Acts 1:4-5, “4 …Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He told the disciples that He would send them the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity. He called the Holy Spirit, “The Father’s promise.” Jesus said that as John the Baptist baptized people in water, He was going to baptize them with the Holy Spirit.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus declared that the reason for the baptism of the Holy Spirit was to receive power to be His witness in all the earth; “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Later, in Acts 2:4 (after Jesus ascended to heaven) Luke, the writer of Acts, recorded, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Everything Jesus said, beforehand to the disciples, happened because they were given the Father’s promise by being baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.
If the disciples who spent three years learning directly from Jesus never could have been the leaders God called them to be unless they were first endued with power and spoke in new tongues, how much more do you think today’s disciples need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit? We don’t need more secular style leadership conferences in the church; we need Pentecostal power!
Jim Cymbala wrote, “The key is not money, organization, cleverness or education. Are you and I seeing the results Peter saw? Are we bringing thousands of men and women to Christ the way he did? If not, we need to get back to His power source.”
Have you received the Father’s promise since being born again? If not, ask Jesus to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fill you with His power right now. After you have prayed, patiently wait on the Lord to confirm His gift by listening in your heart for a language you have not learned. Once you hear this new language, in your spirit, begin to speak it out with boldness because you have been given the gift of speaking in tongues as the evidence of your baptism in the Spirit.
From this moment forward, pray in your new heavenly language as often as you can because Paul said, in 1 Corinthians 14:4, “Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves.” The word “edify” means to, “build up.” When you pray in tongues you are building up your most holy faith (Jude 1:20). Now, as a spiritually empowered and edified disciple, live as a witness for Jesus wherever you go!
REFLECTION
Have you received the Father’s promise?
ACTION
- If you haven’t received the Father’s promise, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues make time, today, to receive it.
- If you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit pray in other tongues, today, to be empowered and built up for God’s service.
- Be a witness for Jesus everywhere you go!
