The impact of Pentecost

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting 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. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians — we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.’ And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others mocking said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’ But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day [that is, nine o’clock in the morning]; but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke; the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and manifest day. And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’’ (Acts 2:1–21).

What a beautiful thing! Beloved of God, on this day we greet you from the heart of our beloved Jesus! May God bless your life in the name of Jesus Christ! May you begin, in this very moment, to be touched by the power, the strength, the presence and the person of the Holy Spirit of God! May the fire of the love of God — the fire that transformed the history of the people of God, that worked a real and powerful conversion in the life of the first apostles and of all the people gathered in that room some two thousand years ago, in the city of Jerusalem, on the feast of Pentecost — be poured out upon your life, and, sanctifying your heart, give you on this day a strong and impactful experience in your living. Receive, here and now, a fire from heaven to burn your whole body, your soul, your spirit, to set ablaze the place where you are reading this post and everything around you. Amen!

We begin in fire, and we wish to continue with that fire burning, so that it may melt every sin from our heart and help us stand firm and resolute on the way to heaven. Brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, readers of this blog, regular visitors and those who land here by accident, the Holy Spirit of God is being made manifest at this very moment!

He surrounds us with an unshakeable certainty of faith and opens our understanding to the truth of God! We need to know the Lord, we need to throw ourselves into the love of God at this moment, we need to receive the light that lets us see with the eyes of Jesus, we need an experience of the love of God, before it is too late. We need the impact of Pentecost in our lives now!

And we want to raise a few questions and answer them so that we may deepen our knowledge, experiencing this subject in practice: What does Pentecost mean? Who was present at this event? What is the great revelation it brings to us today?

We made it clear in another post about the Holy Spirit that He is a person: the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity. He is God, together with the Father and Jesus, in the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. Sometimes we always need to remember and state this with every letter, however simple, because some people are still like the disciples Paul met in Ephesus who had received the baptism of John but had not yet been baptised in the name of the Lord, and for that reason did not even know of the Holy Spirit.

“While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ And they said, ‘No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’ And he said, ‘Into what then were you baptised?’ They said, ‘Into John’s baptism.’ And Paul said, ‘John baptised with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.’ On hearing this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied” (Acts 19:1–6).

But the sad thing is that many people, even though they have received baptism in the name of the Lord, or in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 28:19), still do not know the Holy Spirit. It seems that today’s baptism resembles that of John the Baptist, being still a baptism of conversion. But back then they were pointing to Jesus and John was asking his disciples to follow Jesus; and they did not even know rightly who He was. Today people are catechised, formed with respect to the person of Jesus, many have an experience with Him before baptism, but after some time they forget that experience and live far from the Lord. Here enters the importance of the Holy Spirit…

The Holy Spirit is the one who speaks to us directly, in the freedom of the Lord. Where He is present, there is freedom, there is new life, there is restoration, there is a tremendous power of God, healing, setting free, forgiving, loving, strengthening, reinvigorating, giving life, making known the will of the Lord, there is a constant transformation, a joy that overflows in the soul, that shines on the face.

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:17–18).

He reminds us of the important things concerning the teachings of the Lord, concerning the Word of God, concerning what we need to do in order to have a fuller communion with the Lord. He is our advocate, our defender against the lies of the devil, against the deceptions and the things he does as he tries to imitate what the Lord does.

“But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).

This is exactly what happened at the feast of Pentecost, when some people were awaiting the fulfilment of a promise. Let us look more deeply at who was there, what promise they were awaiting, and what happened in the Church from then on.

For everything God does, there is a preparation beforehand. God gives us the example to be followed even in this matter. The day of Pentecost was held in the heart of God for a profound transformation of humanity. But a preparation was needed. And this transformation came about through the life of Saint John the Baptist. We have the account of what this man would be in the Gospel of Luke, when his father Zechariah was carrying out his function as a priest in the temple and an angel appeared to him and said:

“Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth; for he will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:13–17).

This John, the one who prepared the coming of Christ, who prepared the way for the baptism and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit —

“I baptise you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matt 3:11) — was used in a thunderous way. He thundered against the King, who was committing adultery, he preached among the powerful, he had a life of constant and hard fasting, eating only locusts and wild honey, he did not get drunk on wine or strong drink, but was filled with the Holy Spirit from his very birth (the moment when the Virgin Mary went to visit Saint Elizabeth, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the child leapt in her womb [cf. Luke 1:41]).

Through John’s dedication and his radical surrender to the will of the Lord, Jesus came, accomplished his work on the face of the Earth, died on the cross, rose again, opened heaven and ascended to Heaven. The Lord went up in the sight of all. Saint Luke tells us the facts from there:

“In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me, for John baptised with water, but before many days you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’ So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth’” (Acts 1:2–8).

