things that I want to do this morning.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Bethlehem” (Micah 5:2).
Today’s Bible
question: “What are the pastoral
epistles?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/28/2017 8:32 AM
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