Avalon Chronicles #150: The Full Blessing of Pentecost

 Resource: The Full Blessing of Pentecost by Andrew Murray. 1994. Christian Literature Crusade. Fort Washington, PA. 

It has been thirty years ago in 1994 that I came upon this small treasure of a book. At a time when my faith was deepening and my needs were great, I came upon the writings of this South African writer, teacher and Christian pastor. The Holy Spirit is perhaps the least understood of the Holy Trinity, which includes God and Jesus. What I desire to discuss about the Holy Spirit relates to when did it appear, what it meant and means for Christians and how do we obtain it? The brevity of my discussion in no way is to diminish the extraordinary significance of this infilling by the Holy Spirit.

WHEN DID PENTECOST OCCUR? 40 days after Christ's Resurrection (Christ appeared before many during that time frame) Jesus appeared before the twelve disciples and as many as 120 others on the Mount of Olives and ascended to Heaven after a rushing mighty wind occurred.  Ten days later Peter preached and the Holy Spirit descended to earth and three thousand were baptized in the Holy Spirit! This represented the beginning of the Messianic Age of the Christian Church. It is noted with great celebration and ceremony in most Christian denominations.

WHAT DOES FILLING BY THE HOLY SPIRIT MEAN? Obviously, entire books have been written on what is the significance of the Holy Spirit, the third part of the Holy Trinity, along with God the Father and Jesus, the Son of the Father. Very basically, an infilling of one by the Holy Spirit signifies that the recipients have advanced past the external Jesus Christ in one's spiritual maturation to a new and deeper level of power that begins to indwell us. One benefit amongst many is that we are able to have a heightened illumination of understanding of the Word of God. Another benefit is we have a new power to bless others. The Holy Spirit is the most important factor to assist us in combatting the pagan-dominated world of Satan.

HOW IS THE HOLY SPIRIT OBTAINED BY US? Rev. Andrew Murray discusses seven aspects of the Holy Spirit.

I. The full blessing of Pentecost is the inheritance of all the children of God. We are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit so we may rise above a "weak and defective life" typically exemplified by us all. It is within the grasp of us all.

II. I do not as yet have this blessing. With the Holy Spirit "...we may walk in the fulness and joy of the Spirit,..."

III. Is this blessing for me? There is divided opinion in Christendom that the Gift of the Holy Spirit was only for the early Christians and not for today. "The indwelling, the fulness of the Spirit, is nothing but the entire healthfulness of the body of Christ...Learn, then to express and to repeat over again the conviction: This blessing is for me."

IV. I cannot grasp this blessing in my own power. "The blessing of Pentecost is a supernatural gift, a wonderful act of God in the soul...The impartation of this heavenly blessing is as entirely an act of God as the resurrection of Christ from the dead was His divine work...the believer (must) abandon all power and hope of his own to receive this full blessing as a free gift of divine Omnipotence."

V. I must have this blessing at any cost. Are you ready for the cost? "He that would have it must sell all, must forsake all: sin to its smallest item, the love of the world in its most innocent forms, self-will in its simplest and most natural expressions, every faculty of our nature, every moment of our life, every pleasure that feeds our self-complacency, every exercise of our body, soul, and spirit---all must be surrendered to the power of the Spirit of God." We must be emptied to be refilled. If you truly want it, repeat and say, "I have said to God that I must, I will have it . By this decision I abide. I must, I will have it."

VI. In faith that God accepts my surrender and bestows this blessing upon me, , I appropriate it for myself. "Believe that God has in heaven bestowed upon you the fulness of the Spirit...In this faith let your life be a life of joyful thanksgiving and expectation."

VII. Now I count upon God and wait upon Him to reveal truly within me the blessing which He has bestowed upon me. " He will...miraculously bring this heavenly blessing to fruition in you, so that you may be filled with the Holy Spirit and that you may know, not by reasoning but by experience, that you have actually received the Holy Spirit."  

My daily prayer, "I pray I may be controlled by the Holy Spirit and reflect the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, patience, gentleness, goodness, kindness, faithfulness and self-control." Amen 

Avalon Chronicles #149: "In the Name of Christ, stop!"

 Excerpts of Remarks by President Ronald Reagan National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 2, 1984

"We all in this room, I know, and we know millions more everywhere, turn to God in prayer, believe in the power and the spirit of prayer. And yet so often, we direct our prayers to those problems that are immediate to us, knowing that He has promised His help to us when we turn to Him. And yet in a world today that is so torn with strife where the divisions seem to be increasing, not people coming together, within countries, divisions within the people, themselves and all, I wonder if we have ever thought about the greatest tool that we have---that power of prayer and God's help."

Forty years later and the state of the world has not changed! But, we can take heed of President Reagan's charge to direct the power of prayer to the eminently more important ones confronting the nations and our world. We can bring together the prayer of two billion Christians and those of all faiths and beliefs that are worn out and grieving amongst the constant killing and turmoil evident on our planet. The battlefields most conspicuous are those on fields of physical fight, where blood is spilled, sapping the human treasures of a nation's young. We must be cognizant of the persecutions of people of faith, especially Christians, throughout the world by the true murderers of the world directed by hatred. But, we must go deeper than battlefields to the underlying spiritual warfare directed by Satan through his demonic warriors to foster and foment strife and divisions among nations, races and philosophies. President Reagan continued with an incredible story!

"The power of prayer can be illustrated by a story that goes back to the fourth century. The Asian monk living in a little remote village, spending most of his time in prayer or tending the garden from which he obtained his sustenance...Telmacmus...thought he heard the voice of God telling him to go to Rome. And believing that he had heard, he set out. And weeks and weeks later, he arrived there, having traveled most of the way on foot.

And it was at a time of a festival in Rome. They were celebrating a triumph over the Goths. And he followed a crowd into the Colosseum, and then there in the midst of this great crowd, he saw the gladiators come forth, stand before the Emperor, and say, 'We who are about to die, salute you.' And he realized they were going to fight to the death for the entertainment of the crowds. And he cried out, 'In the name of Christ, stop!' And his voice was lost in the tumult there in the great Colosseum.

And as the games began, he made his way down through the crowd and climbed over the wall and dropped to the floor of the arena. Suddenly the crowds saw this scrawny little figure making his way out to the gladiators and saying over and over again, 'In the name of Christ, stop!' And they thought it was part of the entertainment, and at first they were amused. But then, when they realized it wasn't, they grew belligerent and angry. And as he was pleading with the gladiators, 'In the name of Christ, stop,' one of them plunged his sword into his body. And as he fell to the sand of the arena in death, his last words were, 'In the name of Christ, stop.'

And suddenly, a strange thing happened. The gladiators stood looking at this tiny form lying in the sand. A silence fell over the Colosseum. And then, someplace up in the upper tiers, an individual made his way to an exit and left, and others began to follow. And in the dead silence, everyone left the Colosseum. That was the last battle to the death between the gladiators in the Roman Colosseum. Never again did anyone kill or did men kill each other for the entertainment of the crowd.

One tiny voice that could hardly be heard above the tumult. 'In the name of Christ, stop' It is something we could be saying to each other throughout the world today."

We can raise our collective voices. We can look around us at divisions politically. We can look around us at divisions of skin color. We can look around us at divisions of gender. We can look around us at the blood being shed throughout the world on countless battlefields, some highly publicized, others only in small villages. We can direct to our God in Heaven, our prayers, which He will hear and answer, "In the name of Christ, stop!"