AFTER THE PENTECOST, WHAT NEXT? (5)

“But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” (1 Corinthians 12:31; 14:1 NKJV)

Growth is an important part of human life and progress on earth. Lack of growth in people or in any human enterprise is often a cause of concern to those concerned.  Parents take care of their children and expect them to grow. When they fail to grow as expected it creates anxiety and worry in them. Business people expect their businesses to grow and when they do not, it causes deep concerns. Teachers apply best practices available to them in teaching their students and expect them to grow in knowledge, when they fail to grow and keep failing exams, the teachers are deeply disturbed. God has endowed us with His divine nature and equipped us with spiritual gifts to enable us to grow spiritually; when we fail to grow, it embarrasses Him and hinders our experience of His blessings. The book of Hebrews captures the perplexity of God’s heart due to lack of spiritual growth in His children.

¹¹There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. ¹²You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. ¹³For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. ¹⁴Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. (Hebrews 5:12-14 NLT)

One truth therefore stands out very clearly, namely, God wants us to grow in our understanding and application of spiritual gifts in the service of the kingdom.  He installed in us everything necessary to drive that growth and will therefore hold us accountable for our failure to grow.

Here then is the question; why do many Spirit-filled believers fail to grow in their knowledge and application of spiritual gifts in spite of the fact that God’s grace abounds to facilitate such growth?  The answer has to do with the type of operating system that is running their lives. The human mind is like the operating system of a computer unit.  What a computer can do depends on the operating system that is installed in it. Similarly, human life and experience on earth is generally determined by the kind of mindset each person has. There are basically two types of mindset –fixed mindset and growth mindset. People with fixed mindset believe that spiritual gifts and our experiences of them are determined by divine fiat, allowing no room for believers to make any input. They believe whatever gift one has is predetermined by God and that any experience one has of such gifts is fixed.   For example, if God gives one the gift of prophecy then the person has it and if God does not give one such a gift, there nothing the person can ever do to possess it. For people like this, growth in the things of the Spirit is determined by God. If this position is true, why should God ask us to earnestly desire for the best gifts?

On the other hand, growth mindset believes that God does indeed give people spiritual gifts but that He also allows room for Spirit-filled believers to participate in creating their spiritual experiences. Hence, He commands us to “desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.”  Desire is an intensely private experience. Its basic meaning is “a longing or craving for something that brings satisfaction or enjoyment.”  It is to express a wish to obtain what one lacks or what one considers valuable. People with growth mindset are outstanding for their hunger for deeper spiritual experiences. Their desire for more is what drives their growth and puts them ahead of others. God does not show partiality. He is committed to satisfying the desires of His children. The Psalmist declared, “He grants the desires of those who fear him; He hears their cries for help and rescues them” (Psalm 145:19 NLT). This makes us key stakeholders in our acquisition and experience of spiritual gifts. We must desire for them.

God’s demand for us to “earnestly desire the best gifts,” is His invitation Ato us to grow in our experience of spiritual gifts. He wants us to grow from having “the good” to “the best” gifts. As far as God is concerned, you can have the best He can afford if you so wish.  Growth mindset espoused the truism that your desire drives your growth in the spirit. May the Spirit of God stir us up to desire for more of God and of His gifts only to be satisfied when we awake in His likeness in Jesus’ name.  

AFTER THE PENTECOST, WHAT NEXT? (4)

“¹Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. ²And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; ³who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. ⁴And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” ⁵So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”(Acts 3:1-6 NKJV)

After being filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of the Pentecost, the apostles went about their normal daily routine but with a new mindset.  They believed that they received a definite impartation from the Holy Spirit and that there now exists a clear possibility that they could do things they were not able to do before.  Though they could not determine the full implication of their encounter, they were certainly willing to try new things. The fact that they spoke in other tongues and that Peter preached with such unclouded utterance and boldness leading to the conversion of 3000 converts in a single sermon represented an evident token that they got something real on the Pentecost.  Peter and John evidently believed that they received power after the Holy Spirit came upon them, as our Lord had promised; and were willing to test the reality of that power by trying to do the humanly impossible. The crippled beggar at the gate of the temple provided a good opportunity for them.

