It is Pentecost Sunday today! A long awaited day for those who were present at the very first Pentecost Sunday, and even for those who heard the prophecies and might have yearned to see them come to pass. A reminder that God always, always keeps His promises.

Time after time, God says in advance what He will do. Then being the faithful God that He is, He goes ahead and does exactly what He said He would do, in His perfect time. “Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere Him. For He spoke, and it came to be: He commanded, and it stood firm.” (Psalm 33:8-9, BSB).

“And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on My menservants and maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” (Joel 2:28-29, BSB).

“If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.” (John 14:15-19, NLT).

“Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.” (John 14:23-26, NLT).

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” (John 16:7-11, NKJV).

“And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.” (Luke 24:49, NLT).

O that we would listen to hear God say what He is doing, make ourselves available to be used by Him to do it, and work in step with Him as He does it.

And the disciples did just that. They were not perfect, they had their struggles, their weaknesses, their doubts, but in this instance, they were willing and obedient. They waited, praying, praying, praying, as they waited for God’s promise. “They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.” (Acts 1:14, NLT).

Not just praying, but praying in unity. Psalm 133:1-2 (GNT) says “How wonderful it is, how pleasant, for God’s people to live together in harmony! It is like the precious anointing oil running down from Aaron’s head and beard, down to the collar of his robes.” Did you read that? Harmony, also translated as unity, is like anointing oil, precious anointing oil! No wonder this was Jesus’ prayer to His Father, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21, ESV). Our unity as the Body of Christ, His church, is powerful enough to compel the world to believe.

And what happened as they obeyed, waited and prayed in unity? God kept His promise!

“On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. ² Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. ³ Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. ⁴ And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

⁵ At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. ⁶ When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.

⁷ They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, ⁸ and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! ⁹ Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” ¹² They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.

¹³ But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”

(Acts 2:1-13, NLT)

Reading this passage fills me with joy. But I have to admit that it also intrigues me. I have previously written on the significance of fire here so I won’t repeat myself. Unity is emphasised again in the very first verse. The KJV says “and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” I also love that in the midst of that unity, the Holy Spirit demonstrated His ability to recognise each person individually, by causing the tongues of fire to settle on each person, a sign of how he will be in each one of us, working through us.

I am also intrigued by the contrasting response two groups of people had to the same event. In verse 7, we read that some were completely amazed by what was happening. In verse 13, we read that some ridiculed and mocked them, accusing them of being drunk. It is interesting to note that those who were amazed were described as “devout”, i.e. “totally committed to a cause or belief”. On the other hand, the ones who mocked were “in the crowd.” Which group do you fall into? The devout or the ones in the crowd? When you see God at work, do you react with amazement or with mockery? Do you want to learn more, or do you merely laugh it off? When you hear of a genuine miracle, do you instinctively praise God or dismiss it? Do you react with faith or unbelief?

The good news is that whether you fall into the camp of the latter or the former, the Holy Spirit is for you. The Holy Spirit ready to dwell and work in those with faith, to be our helper, comforter, advocate, guide, friend, to infuse us with power. And He is also the perfect cure for unbelief, as we read in John 16:8-9 (quoted earlier).

As such, if we struggle with unbelief, then we desperately need the Holy Spirit because the truth is, unbelief has such tragic consequences. The one time we see Jesus not doing any miracles, it was attributed purely to unbelief. Nothing else stopped Jesus, no sickness was too hard for Him to cure, no demon was too powerful for Him not to cast out. But unbelief, ah! Matthew 13:50 (NLT) notes, “And so he (Jesus) did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.” Other translations say He could do no mighty or powerful work there. I am so grateful for the Holy Spirit and His ability to cure us of this power-limiting sickness of unbelief. May the Holy Spirit convict us of our unbelief, and may we heed to His conviction, for God is merciful and He will pardon. We see that in the testimony of Apostle Paul himself. In 1 Timothy 1:13 (BSB), he wrote, “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man; yet because I had acted in ignorance and unbelief, I was shown mercy.” Thank God for His great mercy that is available to us all.

Thankfully, on that Day of The Pentecost, Peter had the courage and compassion to speak to the crowd, to explain that far from being drunk, this was simply a manifestation of a promise God had made long before, as Joel had prophesied. He preached to them, and thanks to the power of the Holy Spirit, the results were almost instant. “Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” (Acts 2:37).

With God, there is always a solution, a way out. “Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.”Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.” (Acts 2:38-41).

What a beautiful, powerful outcome. This same Peter that denied Jesus three times in front of one servant girl and two other people (Luke 22:54-62) was bold enough to address a crowd, thanks to the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. What an amazing testimony. If only we are willing to surrender ourselves for His use, to trust Him to take all the things we fear will limit us and turn them around, what a powerful transformation testimony we shall also experience!

I like to think, in hope, that among those 3000 people who repented were some of the mockers who had seen the error of their ways and were willing to repent. For nobody is too far gone for God’s grace to reach. No heart is too cold for the Holy Spirit to work on. He comes with fire, so of course He can warm up any heart! No heart is too dark for Jesus to penetrate. He is the one whose light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend, overcome or extinguish it (John 1:5). May we surrender our hearts to be worked on by the Holy Spirit, and be prepared for the wonders that will happen as we do so.

I pray today that we will have the courage to ask for the Holy Spirit, and the faith to receive Him, to be convicted of our unbelief, and to experience His power, if we haven’t already done so. And if we have, may we be willing to be used by Him on an even greater level, to experience greater dimensions of His power. May we step out in faith, working in unity with fellow believers to fulfil God’s will, on Earth as it is in Heaven. In doing so, may the world see the beauty in our unity, and the incredible power of our God at work, our Mighty, Faithful, Glorious God who does wonders, Hallelujah!

Image source here… And what a burst of colour on this glorious day!