In the book of Joel, God promises the arrival of His Spirit upon mankind.

Joel 2:28-29 — And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

To the Israelites, the idea of God’s Spirit being on various humans contradicted what they knew about the office of prophet. Prophets were enabled by God to speak forth that which God Himself was saying to them (see Numbers 12:6). They preached to the people and they interceded to God on behalf of the people. They were the mouthpiece of God; a unique role for a select few. Joel’s passage indicates a massive outpouring of the Spirit on humanity. In Acts 2, Joel’s prophecy came true:

Acts 2:2-4 — And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So God had promised hundreds of years earlier that His Spirit would arrive. Jesus had promised before He left earth that the Spirit, as a Comforter, would arrive. And then one morning, while the first Christians were gathered, the Spirit arrived. Peter got up and preached immediately following this amazing event and three thousand people believed in Jesus as their Messiah that day.

The cool thing is that amazing things happen when God’s Spirit is involved. The cooler thing is that God’s Spirit is still here. He is still poured out on those who believe in Jesus. His job is to speak to us, to guide us, to comfort us.

Thank you, God, for the gift of Your Spirit! May we be attentive and malleable in Your hands.

Tags: acts, Holy Spirit, Joel, Numbers

This entry was posted by zac on Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Weekly Jib Jab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.