Journey to Pentecost

April 17, 2010   John 20.31

The operative phrase in John 20.31 this passage for us is “but these have been written.”  John had just told us that there were many things that Jesus did that were not recorded.  He then adds the words…”but these have been written” which has several indications for me. 

First, things that God in his infinite wisdom knew we would need to read and live by were given to men by revelation of the Holy Spirit.  Second, there were things not recorded that were either duplicate works or God knew we would not need.  We have to trust that every jot ant tittle in scripture was inspired for us today.

Hence, the recording of the works of the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Holy Spirit and the reception of the Holy Spirit in deeply personal and intimate fashion.  God knew we would need the Gift of the Holy Spirit.  He led Luke to write about the giving and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. 

On this Pentecostal journey I want you to realize several things.  One, Holy Writ includes the personhood of the Holy Spirit and how He can come into our lives in a real and practical way.    Second, the promise of the Holy Spirit is for you.  Third, this Gift is received by simple faith.  Fourth, when you receive the Gift you will receive evidence in a powerful way that you have received the gift.  There will be an initial evidence – not an only evidence – but an initial evidence.

Evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit is found in scripture on several occasions.  The outward physical evidence of the inward working of the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues.  Most people focus on tongues instead of the Gift itself.  I often tell people if you unwrap a gift you focus on the entire gift – you don’t get hung up with the wrapping paper and ribbon and bows.   The focus is on the gift inside – not the evidence of the gift.   An unwrapped gift is evidenced by wrapping paper, ribbon and bows.  But the real gift is on the inside of the box.  The Gift of the Holy Spirit is evidenced by tongues (ribbons and bows) but the real “Gift” is the personhood of the Holy Spirit.

We can get caught up with the evidence.  There is no doubt that the evidence is important to our overall reception of the Gift but we shouldn’t get hung up on tongues.   Tongues happens.  You don’t have to force yourself to speak in tongues.  You don’t have to initiate tongues with any type of assistance in the flesh.  It just happens.  There comes a time in your receiving the gift that you just speak.  Now then, you have to open your mouth and speak.  He will not force you to speak.  The sounds and syllables that come off the tip of your tongue will sound like nothing you have heard before.  Here is where people stop and quench the work of the Holy Spirit.  The sounds will be unintelligible to human understanding.   They may sound like “gibberish” at first but it is a viable language in the supernatural.  You will speak in tongues when you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Isaiah 28.11 refers to this language initially as a “stammering” tongue.  The Hebrew inference for “stammering” is simply “foreign” or in other words speaking in a foreign language.

When you receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit you will begin to speak in a foreign language.  Think about this for a moment.  If I ask you to speak in German and you have never learned to speak German – it would be virtually impossible for you to do so.   This is why scripture says that you will speak in tongues as the Holy Spirit gives you the utterance.   The Holy Spirit will give you the inspiration, the utterance, the words to speak.   He will enable your tongue to speak His language. 

I encourage you during this journey to seek out this gift.  If you have never received the Gift of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues or a foreign language – I urge you to do so.   Out of all Holy Scriptures given God made sure this was in the package.  Read Acts 2, pray in faith and ask the Lord to baptize you in the Holy Spirit.  And…don’t be afraid of the ribbons and bows!