Glory to God! What a marvellous passage of Scripture! Jesus went up to heaven in the sight of all and said that they would soon be baptised in the Holy Spirit. Beloved, Jesus fulfilled his mission. And he returned to the Father of Heaven, from whom he had come. Arriving there, it is as though Jesus said to the Father: “It is done, Father, I have accomplished my mission as you asked of me. Now it is the turn of the Holy Spirit to come and accomplish his work. And what better day than the feast of Pentecost!” WHAT A SPECTACULAR WORK THE HOLY SPIRIT ACCOMPLISHED!

First, let us come to the explanation of Pentecost. The word “Pentecost” comes from the Greek and is translated as “fiftieth”, that is, the fiftieth. In the Old Testament, fifty days after the Jewish Passover (that is, the feast celebrated since the liberation of the people of Israel from the land of Egypt, led by Moses, in thanksgiving to God), there was the so-called feast of harvest or feast of tabernacles, in which the first-fruits of the harvest were presented to the Lord. This feast was also called the feast of the seven weeks or Pentecost. Let us try to give an explanation of the meaning of the fifty days.

The number of perfection in the Bible is seven. Why? Because it signifies the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity acting in the four constitutive elements of the Earth: fire, air, water and earth. And what can be more perfect than seven? The number raised to its own power, or 7 × 7. We arrive then at the number 49. To round it off we have 50, which is perfection on top of perfection. The fullness of the Lord, acting in the whole Earth. It is the action of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in the four corners of the Earth. In other words, Pentecost is a jubilee of the Lord’s grace, the fullness of his action among us.

The feast of Pentecost was the conclusion of the most beautiful period of Passover, during which only unleavened bread was eaten. In the New Testament, with the face of Christ, and in the new Pentecost inaugurated, the Holy Spirit too shows his face, and we have full knowledge of the whole of the Most Holy Trinity. WE SEE IN THIS NEW PENTECOST THE FULLNESS OF GRACE MADE CONCRETE THROUGH THE MANIFESTATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

So, on the upper floor, where the Last Supper had earlier been celebrated, the fulfilment of the promise of the Lord Jesus is awaited. Who was in that room? All the disciples of Jesus, including the pious women, Our Lady, and the disciples of Jesus, the Eleven — for Judas Iscariot had broken away from the number of the Twelve.

Then the fulfilment of the promise begins to come to pass. In olden times, the Holy Spirit only rested upon priests, prophets and kings. But at this event, fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, a time is opened for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This event is narrated at the beginning of this post, which recounts the moment when the Holy Spirit was manifested for the first time.

Besides being gathered to do what Jesus had asked, the disciples were afraid of the Jews, because they believed in the resurrection of Jesus, in his ascension to heaven. And they ran the risk of being murdered on account of this. And then the advocate manifested himself, and what a manifestation it was…

The Holy Spirit filled all who were in that room. More than a hundred people were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, through the tongues of fire that were distributed among them, and they spoke in strange tongues, as the same Spirit gave them to speak. The Holy Spirit began to pour out his gifts in a tremendous way and raised up Saint Peter with a courage that scandalised the people. He, a fearful, insecure, uneducated and ignorant person, was used with great power and intelligence, and at once began to prophesy.

With his preaching, more than three thousand men repented, were cut to the heart in the depths of their hearts, and were baptised to receive the Holy Spirit. The fire burned everyone! There was not a single person who was left without feeling this manifestation of the love and power of God.

There is a connection between Saint John the Baptist and what happened at Pentecost. When the angel narrated to Zechariah the personality and character of his son, he said that he would drink no wine nor strong drink, and would be filled with the Holy Spirit. And how telling it is that when the people around that room, in that place, heard those who were baptised in the Holy Spirit, they thought them drunk. And why is that? Because the Holy Spirit is a God who consumes himself to set us on fire with his light, with his grace, with his power, with his fire. That is how the Spirit of God manifested himself: to burn away every fear, every insecurity, every human weakness. And in his way, which touches the human. It is the meeting and union of the divine (God) in the human (man).

THERE IS A TRUE IMPACT upon the face of the Earth, for from that little room in Jerusalem the Holy Spirit spread to the entire world and continues to be poured out in the same way as he was the first time. What Jesus said has been fulfilled. The disciples were witnesses, from that place to the ends of the Earth, truly. The Pentecost of today happens in the same way. What happens differently is that we do not ask for it, nor do we desire it, in the way that they desired it.

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).

Let us then, brothers and sisters, ask for this impact of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let us listen to a song to help us in our prayer: youtube.com/watch?v=l3PGUeynrT0.

Throw yourself in, and ask until you have no more words. Together with this song, pour yourself out in the presence of God and receive the impact of a new Pentecost in your life!

“Who has learned your counsel, unless you have given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high?” (Wisdom 9:17).

May we have the courage to truly experience an impact. Impact is not a calm, peaceful thing, but a shock, a thud, a blow, something that shakes the structures, that rattles our whole being, that stirs our soul, that leaves us thirsting for the presence of God, hungering to speak of Jesus, desiring to plunge into the power of that anointing which envelops us.

May God bless us and confirm us in this impact of Pentecost today!