THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (DAY OF PENTECOST)

SCRIPTURE READINGS NUMBERS 11:24-30 ACTS 2:1-21 JOHN 20:19-23 REFLECTION The day of Pentecost is a day set aside to commemorate the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church. The theme for our Pentecost day is “The gift of the Spirit.” The gift of the Spirit is the supernatural…

Jean-Paul Agidi

May 27, 2023

3–5 minutes

SCRIPTURE READINGS

NUMBERS 11:24-30

ACTS 2:1-21

JOHN 20:19-23

REFLECTION

The day of Pentecost is a day set aside to commemorate the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church. The theme for our Pentecost day is “The gift of the Spirit.” The gift of the Spirit is the supernatural enablement of the Holy Spirit to equip believers or the church to fulfill God’s mission in the world. We shall examine two important facts about the Gift of the Holy Spirit:

It is impossible to recieve the Gift of the Holy Spirit without a relationship with God.
Without the Gift of the Holy Spirit the Church is powerless in the World

First, It is impossible to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit without a relationship with God. The Holy Spirit is part of the God-head or the Trinity. Therefore, a person can not experience the gift of the Spirit if he or she does not have a relationship with Father and the Son. In Numbers 11:24-30 and John 20:19-23 we realise that those God has called into a relationship with Him are the ones He empowers with the gift of the Spirit for mission. Beloved in the Lord, if we desire the gift of the Spirit, then we must be willing to respond to God’s call or become faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. God is like a power station or Hydroelectric dam, and the Holy Spirit is the electric current or power that God gives. We are the power cables. It goes to reason that if a power cable is not connected to the power house or source of power, the cable can not have power flowing through it. The sad reality is that we have so many people going to church in the twenty-first century, but they are disconnected from God, the souce of Spiritual Gift. Many of us are more connected to our denominations than the power house or source of our faith and spiritual gift, God. This explains why most Christian are unable to manifest the gift of the Holy Spirit. Some of us have become powerless cables. We seem or appear to be connected yet the gift of the Spirit is not manifesting in us. We have become canal minded. Paul reminds us that “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:12-14)

Second, without the gift of the Spirit the Church will be powerless in the world. It is for this reason, “All of them (believers) were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them…“ (Acts 2:4) Through the empowerment of the gift of the Spirit, Peter was embolden, he overcame his fear.and He addressed the crowd, “…this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ Acts 2:16-21. Dear friend, what can the church do without the gift of the Holy Spirit. All generations in the Chruch need the gift of the Holy Spirit to function effectively. A church without the gift of the Holy Spirit is a dead church.

In summary, the theme for our reflection is “The Gift of the Spirit” We have discovered two important facts about the gift of the Spirit. One, It is impossible to recieve the Gift of the Holy Spirit without a relationship with God and two, without the Gift of the Holy Spirit the Church is powerless in the World. May we continue to be faithful disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ even as remain equipped with the gift of the Spirit to remain impactful in the world.