Peter and John had gone up to the temple for their routine Jewish hour of prayer –“the ninth hour.” It seems the Jews right from the Old Testament had three officially designated times of prayer. David referred to it –“Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice’ (Psalm 55:17NKJV). All of these three official prayer times were mentioned in the book of Acts and the early church seemed to have followed that routine. These are: The Third hour – this corresponds roughly to our 9 am (Acts 2:15 NKJV).  The Sixth hour –about our midday (Acts 10:9) and the Ninth hour –this corresponds to about 6 pm (Acts 3:1). As Peter and John were about to enter the temple crippled beggar asked alms of them. In response, Peter said to him, “Look at us... “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”

Peter was able to know what he lacked and what he had. It was easy for anybody to know when the person had no money in his or her purse. Peter and John had no money in that instance and they explained that to the beggar. But then, Peter knew they had something else. He knew they had power! “...but what I do have I give you...”  How did Peter know they had power to heal the crippled? They knew by faith. They simply believed what Jesus had promised them – “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NKJV). Peter and John took this promise serious and believed that they received real power after the Holy Spirit came upon them. They recalled the words of Jesus that if you ask for bread you will not receive a stone. If men who are evil know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. They asked for the Holy Spirit and that was what they got and with Him the power to do signs and wonders. To prove this, they had to do what they could not do before –command a cripple to walk!

What proof did Peter and John had that God would honour their faith? There was no way they could know apart from trying. You too have no way of knowing whether you have the power to heal the sick or do signs and wonders unless you try. Since God is not a respecter of persons but “in every country God accepts anyone who worships him and does what is right” (Acts 10:35 NCV), He will most likely honour your faith. You worship Him and would be doing what is right if you lay hands on the sick in obedience to Him. Peter had inner struggles as we often experience now, but his respect for God’s word was more powerful than his fears of failure. He stepped out in obedience and trusted God to stand by His word. The crippled walked! “So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God.(Acts 3:8 NKJV). You need to try what you have with the confidence that God will not let you down. You too can be a miracle worker and bring joy to your world in Jesus name.

AFTER THE PENTECOST, WHAT NEXT? (3)

“⁴³Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. ⁴⁴Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, ⁴⁵and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.”(Acts 2:43-45 NKJV).

The impact of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the Spirit-filled believers soon after the Pentecost began to reflect in the larger society. The people became awe-stricken as the disciples moved in great power to witness the resurrection of Christ – Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.  Our Lord had promised the apostles that they would become endued with power from on high when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. Such power would enable them bear witness to the truth that Jesus is God. They deployed the power of the Holy Spirit to perform signs that compelled people to wonder about who Christ is. The essence of miracles is to make people reconsider their positions about the reality and power of God.  When a minister of God begins to soak up the glory associated with the sign and wonder God has accomplished through him, it is indicative that he is not of God.  The signs are meant to bear witness not of the minister but of Jesus. The Apostle Peter demonstrated the mind of God on this when he saw the attention on him and John after the healing of the crippled at the temple gate. “So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” (Acts 3:12 NKJV).  It was not about Peter or John, it was all about Jesus.

The early disciples influenced their community in a most powerful way principally because they overcame the negative effect of individualism and learned to act in concert – “Now all who believed were together.”  You will hardly see Peter acting alone. He is always with John or someone else. In that way they were able to cultivate the power of community in their work of witnessing.  The power of God is always present wherever and whenever believers stand and act in one accord. The power of the Holy Spirit is most eloquently manifest when two or three agree together. It is a corporate anointing! It makes the disciples winsome as the Holy Spirit shines in us and through us the glory of God according to the prayer of our Lord Jesus –“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one” (John 17:22). Unity in the church of Christ is a function of the members’ experience of this glory our Lord has gratuitously bestowed on us. The more of the glory we experience, the more united we shall be in the spirit and the more the power of God will be made manifest in our midst.

Christian fellowship implies community life.  One of the notable effects of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the early believers is that He inspired them to live in a community of love –“Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.” They lived in harmony with one another. It was not likely that the more than three thousand believers rented one big house and lived together. They lived in their individual houses like we do today but were knit together in heart and mind as one community under Christ. They gave their lives and possessions to Christ, thus it was easy for them to meet the needs of all. Nobody held tight to whatever was his or hers but held all things in trust for Christ and His body. They saw the needs of individuals as the needs of Jesus; therefore in meeting the needs of Christ, they invariably met the needs of all. What a beautiful way to live the Christian life!  The words of Jesus now takes a whole new meaning when He said, “I tell you the truth, anything you did for even the least of my people here, you also did for me” (Matthew 25:40 NCV). 

We need to live for one another by caring for one another and intentionally becoming our brothers’ keepers. Let us pray not to miss showing kindness to Jesus by refusing for whatever reason to show kindness to one another. Let us deliberately live and act in such a way as to provoke one another to love and never to wrath in Jesus name.  

AFTER THE PENTECOST, WHAT NEXT? (2)

“⁴⁶So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, ⁴⁷praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:46-47 NKJV).

