wait for the gift my Father promised...

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Acts 2:1-4

This was the experience Jesus was speaking about when he told the disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 1:4-5

And in Luke 24:49 Jesus told the disciples, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Peter proclaims in Acts 2:16-21 about this experience:

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. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

This was the first experience of a baptism in the Holy Spirit. Once this experienced occurred, this baptism of fire then happened to other believers as they received it. Acts 8:15-17 says about Peter and John, “When they arrived [to Samaria], they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John place their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.”

And in Acts 11:15-16, Peter explained about his experience with the gentiles from Caesarea, “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

This immersion in the Holy Spirit empowered believers to be witnesses and enable them for service by clothing them with power from on high.

The Spirit has many purposes. He leads and guides us, fills us, gives us revelation of Jesus, opens His Word to us, convicts us of sin, strengthens us against difficulty and temptation, brings believers into unity, awakens hearts bringing people into His kingdom, allows us to share God's heart and speak His words, gives us dreams, visions and prophesy, fills believers with joy, brings signs, wonders, healing and awe / fear of God. And He raises the dead to life.

The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jesus when He was baptized by John then led Him out into the wilderness for 40 days to be tested. When He completed this testing period and started His ministry He proclaimed the words from Isaiah 61:1-2, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Anyone who believes in Christ and asks can have this immersion in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus says in Luke 11:11-13, “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

God desires us to have this immersion and empowerment by the Spirit. Jesus stood and proclaimed in John 7:37-39, “'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.' By this he meant the Spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive.”

The Holy Spirit was integral in the formation of the church. It was not until the Spirit came that the word was proclaimed with boldness, many started coming to the Lord and the fellowship of the believers began with people devoting “themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42)

The first time we see the Holy Spirit is in Genesis 1:2 where He was brooding over the earth while it was formless, void and about to break forth into life. It is much like what a mother of certain animals, such as bird do, brooding over their eggs about to hatch and come to life.

Brooding is defined as -

1. To sit on or hatch (eggs).

2. To protect (young) by or as if by covering with the wings.

3. To hover envelopingly; loom.

The early Patriarchs were filled with the spirit of God.  They were led by him and had dreams and visions encountering Him.  And the first evidence we have to others acknowledging the spirit filling someone in is Genesis 42:39. Pharaoh speaks of Joseph after he interpreted his dreams and made suggestions on how to manage, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?”

Moses was also someone filled with the Spirit of God in the Old Testament in a powerful way. In Numbers 11:17 the Lord spoke to Moses about taking 70 leaders from among the people and the Lord would take some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on them so they could share the burden of leading.

Numbers 11:25 says, “Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied – but did not do so again.”

And in Numbers 27:18-20, the Lord speaks to Moses about putting his hands on Joshua and commissioning him, giving Joshua some of Moses' authority to lead. This was both an acknowledgment and an enablement by the Spirit to take leadership.

Kings were anointed with oil to fulfill their calling in leadership. In 1 Samuel 10:1, Saul was anointed with olive oil on his head for being the ruler over the people Israel. And in 1 Samuel 16:13 it says, “Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.

In the New Testament, Acts 6:5 is an example of this commissioning to take a leadership position that was both an acknowledgment and an enablement. When some of the Hebraic Jew's widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food, the Apostles took seven men chosen by the people who were full of the Spirit and wisdom and laid their hands on them and prayed, commissioning them to the work of caring for widows.

In Acts 13:3, Paul and Barnabus were set apart for the work they were called by the Holy Spirit to the gentiles by the leaders (prophets and teachers) at the church in Antioch who fasted, prayed, laid their hands on them and sent them off.

The Holy Spirit is our pledge of our inheritance in God to come.  Ephesians 1:13-14 says, "having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory."

Commentary notes, "The guarantee of our inheritance is the Holy Spirit Himself. Interestingly, the Greek word for guarantee can also be used to indicate an engagement ring. As Christ is the Bridegroom and the church is the bride, so the Holy Spirit is the down payment, the earnest money, in the long-awaited marriage of the two (Rev. 19:7, 8)." [1]
  
Another commentary notes, "The word seal means to set a seal on one as a mark of ownership. The Holy Spirit ratified God’s ownership of believers by fixing His seal on them in a supernatural manner." [2]

God places His seal on us by this incredible gift of the Holy Spirit as a mark of His love, devotion, and promises to come.  

In Song 8:6 the beloved says to her lover, "Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.  It burns life fire, like a mighty flame.  Many waters cannot quench love, rivers cannot sweep it away.  If one were to give all wealth of one's house for love, it would be utterly scored."

 

Lord, you have set your seal of love over our hearts in giving us the precious gift of Your Holy Spirit.  We long to be more filled with Your spirit. I am reminded of some words of Richard Foster, “In our day heaven and earth are on tiptoe waiting for the emerging of a Spirit-led, Spirit-intoxicated, Spirit-empowered people. All creation watches expectantly for the springing up of a disciplined, freely gathered, martyr people who know in this life the life and power of the Kingdom of God.”   Make us more and more this people.


1.  Radmacher, Earl D. ; Allen, Ronald Barclay ; House, H. Wayne: Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary. Nashville : T. Nelson Publishers, 1999, S. Eph 1:14 

2. KJV Bible Commentary. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1994, S. 2407