More Pentecost Moments

I have on my mind Pentecost. We see the story unfold in Acts 2. It is a remarkable historical moment—one worth your careful review. Based upon the narrative there and within the wrap-around passages I wish to acknowledge a responsibility, declare a reality, and invite a response.

Acknowledging a Responsiblity

We want to see the Kingdom of God expand. We want territory taken back from Satan. We want fewer people damned, and Heaven grossly populated. Mark 1:15 finds Jesus laying this out in the simplest terms: “The right time has come. The Kingdom of God is near. Change your hearts and lives and believe the Good News!”

We must take on this responsibility. Acts 1:8 is our order of march. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Note both the scope of the order (“the ends of the earth”) and the source for actualizing such (“the Holy Spirit”).

Declaring a Reality

We cannot effectively advance God’s Kingdom without the Holy Spirit. We might successfully advance an Evangelical Industrial Complex. We might successfully advance a culture warrior movement that has proximity to Christian themes while not being truly Christ-centered. Indeed, we might grow a very large church through one or more of these approaches. For these we do not need the Spirit of God. We just need good marketing, charismatic leaders, and earthly resources.

But to advance the Kingdom of God, to see more Pentecost moments explode into time and space, we need the Spirit of God. Jesus prepares His followers regarding such. John 14:26 tells us, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

We must have the Holy Spirit for any Kingdom work.

Inviting a Response

To carry forward Jesus’ order of march, under the authority of and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we need to yield to Him. “If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit as well” (Galatians 5:25).

The Presbyterian pastor, Daniel Iverson, in 1926, penned a simple song I first learned as a little boy at Camp Chilhowee in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. For decades these have been some of my favorite lines upon which I, almost daily, ruminate.

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me

Simply put: to advance God’s Kingdom, to see another Pentecost moment in our day, to do anything worthy of God’s glory and human good, we must let the Spirit of God melt away all that hinders our fitness for such noble work. We must let the Spirit of God mold the melted mess into a useful vessel. We must welcome the Spirit of God’s filling of that vessel with Himself. We must expect the Spirit of God to use us to fulfill, not our purposes, but those of Jesus, the great Rock of our Salvation, and the King of Glory.