Acts 2:1-12
1) "When the day of Pentecost had fully come". It is important to note that God in Heaven has His time according to His Sovereign will.
The story is told of a woman who desperately wanted a husband. So one night she went outside the house and cried and prayed aloud under an oak tree for a husband. An owl awoke from the noise and screeched "whooooo". She replied, "anybody Lord".
There are things of far more importance than marriage on earth. However if God pushes you into marriage then obey but do not hanker after it. God has marked out your life but you need to ask God to let His will happen in your life. Remember it is not every one who says "Lord Lord", but those who do His will who will enter Heaven. Do not make your own plans for your life but pray that His will be done in your life.
We read in Gal 4:4, "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son". Jesus wasn't born just any time but in God's perfect timing. There was Caiaphas the high priest, Pilate, the Romans who practiced death by crucifixion, etc. The timing was just perfect.
You need to have a personal relationship with God that He Himself leads you. Do not simply do things because your dad, uncle or aunt did it.
Every detail of Jesus' life was worked out by God. Exactly when Jesus would be crucified, how long He would be in the grave, how and when He would appear to His disciples, when he would ascend to heaven, and when the Holy Spirit would be poured out at Pentecost.
The Lord chose that specific day to pour out His Spirit so that all the visiting people from outside Jerusalem would hear the Word of God in their own language.
Jesus promised to be with His disciples always and would give them the Comforter, the Holy Spirit to abide with them.
When you pray with urgency for something to happen remember that God has His time. You need to hear from Him what His will and time is regarding the matter.
2) We spoke last time about the feast of firstfruits where everyone brought their firstfruits to offer to God. We don't bring firstfruits anymore. We must bring souls to Jesus. How many souls have you won to the Lord? Or must you say like that Afrikaans song, "moet ek gaan met leë hande, moet ek so my Heer ontmoet" (must I appear empty handed before my Lord)?
Maybe you're unable to win a single person to God because you're not alive spiritually and do not have God's presence in your life. Maybe you're still busy with flirtatious relationships and love the world. In such a state you cannot bear good fruit.
3) The second part of the feast was the remembrance of how Moses received the 10 commandments, how God spoke to Moses on the mount and the noise and rumblings on the mount.
But in Jer 31:31-33 we read, "“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah ... I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts"
They were still remembering the tablets of stone but the word of God was not written in their hearts. Although they had the written commandments of God they could still sin in private and look at things they ought not.
But here He promises to pour out His Spirit upon them, write His laws on their heart. How is it in your family? Is there fighting or does God's Word reign? Is His laws written on your heart and His Spirit upon you?
Where the Holy Spirit does not reign there is a party spirit. A spirt from hell. But we want God's Spirit to reign amongst us.
You might be in one place together but not of one accord because you have been speaking and slandering other people behind their back. Repent from that.
Some who heard the apostles preach in other languages mocked and said that they were full of wine, and some others heard it and mocked together. But many were cut to the heart and separated themselves from the mockers and were saved. We have these two groups. To which do you belong?
World history was changed by these men filled with the Spirit of God. What history do you make for the Kingdom of God?
It would be terrible if everything said today doesn't penetrate your heart and change your life for eternity and unto eternal life.
May it be a true harvest of firstfruits, Pentecost in your life today.
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Erlo Stegen (1935 - Present)
Used of God in the Zulu revival in South Africa. He helped found the Kwasizabantu Mission where a few thousand live on the mission doing work for the Lord. He shares a powerful burden for the purity of the Church and revival in the Church.Many ministers have preached in their large conventions through the years namely David Wilkerson who enjoyed greatly the mission's work. They have established over 30 other missions around the work as a work of the Spirit of God.