Wind and Fire
By Pastor James May
The Passover Feast was over, Jesus had risen from the grave, and after appearing to many of his disciples for 40 days after Passover and the resurrection, He led a few of them out to the Mount of Olives near Bethany. At the exact place where his feet left the ground, Jesus will return one day to put his foot upon this earth once more. He left this earth as victor and conqueror of death, hell and the grave, and He will return soon as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. His power and majesty will be so great that when the foot of the Creator touches the Mt. of Olives that He created, that mountain will spit in two.
But for now, Jesus was gone back to Heaven from whence He came. He is seated at the Father’s right hand as our advocate against all the accusations of our enemy, Satan.
Just moments before Jesus began to rise from the earth He had something very important to say to the disciples that stood there. These would be the last words that Jesus would speak while on earth.
After calming the fears of the disciples and opening the scriptures to their understanding, Jesus told the disciples the reason that He was crucified; the reason that He had suffered, bled and died. He explained all of the scriptures of the Law and how that He had fulfilled it all for one single purpose – That men could be saved from sin.
Luke 24:47, " And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."
It was a wake-up call to the disciples and to the church. They had a work to do, a message to share, and it was time for them to get busy.
But as important as that message was, and still is, we must note that Jesus delayed their work for a little while. Jesus came to earth and took on the form of flesh that men could see God’s love in person, making that first step to bridging the gap between a Holy God and sinful men, so that man could believe on him and be saved – but He stopped the church from spreading the word for a while. He was crucified; taking upon Him the weight of sin for the whole world, so that we could be victorious over sin through His shed blood – but He delayed the message of forgiveness of sin for a little while. Jesus was buried and lay in the grave, then resurrected on the third day, so that he could destroy the power of death, hell and the grave, for the express purpose of giving you and I, and all men, eternal life where we would never have to experience the horror of those things – yet he delayed the preaching of the gospel to anyone for a while.
Why would Jesus go through all of that, only to tell his church to wait for a while before spreading the word and winning souls that Jesus knew were hanging in the balance? In those few days of delay, how many lost souls would leave this world without Jesus when they could have been reached with the gospel? What was so important for us that would cause Jesus to stop the preaching of the gospel even for a few days? There had to be some all-important business that was absolutely necessary before the church could accomplish its mission to spread the gospel!
In Luke 24:49 Jesus gave us the reason for the wait, "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high."
Before they could accomplish their mission the church needed something else, something that would bring them into a higher place in God where they could do mighty works for the Lord Jesus Christ and build His church. For 10 days, they held a prayer vigil in the upper room in Jerusalem. They prayed for the promise of the Father to come as Jesus had said. They prayed, they waited, they watched, and they wondered what that “Promise” would be? How would they know when it came? They really didn’t know, but they knew that it would come, just as Jesus had said, so they kept praying.
I can imagine what may have been going through their minds. When will the Promise come? What will it be like? What difference will the “Promise” make in me? Will I feel any different, act any different or talk any different? Can I really receive the “Promise”? I want all that God has for me, but I don’t know what to expect!
I remember what Jesus said when he spoke of the words of the prophet in Joel 2:28-29, "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit."
These things would come to pass after God’s visitation upon Israel. Jesus was God among us, but now He is gone back to Heaven, so what will that Promise be like that will fulfill what Joel said?
For 10 long days they prayed. Every one of those 120 would gather every day in that upper room. There they would spend their time in prayer and waiting, tarrying before the Lord, desiring that the Promise would come, and knowing not when it would come or what to expect. They only knew that they wanted all that Jesus had promised and they had to have God’s best before they could spread the gospel.
Then on the 11th morning, the morning of the 50th day after the Passover, the Promise came and there was no doubt about it!
Acts 2:1-4, "And when the day of Pentecost was 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 all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."
There He was, the Promise – He had come at last! At the time appointed, and in the manner prescribed by God, the Holy Ghost came! Those who were there that morning had stayed the course and new the Promise was theirs at last! As they all came together, anticipating, waiting, wondering and praying for the Promise to come, their hearts and minds were knitted together in prayer for one single purpose – to see the Promise come. No one was praying for anything else, or for anyone else – only for the Promise to come. They weren’t concerned about where to go for lunch, what to cook for dinner, what business they had to take care of that day, or what color the carpet was on the floor, if they even had carpet. They were in one mind – trying to find the Mind of Christ and desiring only God’s Promise. They were in one accord – every agreeing together that they wanted the Promise to come above all else.
In Matthew 18:18-20 Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
If it only takes two of us agreeing together to see God move and here we see 120 agreeing together. No wonder the Holy Ghost fell! What could we see in the church today if we could just get all of us on the same page, with the same mindset, all thinking and praying and believing for the same thing at the same time? We all want to see the Holy Ghost fall! We all want to see the wind and the fire in the church, but it’s just so hard to get us in one mind and one accord. I’m convinced that the reason the Holy Ghost doesn’t come upon as much as He wants to is because we are too divided or distracted.
