Wisdom is essential! If we don’t have wisdom, our circumstances can eat us up! We have to have wisdom, but not man’s “earthly” wisdom;  we need the wisdom that comes from God.

The Word of God inner-connects; it builds and reinforces line upon line. Therefore, wisdom by itself isn’t useful; it doesn’t function by itself -  it has to be applied. Wisdom has to be acted on.

   Let’s look in the book of Acts, chapter 2:1-4.

“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

This is what we’re celebrating today… and because that took place, we can receive today the same Holy Spirit they received then!  God’s Word is so amazing…because it is eternally true, we can step into the Word and receive as we read it!

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was not a surprise. Jesus actually gave His disciples a

“heads up” on this event, as recorded in Luke 24: 45-49

“And He (Jesus) opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. Then He said to them ‘thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and the remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. And you are witness of these things. Behold I send the Promise of My Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

Jesus opened their understanding so they could get a grip on what He was about to tell them. Until He followed with the wisdom of how this was all going to work, I could imagine the  disciples were listening thinking ’what’s He talkin’ about?” There’s no way they could preach in His name, or even be a witness. Basically they were not able to do what Jesus asked them to do. But right then,  Jesus says “Behold” – ie Look! Hold on. . . I’m going to send you the Promise of My Father,  but you must wait, because He’s going to empower you!  

This is exciting,  but I’m sure they were still sorting this out in their minds. Lest they had  any uncertainity, this same instruction is repeated again to them in Acts 1:4.  The disciples were assembled together, Jesus is with them, and He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem. This was not a suggestion, but an order. This the second time Jesus reminds them of the Promise of the Father.

"And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me;  for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."  Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." 

So Jesus is telling them again…” you’ll be witnesses, you’ll go out, you’ll do all of this… but, you can’t do it unless you wait in Jerusalem for this moment and then you will be empowered.” And so that is exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost. They received the fulfillment of what Jesus said, and the Promise of the Father was made good! Now we should  look at that and  know that not a word that the Father speaks falls to the ground. This should encourage us to believe the Promises of God in His Word to us!

The downside is that they had to wait, and so many times we have to wait. When we went to Africa we saw those people prayed and prayed… ‘until’. If they were praying for someone to be released from a demonic spirit, or for a tumor to disappear, or for someone to be raised from the dead, they prayed ‘until’, until they got a release,  until they saw results!  We’re so trained by our microwave instantaneous society, we think if nothing happens immediately, we should try another option, but so often in Africa they don’t have another option.

There seems to be a timing or condition to the Promise because it says ‘when the day of Pentecost had fully come’.  They were to receive the power ‘at a specific time’, when the time, the day of Pentecost,  had fully come. It says in the Old Testament that they had to count seven sabbaths, they had to wait fifty days. And it was a feast day, they were coming together to honor the days that they’d received the law on mount Sinai, so multitudes of people were in Jerusalem. There were people from all nations gathered there on that the first day of the week so everything was synchronized. It all happened on God’s time table, the time had fully come.

Apparently it was the right time and the right people, 120 disciples. I always thought that was interesting because after Jesus rose from the dead it says that at least 500 were seen by Him.

I wondered if they all started out together or if some of them said ‘well, we’re not going to wait here forever’. Nevertheless,  at this particular moment there were the right people, in the right

place, on the right day, with the right attitude. It says, ‘they (120 of them) were all of one accord’.

Unity  makes a difference! If we can be of the same mind, of the same spirit,  speak the same thing, and have the same desire in our heart, God will pour out His Spirit on us. This is one of the mandates.  If we want revival in our city (Fairfield), if we want revival in America, it will happen when the nation,  the church, the pastors, the people, all come together with the same hunger,  the same desire, and lay aside all differences. That’s what God wants; He wants unity in the Body… there were 120 of them here and they had unity. This is what we want here, in our  community, unity. Then we can really have a higher purpose and say “Lord pour your spirit out on us.”

We live in a community of seekers. There is a hunger for God here. People go in all directions, trying to find God.  Instead of criticizing and judging one another, if more people would come together with a cry for God to pour out His Spirit, I believe the ground would shake, and the Lord would bring a revelation of truth to hungry hearts.

