“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting.” Acts 1:2
The Holy Scriptures are absolutely remarkable, and this for many reasons. One of those reasons is that the Spirit of God, first of all being the essential element in the writing of the Scriptures, is also the One who takes the truth and causes the Light of the Father and Son to shine on it, enabling men to see and understand true reality. Paul speaks of this when he declares the Spirit of God, this Comforter given by God the Father, to be the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” (Eph. 1:17) It is the Spirit of God who makes the Father and Christ real to the soul. It is the Spirit of God who takes the truths of the Gospel and Scripture, and makes them alive to the heart, stirring up the heart to seek God, to be saved by being born of the Spirit.
There is another reason for which the Scriptures are extraordinary, and this with respect to every believer who has lived since Pentecost, and it is the revelation that the Spirit of God, the very Spirit of Christ, is the Spirit of power, possessing the ability not only to save a soul, but to launch a ship, the vessel of the newly created church. The great need of the disciples in the upper room on the day of Pentecost was not a knowledge of the truth, but the revelation that God, by the Spirit, according to Christ’s promise had come. The wind had begun to blow. Why did God choose the picture of the “wind” to speak of the coming of the Spirit, and the “launching” of the church, with its message of truth, and the unveiling of the life of Christ within? It was to awaken the believer to the fact that the Spirit of God was given to communicate the essential POWER of God to the believer’s heart, so that, the believer would be enabled, not only to understand more of this gospel, and the new life of which it spoke, but that he or she would become the recipient of that power, a partaker of this very power of Christ, or as Paul put it, “… the power of His resurrection.” (Phi. 3:10)
When the Apostle Paul was chosen by God, and this affirmed by his conversion on the road to Damascus, God gave to him a specific “dispensation.” This dispensation was not only a calling, and focused objective of revealing to the church the riches of Christ, and her union with Christ in order to know Him, but he was given the authority and resources by the Spirit to communicate the “exceeding greatness of Christ’s power towards us who believe.” (Eph. 1:19) A specific, and essential, part of his ministry was to place in the hands of the church, the living body of Christ, the essential key that would, as the hymnwriter put it: “…unclasp and set one free.” This “key” was that of the power of God given in Christ and communicated by the Spirit. The Day of Pentecost was a day of freedom from doubt, hesitation, and any doublemindedness or “little” faith. The wind of the Spirt blew with such power that all who heard it, and were seeking God in unity, participated in the effect of it. Peter was a changed man that day, changed from the denier of Christ to the first one to confess him before the Jewish world of that day. And yet, he was not the only one, for Scripture tells us that all were speaking of “…the wonderful works of God.” (Acts 2:11)
The Spirit of Christ is like the wind in that He cannot be seen. But Christ can be known by the Spirit, and His power in answer to the Apostle Paul’s prayer for the knowledge of the will of God, the believer being, “…strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power for all patience and longsuffering…”
Dear Father, Strengthen us to live. In Jesus’ name, Amen.