Preparing Your House for the Pentecost Guest
Everyone knows that holidays always bring guests from near and far to our homes. Many people mark their calendars for Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter, some planning a month in advance what time they are taking off from work/school, where they are visiting, or who they are expecting on those days. But many of those same people would overlook one of the most important Christian dates--Pentecost Sunday.
What is Pentecost Sunday? It is celebrated in remembrance of the day the Holy Spirit of God came to rest on men.
Chapter 2 of the Book of Acts describes the visiting of the Holy Spirit: 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 on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
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If the Spirit came to the believers, did it mean that it was gone previously?
The Holy Spirit represents the Spirit of God. To make man a living being, God breath into his nostrils His Spirit in Genesis. God meant for man to be a holy temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19), a house for His Spirit to live in. Only being united to God as the origin and source of life would man be able to bear the fruit of love and thereby fulfilling his purpose in life.
However, Genesis 6 records the event when God’s Spirit left mankind. The children of God, who were commissioned to live distinguished from the evils of the world, defiled their pure genealogy by marrying with daughters of men. In a fallen world created by Adam’s disobedience, God had set apart chosen people with the commission to restore the world. At this deplorable situation, even the people representing God’s last hope for His world was losing their identity. God then said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
Without the Spirit of life from God, man was originally dust. Only with God’s breath—His Spirit—was man able to become a living being. Since the Spirit left, man’s lifespan decreased compared to Adam’s 130 years, symbolizing the mortal status he now holds versus the eternal life gained through the God’s Spirit.
Conclusively, God’s Spirit must reside in man in order for man to have any value or existence. We see another instance when the Holy Spirit attempted to find a permanent home.
After the flood, Noah released a raven and three doves. The first two doves returned but the third did not. When Jesus was baptized, John the Baptist witnessed a dove representing the Spirit of God descend upon Jesus. By not returning, the third dove showed that the Holy Spirit had found a place to safely land on the earth that just received judgment. In much of the same way, the Holy Spirit of God eventually wants to reside in the hearts of man, more so than a church since men are “temples of the Holy Spirit.”
Even though the Holy Spirit has been present throughout the entire history of mankind bringing about salvation, the beauty and touching wonder of Pentecost is how the Holy Spirit entering the hearts of any believer of Jesus Christ and not exclusively in Jesus or the Apostles.
Are you ready to receive the Holy Spirit this Pentecost Sunday? Have you prepared a place in your house yet?
The disciple experienced the fire and wind of the Holy Spirit when they prayed on Pentecost. Prayer can be the contact point between you and God this Pentecost Sunday.
Open wide your hearts and as the Holy Spirit of God finds its way to you, you will bear fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
