Pentecost was NOT a One-Time Event: Our God is not a Question Mark!
By Donna Kupferschmidt
February 16, 2007 (Continue from Home Page)
Several weeks ago, a young vicar preached at our church. I was excited to see that he read from Scripture on the Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13). I anticipated hearing about how God can be a personal guide of our every day life if we want Him to be.
But then the vicar said, “Pentecost is believed to be a one-time phenomena, as it is only documented once in the Bible. It was given to the first century Christians to boost their faith. Now we have the Bible to speak to us.”
I wanted to stand up and shout, “NO!!!!” Instead, I sat and said nothing, stunned that a Christian church would teach unbelief of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Is this what our seminaries are teaching our future leaders of the flock so they can misguide us into not believing that God can dwell in us? God is Truth and this is not the Truth!
Who changes hearts? Who opens eyes and ears? Is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob a different God? Is the God Who made Moses’ face shine a different God? Is the God Who spoke through the prophets a different God? Is the God Who gave us Jesus a different God? Is the God Who wrestled with Jacob a different God? Is the God Who promised the Comforter a different God? Is our God not the Alpha and Omega, never changing with the times or seasons or whims or fancies?
Is our God a different God because some want Him to be?
“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).”
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8).”
“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 heavens 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 (Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:17-21).”
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).”
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of the darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4-6).”
“It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence (2 Corinthians 13-14).”
“Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard (Galatians 3:5)?”
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe (Ephesians 1:17-19a).”
Our God is with us who believe. He wants to have fellowship with us. The God of the universe, the Creator of all things, WANTS TO HANG OUT WITH US! He wants to be our guide, our light in a dark world. He wants to talk to us, to be with us. Yes, He talks to us through the Scripture and convicts us through Scripture. But, He also talks to us and convicts us through the Holy Spirit, Who was promised to believers through Jesus Christ.
Just because a person has not experienced the Holy Spirit’s presence does not mean He is not present, any more than a child who cannot see us cannot be seen by us in a game of hide and seek. Our God is not a question mark or a far-off Being Who we need to reach through a pastor or some type of mediator. He’s available to all who repent, truly repent: fall on their knees, weep and repent, and seek His face. He is goodness and love and guidance and mercy and grace and joy and peace. Make no mistake by minimizing His presence. God cannot be compartmentalized nor can He be contained. He is real and He is present and powerful and, to those who seek His face, He will show up.
Please don’t grieve the Holy Spirit! Please don’t compartmentalize God! Please don’t minimize the Cross! Please, please don’t get trapped in Doctrine and miss out on a relationship with our God!!!
Please! Repent and invite God to dwell in you!
