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Prerequisite to the Fulfillment of Pentecost

(Overcomer Wu)

“But when the Comforter comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness...” --John 15:26,27

The descending and the infusion of the Holy Spirit into the believers is a natural outcome of Calvary, the resurrection and the ascension of Christ Jesus to the throne of God. The incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Godhead, into humanity, His sinless life among men, His redemptive, substitutionary, saving, and dealing a dead-blow to the head of the serpent, the devil, death for us on His cross, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens – all these great and wonderful workings of the divine love and wisdom were to accomplish the goal of men being made partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4).

When the Holy Spirit, Who is also called the Comforter, had been previously breathed into the disciples by the risen Christ in the upper room (Jn 20:22), descended from heaven to dwell in and among men, it was made possible the transmission of the Life of Christ from man to man through the living Word spoken by human lips energized and effused by the Holy Spirit. Each child of God becomes a potential living witness of the risen Christ. Having received our witness of the Living Christ through His Living Word of Life, dead souls are made alive and brought into the newness of life in Christ. The Agent in this wonderful process of salvation is the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. The Holy Spirit animates the Word of God, which is the incorruptible, living and abiding seed of Life (1 Pet 1:23), the souls of those who receive this Living seed of God's Word is regenerated unto a living hope to by becoming the sons of God.

As the Apostle Paul declared to the saints in Corinth: "Though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” (1 Cor 4:15). It is as it were the Lord as the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:17) was is incarnated once again into a human body and nature, into flesh and blood of those who have received Him through by believing the gospel of our salvation. The reality of Christ's indwelling us (Gal 2:20, Col 1:27, Rom 8:10) is realized through the Spirit; hence the Spirit is also called “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom 8:9). Praise the Lord! We have Christ in us to strengthen, comfort, teach, guide, empower, gives Life to us, and reveal the truths contain in His living Word to us whenever we turn to Him in our mingled spirit – our human spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Whenever the heart of the believer is turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away (2 Cor 3:16), and we shall behold His glory; at the same time, the Spirit is enabled to work with unhindered power in and through us for His glory.

We tend to consider the day of Pentecost as the apex of the Church history. In reality, the day of Pentecost was merely a foretaste of what is yet to be revealed of the glory of the ascended and enthroned Christ, and the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit. Joel foresaw a worldwide downpour upon all flesh. Other prophets spoke of lesser showers upon those whose hearts thirsted for heavenly blessing, and foretold that through these as channels there should come "floods upon the dry ground," that is, on hearts round about that are unresponsive to the divine approach.

The world still awaits for the fullness of the coming fulfillment of Joel's prophesy, but every member of the Church of Christ on earth is eligible for the fullness that Pentecost has already received the Holy Spirit who can bring to pass the prophetic word of Joel, and is personally responsible for the presentation of his entire being to God without reserved and the outflow of the Holy Spirit without hindrance by our natural man for the fulfillment of the greater fullness of the Pentecostal outpouring.

Why is there not a greater outpouring of the Spirit witnessed since the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two? It is because the mass of the professed children of God are in the position of the twelve disciples is so powerless by virtue of our lack of prayers in one accord for an extended period of time (Acts 1:14). We know that the essential exercise of prayer the living of the life of “Not I,... but Christ” (Gal 2:20), for the prayer we are taught to pray in Matthew chapter six by our Lord and Master Himself, starts and ends with God's kingdom, God's will, His power, and glory. There is no room for any self agenda as found in our self-will, self glory, or the building of our own little self-kingdom as most of the ministers of Christ these days have sadly degraded into. For only when our self-life is thoroughly dealt with and replaced by Christ can the widely diverse, multi-cultured, and multi-racial children of God be in “one accord” as the One New Man in Christ and only then can God's will and God's glory be realized and revealed in its fullness. "When the Comforter is come," our Lord and Master said, "He shall testify of Me, and you also will bear witness." There can be absolutely no effective witness bearing apart from the witnessing of the Holy Spirit through us. Spiritual fatherhood is impossible to the majority of Christians because of spiritual impotence. Furthermore, our spiritual impotence can alone be overcome through the inward empowerment with the divine nature which is the function of the Holy Spirit to supply after we recognized our own weakness and cast aside our self-reliance and rely whole-heartedly on the Holy Spirit. When the corporate majority of the Christian Body of Christ can come to that state of reality, then and only then will the fullness of the prophetic word of Pentecost be fulfilled.