A people’s first response to the infilling of the Holy Spirit is usually indicative of what God wants to become their habit in the long run. The reason I believe this to be so is because such responses are often as a result of the impartation by the Spirit of God rather than being as a result of the rational analysis of the people involved. The Holy Spirit has prompted me to do some things that I could not have done if I were to rationally decide on such actions. This statement should not be understood to mean that the Holy Spirit and reason are always incompatible. It rather means that He can sometimes lead us in ways that would never resonate with our reasons. Examples of such occasions abound in the Scriptures. Paul and Silas worshipped God with loud praise in the prison after being severely beaten and inhumanly treated. That could not have come out of a rational analysis of their experience. Their response was obviously as a result of the prompting of the Spirit of God.

What the Holy Spirit led the early disciples to do immediately after being filled with the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost demands our deepest reflection. Those are meant to be the normative experience of the church in all history. First, we are told that they instituted daily meetings in the temple –“So continuing daily with one accord in the temple.” They had church service every day! I am sure that some of us will cringe at the thought of having church service every day, but that was what they did.  There are denominations and congregations that still do that even today. They met daily in the temple with one accord means that everybody endeavoured to be present and that, with joy and gladness of heart.  Should we not follow their example and institute early morning daily meeting with God?

They created an effective home cell fellowship system –“breaking bread from house to house.”  By God’s special design, the basic unit of every living system is the cell. The growth of the cells imply the growth of the organism. The Body of Christ, which is the church, is such a living system. Hence our Lord said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” We have to find ways to keep our home cell fellowships in our church. Members should take personal pride and satisfaction in hosting a cell fellowship in their homes and work hard to see that it grows. Before any of us thought of getting married and raising a home, God prophetically declared that our homes should be revival cells. A home cell is a family or a group of families who meet weekly to share the word of God and pray for mutual edification of those involved and also to serve as a bridge through which people in their neighbourhood could come to Christ, and get involved in the church. I feel the need for us to fill our city with home cell fellowships which God can use as His kingdom outposts.

As a response to the move of the Holy Spirit in their lives, the believers who were impacted by the Pentecost outpouring cultivated a culture of generosity among them –“they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.”   According to the New Living Translation, they “shared their meals with great joy and generosity.” Members joyfully shared their food with others. In that way, they made sure that nobody starved in their midst. This helped them to curb the tendency towards gluttony and increased the food reserve in their food bank. You must not let yams rut in your house and garri grow mould when there are so many in the church that could benefit from what you don’t need. Bring every food stuff and other household items you don’t need to the CWL Pantry. They could mean a lifeline for so many. Such generous attitude will generate much praise and thanksgiving to God.

The Spirit-filled believers modelled a lifestyle of praise and worship –“praising God and having favour with all the people.”  They were happy with and in their God, and as a result the rest of the people were happy with them. They were constantly creating sweet melodies of praise everywhere they found themselves and soon people began to want to associate with them. Nothing is more attractive than happy believers. “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” Nobody would like to join a congregation of grumpy and joyless people. We must learn to rejoice in our God so He can add people to us daily. There is still alleluia-joy in the Presence of God. A lifestyle of praise foists the Presence of God in the atmosphere. May the joy of the Lord be our strength in Jesus name.

AFTER THE PENTECOST, WHAT NEXT? (1)

“Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. ⁴²And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. ⁴³Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles” (Acts 2:41-43 NKJV).

One of the obvious and outstanding miracles subsequent to the out pouring of the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost day was the immediacy that attended the formation of the believers into a community. Getting three thousand people to begin to zealously attend to the apostles’ doctrine, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers was nothing short of a miraculous intervention of God. The Holy Spirit had worked in their hearts both to will and to do according to His pleasure. I believe that their example should guide us in determining what should be the appropriate response to the powerful ways the Holy Spirit ministered to us during the Holy Ghost Power Explosion. What can we learn from them?

After the first Pentecost, the believers were said to have gladly received the word of God. They carefully attended to the preaching and teaching of the word of God and were determined to apply the principles they learned in their lives. They were not merely hearers of the word but doers of it also. They were enthralled with the revelation of the word of God concerning the adequacy of the sacrifice of Christ for their eternal redemption. The gospel was indeed to them the power of God unto salvation. They embraced the word and became beneficiaries of the salvation it promised. They boldly presented themselves for baptism, making public confession of their commitment to their new found Lord and Saviour. It is obvious that the baptism they had encompassed water baptism and the baptism with the Holy Spirit. They were fired by the Holy Spirit to stir up their spiritual gifts for witnessing life.

