PREPARING FOR PENTECOST SUNDAY 23RD MAY 2021

We know that many Christian denominations around the world have various periods of time emphasised in their Liturgical Calendar, Lent for example is a period of 40 days prior to the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christians are encouraged to reflect upon all that it meant then, and now to us as Believers. Church Leaders hundreds of years ago felt that God’s people were getting so busy and caught up doing other things that this most important event and all that it meant was being neglected.

On Sunday 23rd May it is Pentecost Sunday where the Church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit on the 120 Believers in the upper room in Jerusalem.

I want to encourage you (and myself) over these next few days to sit down and reflect MUCH on the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, not only in the Church but in our own lives personally.

The Holy Spirit ALWAYS puts the spotlight on Jesus, so as a result often down through Church History the ministry of Holy Spirit has often been ignored or missed by the Church and His ministry was often sadly neglected.

No human being can come to God, unless God draws Him by the Holy Spirit, and then convicts us of our sin, and puts grace and faith in our hearts so we are enabled to repent and receive forgiveness. Eph. 2:8-9 NKJV For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

The moment we are born again, the Holy Spirit comes into our life, and gives us that ASSURANCE that we have received the Gift of Eternal Life, (1 John 5:13 NKJV) and that our name is recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life, we must then God helping us, learn to continually surrender our lives 100% to the Lord, and let the Holy Spirit totally fill our lives as was the experience of the 120 in the Upper Room, then Paul reminds us we need to do this continually, Eph:5:18 NKJV Be filled (continually) with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.

A Disciple-maker/Mentor can truly help the New Believer to learn how to live the Spirit-filled life.

When the Holy Spirit comes into our life we are introduced to His many faceted ministry, for example He so wants to make the Word of God come ALIVE TO US, as we learn to read and meditate upon the Word, and discover and appropriate the glorious inheritance that is available to us NOW, as well as our eternal inheritance in heaven.

Jesus promised the Disciples in Acts 1:8 NKJV that they would receive POWER TO BE WITNESSES 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.”

I believe that we also receive power to live holy, victorious, pure lives as we let the Holy Spirit rule and reign in us..

When the 120 Believers were filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:8 they also were introduced to the many Gifts of the Holy Spirit, some of these gifts are recorded in 1 Cor. 12, for we read that all the 120 SPOKE IN TONGUES AS THE HOLY SPIRIT GAVE THEM UTTERANCE.

I have highlighted in this blog, some of the ministries of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Believer (THERE IS SO MUCH MORE),can I encourage you to reflect on what I have written here, plus your own personal experience of the Holy Spirit working in your life.

I said earlier that the Holy Spirit always puts the spotlight on Jesus, do you want to love the Lord more? do you want to deepen your relation with Him more? Then ponder and meditate of the Holy Spirit’s ministry, and if you have been blest with a prayer language (speak in tongues) then start to use it MORE AND MORE, the Bible tells us when we do we are edified (built up in our faith), also when you don’t know how to pray, speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit knows what is the mind and will of God the Father. Praying in tongues is an awesome way to praise and worship the Lord, it is also a weapon of warfare we can use against the enemy.

I trust you may respond to my blog in a week or two and testify to a fresh and enlarged experience of the person and work of the Holy Spirit in your life.