Modern Christianity was born from a long standing, ongoing Prayer Meeting.

Before His ascension, Jesus told his disciples to wait for the gift His Father promised, the baptism of The Holy Spirit.

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 baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”   Acts 1:3-5.

The disciples stayed much together, worshipped together, prayed together and fellowshipped with each other and with their God, at the temple and in the upper room.

When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying…  They all joined together constantly in prayer.  (Acts 1:13-14)

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  (Acts 2:1)

And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.  (Luke 24:53)

On the day of Pentecost they gathered again:

The disciples heard a sound of a rushing mighty wind.

The sound filled the house.

Tongues of fire rested on each of them.

They were anointed by the very Presence of God and filled with the Holy Spirit.

They spoke in tongues.  (Acts 2:2-4)

Outside, in downtown Jerusalem, ordinary, everyday people were going about their ordinary, everyday lives.

“Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.”   Acts 2:5-6.

The crowd was intrigued by the sound coming from that upper room

‘…we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!’ Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’”  Acts 2:11-12.

This is where it gets even more interesting.

In that upper room were one hundred and twenty people, men and women from different walks of life.

They were the same people who, only fifty three days earlier, had either stood by, or run away as Jesus died for them.

Ever since, they were people who had been hiding in fear of the conventional Jewish community.

Even after Jesus appeared to them — they hid!

Now, after the baptism of His Spirit, they came out of hiding.

Peter, the very same Peter who just a matter of weeks before had denied Jesus three times, stood up with the other remaining eleven of Jesus’s core disciples, and fearlessly declared the Gospel.

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd, (Acts 2:14)  he then quoted Joel 2:28-32, where God foretells the pouring out of His Spirit, including: prophecy; dreams; visions; wonders in the Heavens above; blood and fire and billows of smoke.

But what had happened in the upper room?

The pouring out of The Holy Spirit?  Yes.

Prophesying?  Yes.  But the rest?

By the influence of The Holy Spirit, unlearned Peter equated the last days prophecies of Joel 2 with the quite different experience the one hundred and twenty had just had in the upper room.

Peter was enlightened by a revelation from Heaven.

In the Presence of God Himself he became emboldened to speak words that a more educated rabbi might have discounted as inaccurate.

The unqualified one hundred and twenty rose up in Holy Boldness and came out of hiding.

What was the result?

The crowd were deeply affected and largely received The Word planted in them.

“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.

Three thousand were saved that day alone.

Revelation and Holy Fire

Revelation must be in our hearts, to know how, when and where God is moving and to be ready to move with Him.

Holy Fire and Holy Oil must be on our lips, to speak forth and sing words and songs of Spirit and of Life.

The Sounds of Heaven must cut us all to the heart.

The Rivers of Living Water must then flow from us, pure and clear, to all the Nations.

We must be forever marked, wrecked and ruined for anything but His Presence and holiness unto The LORD.

Prayer

LORD, bring us together in unity of worship to You, our Living God.

We humble ourselves before You, giving up our desire to understand or control and submitting ourselves to Your Lordship.

You are doing new things and have good things planned for us.

Help us not to be so stuck in old mindsets that we miss Your signs.

Give us Holy Boldness to follow wherever You lead and do whatever it is You ask.

We are not qualified for service, but by Your lavish Grace, You have marked us as “Your called out ones”.

Help us to rise to the challenge on Your power, trusting in You alone for everything we need.

Release in us the Sounds of Heaven.

Release the Word and the Song of Heaven.

Cut us to the heart and change us forever.

Set Your Holy Fire on our minds and our voices!

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 

~ Iris Maud, UK.

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Iris Maud, UK.

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