Approaching God
As you prepare to enter God’s presence, allow yourself to be amazed that God would choose to speak to us.
“This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’” (Jeremiah 33:2-3)
Listening to God
The outpouring of the Spirit caused some confusion:
“These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.’” (Acts 2:15-17)
I am forever amazed by how God speaks so openly and clearly to us through Old Testament prophets in the New Testament. I find myself a little lost in the story of Pentecost, because the Holy Spirit is the most difficult portion of the Trinity to understand. But it helps when, in verse 16, Peter blurts out, “No! No! No! You got it all wrong! It’s like this!” And then in verse 17, he goes on to set everyone straight by quoting the prophet Joel. We are living “in those last days”! All of us—young and old, male and female, servants and free—are blessed to be indwelt by the powerful Holy Spirit.
Talking to God
You have heard God speak to you through the promise from Joel. In response to His promise, what words praise and thanksgiving do you offer Him? Are there any barriers that are keeping you from realizing the power of the Holy Spirit within you? Anything you need to confess?
Responding to God
The Holy Spirit itself pulls us back into Scripture, proving its credibility and truth, and showing us the depth of God’s love. God reveals Himself to us in these tiny bite–sized pieces we can handle without choking. We just need to go back to the source more often to eat. Who else but our loving Lord and Savior would send a spirit that could bring us back to His scripture when we need spiritual feeding and then arranges that scripture in a way only He could.
Surrendering to God
“Thank you, God, for loving us enough to pour out your Spirit upon us. Help us to live in the power of that Spirit. Amen.”
By Dave Westhouse
A HISTORICAL SIDEBAR
Part of Martin Luther’s reformation and retrieval of theology included his understanding that knowledge of God and a relationship with Him is what the Holy Spirit brings us. “And besides giving and entrusting to us everything in heaven and on earth, He has given us His Son and His Holy Spirit in order to bring us to Himself through them. . . . Without Christ we see nothing in God but an angry and terrible Judge. But we could know nothing of Christ either, if it were not revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.”