Having tasted the sweetness of the word of God, they hungered for more. Hence, “they continued in the apostles’ doctrines.”  They were unrelenting in their commitment to the mysteries of the Christian faith as expounded by the apostles. They were all regular and punctual in their attendance to the apostles’ scheduled teachings and their extempore exhortations during the course of their daily routines. They did not only embrace the word of God but also the God the word spoke to them about.  Their lives therefore became a living commentary to the scripture –“The people who know their God shall be strong, and shall carry out great exploits” (Daniel 11:32 NKJV). They were strong indeed for God.

 The believers also “continued in fellowship.” They met together often and learned to be comfortable in the company of one another. They intentionally pursued being together and enjoyed cooperating with one another in many practical ways that were mutually benefiting. Togetherness, friendliness and community were highly rated values among them. They sought for ways to encourage one another to remain focused on the ideals of Christ and in pleasing God at whatever personal cost. Their love for one another was practical and sacrificial. They provoked one another unto love.

The apostles quickly taught the new believers the mystery of the Lord’s Supper which they received with joy and consuming passion.  It became to them a practical means of refocusing on the person of Christ and on the redemption He purchased for all people through His sacrifice on the Cross. The Lord had exhorted them to break bread in the remembrance of Him –“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” This practice helped them to keep their eyes on the Cross –the fulcrum of their faith. They set their minds on heavenly realities.

                Prayer was the life wire of the early believers. They prayed for the continued outpouring of God’s grace in their lives to keep strong in faith and for the effectiveness of their witnessing. Through prayer, they were brought daily into life transforming and empowering encounters with the living Christ, which experience they desperately needed to overcome the storms of the enemy. They prayed in support of the apostles and for the blessing of their enemies. They prayed for the kingdom of God to come and for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. The power that followed their lives and ministries was an evident proof that God answered their prayers. 

DID YOU RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT WHEN YOU BELIEVED?

“And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now the men were about twelve in all “(Acts 19:1-2, 6-7 NKJV).

There is a refreshing coming from the Presence of the Lord and all who are thirsty are invited to come and drink to their full without price. Baptism with the Holy Spirit is a key Messianic promise every believer must go after if the person desires to enjoy the abundant life Jesus guaranteed for us through His death and resurrection.   Jesus is not only our Saviour and Healer, but also our Baptizer with the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist prophesied of Him as One who “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11, Luke 3:16). Baptism with the Holy Spirit is so sacred that our Lord never delegated its administration to any person. He does it Himself. In the Old Testament prototype of that experience, God told Moses to select seventy elders from among the people He would empower to share the burden of the work with him. “So Moses went out to the people and told them what the LORD had said. He gathered seventy of the older leaders together and had them stand around the Tent. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses. The LORD took some of the Spirit Moses had, and he gave it to the seventy leaders. With the Spirit in them, they prophesied, but just that one time. Two men named Eldad and Medad were also listed as leaders, but they did not go to the Tent. They stayed in the camp, but the Spirit was also given to them, and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran to Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”(Numbers 11:24-26 NKJV). It is clear from the narrative that the whole incidence was by divine orchestration. Moses had no hand in it. God sovereignly put His Spirit upon people who were presented to Him, including those who for whatever reason could not join others in the tabernacle.  

Similarly, on day of the Pentecost, the entire 120 disciples who gathered in the Upper room were sovereignly filled with the Holy Spirit without any form of discrimination. “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4 NKJV).  The apostles had no hand in it at all. Peter explained that what happened was in fulfilment of the promise of the Father and that Jesus was the Person who poured out the Holy Spirit upon them. “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:32-33 NKJV). Right from this first occasion of baptism with the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, it became the normal experience of believers to be so baptised subsequent to conversion to Christ. It was abnormal to be a believer and not be baptised with the Holy Spirit.  This explained the surprise Paul expressed in our text.

Paul had expected that if the Ephesian brethren were truly believers, they should be baptised with the Holy Spirit; but it was not so.  He quickly presented a condensed version of the gospel to them and when they believed, he laid hands on them and they became baptised with Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues and prophecy. To be a true believer in Christ and not be baptised with the Holy Spirit is abnormal in the New Testament time.  It is still so now.  Here then is a question each of us must answer as we celebrate the feast of the Pentecost today. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” If you did, what gifts of the Holy Spirit did you manifest to authenticate that experience? On the first Pentecost, those who were baptised spoke in tongues. In Ephesus, those who were baptised spoke in tongues and prophesied. What was your experience? Our Lord Jesus, the Baptiser with Holy Spirit is here today to baptise you if you will step out in faith and ask Him to do so. Fix your faith and expectation on Christ and expect Him to grant you the fullness of the Spirit. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13 NKJV).

Let us stand and pray together: “Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.”