SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/11/2017 9:16 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Evidence of the Spirit’s Coming”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 2:1-4
Message of the verses: “1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.”
I would suppose that it is safe to say that the church
began in the upper room where 120 were gathered praying and seeking the Lord’s
will for their lives and then Luke reports that “suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent
rushing wind.” Notice the word
like, a simile meaning that it was not a violent rushing wind, but like the
noise of a violent rushing wind. Luke
will use the simile “as” in verse three when he describes the tongues of
fire. This is important to remember as
Luke is not saying that they were what he is describing but like or as what he
is describing.
We know that the believers knew that the Holy Spirit was
going to come to them but they did not know how and then Luke uses the word
“suddenly” as this happened all of a sudden as if He was perhaps not expected
to come that way. We have studied a lot
about end times prophecy and we know that when the Lord comes back in the
rapture and then at the end of the tribulation period it too will be suddenly
even though we know it will happen.
7/11/2017 9:27 AM 7/11/2017 11:31 AM Every July our grandchildren, all seven of
them, take swim lessons at the pool that is in our neighborhood and so my SD’s
may be a little late.
John MacArthur writes something similar to what I wrote
earlier: “The supernatural activity of
God is so utterly beyond the grasp of humans that the Bible writers have to
employ similes to describe His manifestations to men (cf. Ezek. 43:2; Rev.
1:15).” “2 and behold, the glory of the
God of Israel was coming from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of
many waters; and the earth shone with His glory.” “15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made
to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.”
If we would take the time to look up the words “wind” and
“spirit” in both the Hebrew and Greek we would find that these words are the
same. Let us look at Ezekiel 37:9-10 “9 Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the
breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ’Thus says the Lord GOD,
"Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they
come to life."’" 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the
breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an
exceedingly great army.” We don’t know
if the people in Jerusalem heard the sound of the wind or not but it only
effected those who were in the upper room as they alone received the promised
baptism with the Spirit (Acts 1:4-5; 11:15-17).” MacArthur adds “That they were sitting offers
further proof that they were not praying for the Spirit’s coming. Standing and kneeling were the postures for
prayer.”
It was after the auditory manifestation of the Spirit’s
arrival that would come a visual one “and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove,
and a voice came out of heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in You I am
well-pleased’ (Luke 3:22).” This verse
of course is from the baptism of our Lord by John the Baptist and once again we
can see the simile like
in this verse. We don’t know what the
Spirit looked like but we know that He landed gently upon the Lord after His
baptism and then the Father spoke so we see the entire trinity involved in the
baptism. Now in Acts 2:3 we something similar as Luke describes the Spirit
looking “like” tongues of fire.
MacArthur writes “That these were not flames of literal fire, any more
than the wind was moving air is clear from the use of the phrase ‘as of.’”
As a new believer in January of 1974 I was baptized by
the Holy Spirit into the body of Jesus Christ as all believers are, however the
power that came upon the disciples in Acts chapter two is not the same as when
I was baptized. Let me try and
explain. The church was brand new when
we read what happened in Acts chapter two and so the disciples were given a
great amount of power from the Spirit of God to help get the church off the
grown so to speak. The Holy Spirit fills
me with the power that I need to do the things that God has planned for me to
do for the cause of Christ so I do not believe that I would receive the exact
same level of power that the disciples had as their job was different than
mine.
We will continue looking at these verses in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful that the Spirit of God empowers me for the tasks that God planned for me to do in eternity past. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:10).”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that I will keep my life clean in order
to do the work He has planned for me to do.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Hosanna” (Mark 11:9-10).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said, ‘Fear not,
Zacharias for they prayer is heard; and they wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a
son’?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/11/2017 12:12 PM
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