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Grace and Peace in Christ!
Self-quarantine. Social distance. Isolation. Fear. Panic. Doubt. All of these words have been used so often during the past couple of months that it has become part of our everyday vocabulary. Amidst all the disrangement, I want to tell you about the hope and purpose we can hold onto.
As Pentecost draws closer, it is evident that this one is going to be like no other we have ever experienced. In less than a week, we have the opportunity to have an experience similar to that of the Apostles during the first ever Pentecost!
While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. Acts 1:4
In 2020, we encounter the same order that the Apostles had about 2000 years ago: to STAY IN PLACE and wait. What is the purpose of this waiting? As I thought about this, convinced that there has to be a reason why we are called to wait just as the Apostles were called, I realized something beautiful.
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in days of old, the generations of long ago! Isaiah 51:9
When Jesus had died, the Apostles hid away in fear and panic as their lives seemed to be falling apart. They knew that if they stepped out in public they would be killed, so they isolated themselves as the hope they once had seemed to be lost. These are the same feelings that many of us may be feeling as the world around us appears to be collapsing under the weight of isolation, panic and doubt.
The world waits in silence with hope diminishing and faith weakening, much like how the Apostles waited. During these unfavorable times is when the Holy Spirit intervened and empowered them to do indescribable things such as building up the Church. In the same way, now during these uncertain times, the Holy Spirit is willing to grant us greater access to His power so that we can do bigger things than these and grow in our fellowship with the Trinity.
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these. John 14:12
Through all of this, the one thing that remains constant is prayer. In the hostile times we live in, we are also called to anchor our hope in prayer as we wait for the promise of the Father -- the coming of the Holy Spirit.
See, in the same manner that the Apostles received an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a new way through their persistence in prayer, we are being prepared to receive that same kind of newness of Spirit! This Spirit was activated in them so powerfully, allowing them to do new, extraordinary things that the world has never seen before.
So now we are being called to prepare just as the Apostle's prepared for Pentecost because a fresh, NEW, outpouring of the Spirit is waiting for us! A Spirit that is eager to use us in ways unimaginable to even our ancestors. What was once thought impossible is going to become possible through the Holy Spirit!
The Apostles received a special anointing that equipped them to carry out their mission to evangelize the whole world. So now that the times we live in have an aura of urgency, we too are being equipped to carry out a powerful mission, with a Spirit who has no limits! So open your eyes and widen your horizons to see, experience, and do things that will resonate throughout the ends of the Earth.
The Apostles may have done extraordinary and impossible things, but through the fresh outpouring of the Spirit that is waiting for us this Pentecost, we are called to do so much more! Are you ready?
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8