There is another “condition”. Because the 120 disciples were obedient and did as the Lord commanded, they were able to receive the power. Then I had a vision of the Living Stones all joining together ( with little hands  and feet like the California Raisins) and as they were joining together,  the power was coming down. It seemed like each Living Stone had two hands and one was wisdom and the other was power and I thought ‘woo hoo!’(revelation!) Obedience is the link between wisdom and power!

We see that God gave them understanding and said if you want the power you must be obedient and they were. They stayed in Jerusalem; they got together in one place. They took the wisdom and obediently acted on it and then the power could come. We can read God’s Word, but if we’re not obedient to it,  we’re not going to tap into the power of the Word.

Notice the power was given for a purpose. I like that word “ purpose”. They were required to be witnesses. You know there’s a lot of dialogue about that word witness. It can actually mean martyr. It means more than, ‘hi, can I leave this pamphlet with you at your door?’ I mean that’s good, that’s a start, but a witness is to share something you’ve experienced or seen. Paul, in Corinthians 2:1-5 helps clarify this.

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.  For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.  And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

This is how we are to be witnesses! If we are hearing with understanding,  and if we are receiving wisdom from God’s Word, and we are acting on it,  there should be a demonstration of the Spirit of God living within us. That is the witness Jesus is speaking about, and it is a demonstration of the Holy Spirit and power, which verifies God is very much alive and in our midst!

How many times do we hear a testimony like that in the church? That’s what I want to hear when I hear someone say ‘hey! I have a praise report.’ I want someone to say ‘yeah, I went to see Aunt Tillie. She fell and broke her arm but I prayed for her and now she’s better… she’s able to move her arm all around!  Or, my neighbors were on the edge of divorce and I stayed with them for two days and we had dinner together and it just seemed like the spirit of the Lord came into their hearts and now they’re in love again and they’re not getting a divorce! Here’s another one:  I just prayed and a check came in the mail from someone that I didn’t think remembered me’. See there’s got to be a demonstration of  power when God is working through us because that’s the presence of the Lord made visible!

We can sing and we can talk and preach but if we’re not seeing a demonstration of God’s  power, it very well may be that we’re not fully connecting with Him…and that connection is obedience. I want to show you how this works. How many people here want more power in their life;  how many of you want to be used by God for signs and wonders?

Well you keep that desire and I’m going to show you how this works because I’ve put this before the Lord. I’m so hungry to see Him touch people. I feel like I’ve seen a glimpse of God and then I talk to people and they just shake their head. I want to show them what I’ve seen.

I’ve seen God’s power both in my personal life and  as we’ve travelled internationally. Most people haven’t seen an actual on the spot miracle,  but we’ve seen an eye form where there had been nothing but a hole;  we’ve seen deaf mutes with their ears opened trying to speak. I know it sounds cliché to say ‘yeah, I’ve seen the lame walk, the blind see’  but we’ve actually seen it! So many people in America or in our own personal groups have never seen the actual power of God. So then  I say “God, You show me something and I will do it.” And that’s just me, at home, in my little prayer room saying ”Yes Lord -  of course I will do it.” Now here is how it gets tested.

I was recently at the grocery store in line to check out. When I got to the register,  the woman working was looking down and didn’t respond to my cheerfulness.  After  asking what was wrong, she replied her knees were killing her.  I wanted to pray for her,  but there was a line behind me.  I can sit in my prayer room and shout ‘Yes Lord, I will be a fool for You!’, but  now in “real time”,  I  had to force myself to ask her if she wanted me to pray for her.  Hooray, she did – so I did – and she said she was better, felt a change in knees,  and thanked me.

Obedience brings reward!

God places us in challenging situations so that we’ll realize our need for Him. He’s looking for a witness and the more you step out in boldness,  the more you’ll pull down His power. In that upper room, the Holy Spirit appeared as fire over the disciples….Dare we ask for the fire of the

Holy Spirit? Fire brings change…it transforms, it melts, it purifies, it burns the dross away.

In Malachi 3:2-3 we learn that when the Lord appears “He will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver”  

There is a story about a silver smith who was melting the silver over the fire. When he was asked, ‘How do you know when the silver is ready?’ the silver smith replied, ‘when I can see my reflection  in it.”  God wants see Himself in us. We are His witnesses.

We need another Pentecost, we need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit!