“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
There are four ‘places’ that should become familiar to anyone who wants to know God.
Those four places? The stable in Bethlehem where Jesus was born, the cross of Calvary where Jesus was crucified, the empty tomb from which he emerged resurrected, and the upper room in Jerusalem where the Holy Spirit was poured out to fulfill the Father’s promise.
This past Sunday was the commemoration of the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on Christ-followers in that upper room, filling them with the Third Person of the Trinity to empower them for life and witness, to lead them and bring to remembrance things Jesus had said to them. The Book of Acts is the story of what the Holy Spirit did in their lives and an encouragement as to what he can do in ours.
Every Christ-follower has a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That necessarily includes belief in Jesus’ miraculous conception and birth, in his substitutionary death to pay the penalty for human sin, and his resurrection.
After the risen Jesus breathed on his followers to give them spiritual life, he instructed them to “wait for the promise of the Father” – the Holy Spirit poured out to empower them. This promise is still good for us today.