We come to church many times out of duty, with no real anticipation of a mighty move of the Holy Ghost in our midst. We come wondering if so-and-so is going to be there. We come wondering if the music will be right, or the preacher will be boring, or if the air conditioner or heater will be set right, or will it rain, and a thousand other things. We aren’t in one mind. It often takes half the service just to get the majority into “one mind” of worship. I sometimes think that we need an hour of worship just to get us to enter in like we should. But then, some would not like that and they wouldn’t enter in because it would delay going to lunch and we couldn’t beat the crowds to the restaurant.
We’ve forgotten how to tarry before the Lord. We live in an instant gratification society where we want it right now. We don’t have time to wait. There’s too much to do, too many places to go, too many people to see, and we can’t wait for 10 minutes, much less 10 days. I don’t know how long we would have to pray before the Holy Ghost would fall. Some people have to tarry and wait a lot longer than others. Some people are so blessed that they receive the Holy Ghost as soon as they get saved, while others get saved and have to come to the altar, seeking for the Holy Ghost for a long time.
The time and manner in which the Holy Ghost will come depends upon several factors.
1) God’s time that only He can determine. That’s why we have to tarry.
2) The condition of our heart and our willingness to receive Him.
3) Closing out everything else but Jesus from your mind to get in one accord with God, and getting everyone around you to believe with you for Him to come.
4) Yielding your will to the Holy Ghost and allowing Him to speak through you and to baptize your heart and soul with God’s mighty power.
Most of the time, it’s that “Yielding” part that delays the Baptism in the Holy Ghost from coming upon you. He can be all over you. He can be so close that you can feel His presence and His power, but if you don’t allow Him to enter in and speak forth what He has to say then He won’t force His way into your heart. You have to open the door, let Him come in, and then speak out. When you begin to speak out, the Holy Ghost will do the rest.
On the Day of Pentecost, every one of those 120 who received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost gave an outward sign that He had baptized them. They all spoke in another “tongue” or language that they had never known or learned before. The Holy Ghost spoke through them, speaking either to those who stood around from other nations, preaching to them the wonderful works of God, or in the language of Heaven, speaking only to God things that they could not utter in their own language.
It’s that same sign, speaking in an unknown tongue, which must accompany the Baptism in the Holy Ghost today before we can really confess that we have Him. When you are saved through repentance, confession of Jesus as Lord and surrendering your life to Him, you are given the Spirit of God. You are washed clean and saved, and given eternal life. But you need to go on from there. That’s just the beginning of what God has in store for those that love Him.
In Matthew 12:43-45 we have the picture of where that Born Again Christian is at the moment of his rebirth by the Spirit of the Lord, "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state"
He is in a wonderful place, clean, new, fresh, with a new beginning and a new life. But he is also at his most vulnerable place, for now he is a clean and empty vessel, ripe for Satan’s attacks. That clean and empty heart must be filled with all that Jesus can put into it before the enemy comes back to try to reclaim what he has lost.
The Lord Jesus Christ has moved in and taken abode in that heart. His blood has washed away all of the sin and filth that filled this life, but something must take the place of what was washed away. What can we fill that emptiness with? We can fill it with more of Jesus! We can let God fill it with the Holy Ghost! We can let God fill that heart with His power, His mercy, His grace and His love until there is not more place for the devil and Satan cannot live where Jesus lives.
Jesus knew that the Baptism in the Holy Ghost, with the power that He brings into your life, was so important for you to keep the victory and have the anointing that you need to spread His Word and preach the gospel to every creature, that he commanded the disciples to not make another move until they were endued with that power and the coming of the Holy Ghost. Shouldn’t we follow that example?
It was only after the Holy Ghost fell that Peter was endued with a power that he had never had before to preach the gospel. He was transformed from a scared man, hiding in the shadows behind closed doors, to a man on fire for God whose words carried an anointing and a power beyond anything that he had ever known. The “Preacher” had come to Peter. He was doing the speaking, but the Holy Ghost was doing the preaching.
His first message after receiving the Holy Ghost brought many others to the place where they would receive Him too. 3000 people were saved that day; all because of the anointing power of the Holy Ghost on a scared fisherman. Here’s what the Holy Ghost preached through Peter that day.
Acts 2:38-39, "… Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."
That’s the message for you this morning too. If you have already received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost, thank God for it. You already know what to do – get in one mind and one accord and pray for those who haven’t received it, that the Holy Ghost will come in this morning with wind and fire to fill everyone of us.
For those who haven’t received Him yet, the Holy Ghost is here right now. He is waiting for you to yield to Him. If you haven’t been saved or repented of your sin, the altar is here. Come and get right with God this morning and let Jesus come into your heart. Then ask the Holy Ghost to come. I believe that He wants to fill your heart and life with wind and fire and great power right now. Will you yield to Him?
The Lord is waiting. The Holy Ghost is here. Will you come now?
