This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday so we will celebrate the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The late great British preacher and author Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) reflected on the value and necessity of the Spirit’s ongoing work in our lives and the things that can so easily get in the way of that work.
My wind chime is not sounding, although a fine fresh wind is blowing in at the window. Why don’t I hear its soft music strains? Because it was put away in the storage room since some of its strings were broken.
There is a gracious revival in the church, and believers are greatly refreshed by the visitations of God’s Spirit, but sadly I am in a worldly, unbelieving condition. May it not be because I neglect private prayer, and have not been regular at corporate prayer, because my family concerns and business cares have kept my heart in the storage room, and my soul has lost her first love? Yes, these are the reasons.
Lord, tune my heart, and I will again seek the places where the heavenly wind of your Spirit blows graciously and refreshingly. How can I bear to be silent when your daily mercies are all around me singing of your love?
Right after His resurrection and just before His ascension back to heaven, Jesus made a promise to His disciples (Luke 24:45-49). Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (emphasis added).
I have always found this instruction to be very interesting. Jesus has just died and risen again and this Good News needs to be proclaimed everywhere, near and far! And there are only a handful of His followers available to do it. You would think there would be a great urgency for them to start sharing the Good News. It is a Big message with only a few people to spread it. It appears to be an impossible situation!
But, instead of Jesus immediately sending His disciples to go and share the Good News, He instructs them to “stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” They are not to take one step ahead until they have been empowered by the Holy Spirit, which happened on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) just a few weeks later. Jesus knew His disciples needed the power that only the Holy Spirit could give them. And what a difference it made! (Check out the rest of the Book of Acts.)
Friends, two thousand years later, we need the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit today as desperately as Jesus’ disciples did then. As Spurgeon pointed out, the wind of the Spirit is blowing and we cannot let “other” things get in the way of what He wants to do in our lives. Don’t be a windchime that is packed away in a storage room!
Instead, catch the wind of the Spirit! The wind is continually blowing, so let Him move across the strings of your heart and life and make beautiful music that will glorify Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
This Sunday, May 28, we will “Celebrate Pentecost!” from Ephesians 5:18, “Be filled with the Spirit.” Please invite someone to join you at 10:35am either in the building or online for the Live broadcast on Facebook (Honolulu AG) or our YouTube channel (Honolulu Assembly of God). We Livestream every Sunday morning at 10:35am to both locations. (PS: The 9:30am Adult Bible Class will also focus on the person of the Holy Spirit.)
Note: Our sound for last Sunday’s Livestream was greatly improved (from no sound to better sound). This week a sound expert will be checking it out to improve it even more. Mahalo for your patience!
Father’s Day is coming up on June 18 and Paul & Kristi Robinson, missionaries to Colombia, will be our special guests that day.
Aloha ke Akua!