Welcome to Pentecost Sunday. In the Christian church, we celebrate Pentecost as the day in which the Early Church was ignited as the Holy Spirit came and filled the Upper Room. As Pentecostals, we believe the event of the Upper Room can be experienced today.
Waiting on God to do the next thing is key. Praying into that next thing is even more important. The transformation of Peter as empowered by the Holy Spirit is an incredible example of what can happen in a believer’s life as they open themselves to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit fills us as we seek God. I determined early in my life that God wanted to give me more and I was not going to hold back. I prayed to receive the Baptism as an
8 year-old. I will never forget the incredible experience of being saturated with God’s Presence at that altar.
The Holy Spirit comes as we wait on Him. “Lord, I’ve got two hours until the kids return from school. If this experience is real, come fill me now.” That was the prayer of my great-grandmother in 1907. As she knelt praying on her living room floor with her Bible open to Acts 2, the Holy Spirit changed her English words to sounds and language she had never learned. As a healing evangelist in the 1890s, her life was now empowered with new faith for the miraculous and her prayer language remained part of her for the rest of her life.
The Holy Spirit ignites our prayer life with power. There was a dear, elderly lady at The Tabernacle who was homebound in the 1990s. She wanted the pastors who came to visit to pray a strong prayer. They knew to pray in tongues. Time spent praying in the Spirit is what Paul refers to as the effectual and fervent prayer that produces much.
How’s your prayer life? Have you received since you believed? Ask. The Holy Spirit will fill you. Then allow the Holy Spirit to lead you and pray through you as you go deeper In God and allow Him to use you for His Kingdom.
Yours for the Kingdom,
Pastor Sharon Baldwin
Preschool Ministries at The Tabernacle
Southwestern Day Care Director