Day of Pentecost, Fire of God
After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit….”
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, …. and to the ends of the earth.”
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
“They ... returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. (Acts 1:3-14 NIV)
What was the gift Jesus had told his friends to expect?
What was the purpose of the gift?
Chapter 2 continues the story:
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
There are quite a few examples of the fire of God in the Bible. Elijah called for fire to fall from Heaven on two occasions, was protected by an army of fire, and, when it was his time to leave this earth, he was taken to Heaven by horses and chariots of fire.
Moses saw the fire in the burning bush, walked into the fire on top of the mountain, and was guided and protected by the fire for forty years in the desert.
Ezekiel saw God looking like fire and sitting on a throne of fire, Daniel saw the throne of fire and a River of fire, and Hebrews 12 tells us that our God is a consuming fire.
So the fire of God had manifested itself before, and now, on the Day of Pentecost, we see it again. As the disciples were praying, there was the sound of a violent wind, and then a fire came from Heaven, through the sky, through the roof of the room, separated into little flames, and sat on each person’s head. And they were filled with power.
They ran outside, Peter preached a sermon, people were cut to the heart for their sin, and 3000 people got saved and baptized that very first day.
That’s power.
And when they ran outside, they caused a great commotion. They were filled with joy, and were actually praising God – the Bible says that these 120 believers, including Peter, John, all the disciples, plus Mary the mother of Jesus, ran out into the street and were all loudly “declaring the wonders of God” in many different languages so that everyone in the street – no matter what language they spoke, were hearing a sermon! In their own language!
They were speaking in at least 15 different languages!
And the people said, What’s happening? And Peter stood up and began to preach. He reminded these Jews that the prophet Joel had said that one day, God would pour out His Spirit onto the earth, and amazing things would begin to happen, and this is that!
Who’s Joel? Joel was a prophet who had lived 800 years earlier, and he had said that one day the fire of God would come and burn up all the enemy! Burn up all the devil’s strongholds! And all the devil’s weapons! And destroy all the devil’s power!!
And Peter said, this is that! Let’s look at the book of Joel.
Joel is a little book near the end of the Old Testament. In chapter 1, Joel was crying out to God. The land where he lived was in terrible shape. He said:
A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white. The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the olive oil fails. Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve … because the harvest of the field is destroyed. The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree – all the trees of the field – are dried up. Surely the people’s joy is withered away. (Joel 1:6-12 NIV)
And Joel cried out to God:
To you, Lord, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field. Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness. (Joel 1:19-20 NIV)
An enemy had trampled the land. There was no more wine, no water, no harvest, no fruit, and no joy.
We have all had times like this where we feel like our prayers are not being heard and like nothing is going right. And when we go through bad times – when the devil is doing his best to steal, kill, and destroy us, we call out to God.
Back in the book of Acts those 120 believers must have surely felt like this too. They were alone, Jesus had left them and gone back into Heaven. They were so scared they locked themselves in a room and prayed. They had no leader, no power, no answers to their prayers, no direction, no hope, and certainly no courage.
In chapter 2, God answers Joel's cry for help. And I believe it’s our answer too.
Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. (Joel 2:1 NIV)
In those days, when a country went to war, they would station the army in various places and tell them to wait for the signal. The signal was a man with a shofar, who would blow several piercing notes, and all the soldiers would come out and the war would begin.
God is telling Joel, blow the trumpet. Sound the alarm… I’m going to send out my army.
It’s interesting that in Acts 2, day of Pentecost, no one blew a shofar, but just before the fire fell, there was the sound of the blowing of a violent wind.
And then, in Joel, let’s read what comes after the trumpet blast:
before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes, before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste – nothing escapes them.
…they leap over mountaintops like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle… they charge like warriors, they scale walls like soldiers… they plunge through defenses, they rush upon the city, they run along the wall, they climb into the houses, like thieves they enter through the windows… the Lord thunders at the head of His army. (Joel 2:3-11 NIV)
This is the army of God, and God Himself is leading.
So the army of God – this fire of God – is absolutely unstoppable. The enemy doesn’t stand a chance. The fire of God goes over walls or breaks right through walls until all of the strongholds of the devil are totally and completely destroyed.
A stronghold is a prison. The devil holds people in prisons of darkness, discouragement, and defeat – but what does the fire of God do? It breaks down the walls of the prison to set every captive free!
In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, the nation of Israel had just seen Jesus die 50 days earlier, and some of those people had wanted Jesus to die. They were totally blind to the fact that Jesus was the Son of God. 2 Corinthians says:
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4 NIV)
They were in prisons of legalism and lies and spiritual blindness. And they didn’t even know it.
But then the fire of God fell and broke down the prison walls.
And the people said, What’s happening?
And Peter reminded them – Joel said this would happen, remember? Joel said the fire of God would come. This is God pouring out His Holy Spirit, just like He promised!!
And Peter went on, and talked about Jesus, how He was actually the Messiah who was to come. And how He rose from the dead.
And for the first time, the eyes of the captives were suddenly opened:
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37 NIV)
The fire of God had done something amazing – it had ripped off the veil of darkness and torn down the lies of the devil.
And now the people could see, for the first time in their lives. And they repented and received forgiveness.
Peter told the people to repent, ask Jesus to forgive their sins, and that they too could receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He told them that what had happened to them could happen to anyone, because this gift – this outpouring of the Holy Spirit – is a promise from God! He said…
The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:39 NIV)
So, what’s the exact promise? This is from Acts 2, but Peter is actually quoting from the book of 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. (Acts 2:17,18 NIV)
The promise is that God will pour out His Spirit on us. We receive this promise, like any promise, by using our faith: believe it in your heart, say it with your mouth.
In the early 1900’s, missionaries began to pray for the fire to fall in India. Four months later, the “fire” fell and supernatural things started happening. People said they felt hot from the “burning” sensation of the “baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire.”
During this revival, many people confessed their sins, some saw visions of Jesus, some saw angels, some had Heavenly dreams, some writhed on the ground “unable to bear the burden of their sins,” some laughed, some prophesied, and some danced. (Duewel 1995)
In California, a group of women had been praying for a revival to start in their city. In 1906, they were joined by a man named William Seymour, and the Azusa Street Revival began.
For three years, the church building where the revival was held was filled with a cloud of God’s glory on the inside. Sometimes, there would also be a fire burning on the roof, and whenever this happened, there would be tremendous miracles in the service. Arms, legs, ears, and teeth grew back, broken bones snapped into place, people got out of wheelchairs, deaf people received sight, people got saved, blind people received their sight. (Morris et al.)
William Booth, Duncan Campbell, Evan Roberts, and many others had marvelous revivals as the fire of God fell on them. When the fire of God falls, there’s always joy, always repenting and salvations, and always healings.
If you ever feel like Joel, that all is hopeless, why not start praying for the fire of God to fall in your life?
References
Duewel, Wesley L. Revival Fire. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995 Print.
Morris, J Edware, et al. Azusa Street: They Told Me Their Stories. Dare2Dream, 2006.
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.