Bill Johnson - Why You Need to Be Filled With the Holy Spirit
It doesn’t matter what problem you have; what you need is God. In other words, there actually is a simple answer to every problem: you need an immersion in the Spirit of God. This doesn’t mean you don’t need counsel or other resources, but what you need most of all, what we need, what I need, is an immersion in His presence because everything becomes settled there. Good evening, and thank you—I’m glad you showed up. Yesterday, my husband thought he saw a cockroach in the kitchen. He sprayed everything down and cleaned thoroughly.
Today, I’m putting the cockroach in the bathroom. My bathing suit told me to go to the gym, but my sweatpants were like, «Nah, girl, you’re good.» So, thank you; I didn’t make it to the gym today. That makes five years in a row. There are three kinds of people in this world: those who are good at math and those who aren’t. Spell check has got to be my worst enemy. I give you another chance—it’s all right. Money may not buy happiness, but I’d rather cry in a Bentley than on a bus. I’m sorry for what I said before I had my coffee. Three Wise Women would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and there would be peace on Earth. Oh goodness, I have so many! All right, I’ll just do one more: when I die, I want my last words to be, «I left a million dollars under the man.»
I don’t know how many scriptures we’re going to read tonight. I hope you have your Bibles with you because we’re going to do a study together and see how this plays out. I want to start with a thought from Ephesians chapter 3 and then back up in the story. In Ephesians chapter 3 is this passage—it’s hard to say if it’s the most mysterious or profound verse. For me, this is the most incomprehensible verse in the Bible, and that says something because most of them are incomprehensible. But he says in verse 19, «to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God.» There are planets out there bigger than our galaxy. Since the day the Lord spoke, «Let there be light,» His word has been traveling through empty space and creating. It’s expanding at least at the speed of sound, if not the speed of light. That God holds all of that in the palm of His hand, and He said His intention is to fill us with this fullness.
If you don’t leak, you’re bound way too tight. These are not poetic phrases to inspire us; they are literal decrees that are so far beyond the reach of our imagination that there’s no way in the world we can make it happen nor understand it as it’s happening. But what we can do is surrender to His intent. I can surrender to His intent; I can acknowledge that. Acknowledging it means I see it. Well, what did Paul say? «Through a glass, darkly.» I see the shape of it, although I could never fully describe it. The Christian life is about moving from one mystery to another mystery to another mystery. One of the great tragedies, especially in the Western world, is that we tend to reduce the gospel to what we understand. I don’t want to put down intellect; the Lord protected human reasoning with His own death. I mean, literally, He protected the capacity of individuals to reason. He even invites us; He says, «Come, let us reason together.»
I believe very strongly that the Lord wants to reveal Himself through human intellect, but never contained by human intellect. Your heart will take you where your head can’t fit, and what the Lord is constantly doing is bringing us into measures, realms, and levels of surrender, as all of this has to do with the heart. Why? Because His supreme value is faith. Faith is not anti-intellect; it is simply superior to intellect. In Hebrews chapter 11, it says, «By faith we understand that the worlds were made out of nothing.» By faith we understand; faith comes first, understanding comes next, and that understanding is to perceive something beyond comprehension. By faith we understand the worlds were made out of nothing.
The reason He deals with the heart is that the heart is where faith comes from. It says, «With the heart, man believes,» not «with the head.» I’ve gone over this many times, so forgive me for repeating it for you long-timers. The mind is important; you’ll see Jesus acknowledging the Centurion. If you remember, the Centurion acknowledged his extraordinary faith, but his faith was revealed through his understanding of authority. He said, «I’m a man under authority, and I say to those under me, 'Go do something, ' and they do it.» He was giving a picture of the kingdom. It was his understanding that captured Jesus’s attention and released a miracle into a servant. It’s an extraordinary story.
So, faith is not anti-intellect; it is simply superior. We have all seen fake faith or attempts at faith that fell far short, and most of us have experienced that. Genuine faith, however, is superior to human reasoning, and it is so superior that it inspires the mind into the mind of Christ. The renewed mind is like the banks of a river; it creates the context for faith to flow in. So pursuing understanding is important, but I never want to restrict my obedience to my understanding. I don’t need to understand to obey. If I restrict my obedience to my understanding, then I’ve created a God in my image. I have a God who’s my size. It’s vital that my obedience is ready to go at the word of the Lord; it does not have to make sense to me. I just need to know it’s Him.
It looks like I’m going to be real thirsty tonight. I said, «Is this any sign it’s going to be a long meeting?» But we will need a break. Now, both of these are unopened bottles, so they’re pretty full. You know what? I’m just going to do it this way. Here, I’ll just do it one at a time. Now, this bottle is full enough to sell as full, but it’s actually not full. It’s pretty full now, but it’s still not full. Now it’s full. See, fullness is measured in overflow, not by what you contain. Jack Haber taught us years ago that abundance in the kingdom is not measured by what you have; it’s measured by what you’ve given away. The same concept exists in the fullness of the Spirit. So, when the scripture talks about us being filled with the Spirit—in fact, there’s a command, «Don’t be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit"—it’s actually a command. Fullness is measured in overflow; it’s not what you contain. Fullness is measured in overflow, and you were designed for this purpose.
Smith Wigglesworth was not a tall man in stature, but he would say, «I’m a small man externally, but I’m a giant inside.» There’s something about the capacity of the human heart to contain more than we visibly look like we could contain. I think you at least get what I’m implying: the ability of the surrendered soul to house God is beyond anything we could imagine, and you and I were actually designed for this purpose. Jesus had 12 disciples; when one flaked out, he was left with 11. He spent three and a half years with them, showing them what it’s like to be full of the Spirit. He never put it in those words, but he modeled it so profoundly that they ached for what he had. We owe people an encounter with God, and the only way to ensure that can happen on a continuous daily basis is for us to be full—in the same way I just illustrated, full of the Holy Spirit. We are vessels that leak; we’re broken vessels, which means I have to stay continuously under the spout that keeps me full.
The downfall of the church is often that we had an experience X amount of weeks, months, years, or decades ago, and we live off the memory of that rather than the reality of that present experience. Sure, we can still have a measure of fruitfulness from what happened a long time ago. Let me give you a strange illustration: a prophet dies, and an army is passing by. One of their soldiers is killed, and they throw the dead body of the soldier onto the bones of the prophet. What are the bones of the prophet? They represent what used to be; it’s where God used to work through the man. Those were his bones. It symbolizes something that used to be active but isn’t anymore. Yet, the glory that remained from what was no longer active is so powerful that it still raised the dead soldier from the dead. But sometimes we see how God uses what can I say—what used to be—and we become satisfied with what used to be. We build entire churches and movements around what used to be because occasionally we see somebody raised.
One of the Old Testament concepts that is a strong convicting word for me is the fact that in the Old Testament, God lit the fire on the altar, but the priest kept it burning. So, if a fire died out, was it God’s sovereignty or was it the neglect of priests? God’s intent was to keep the fire going, but if it dies out, it’s because someone stopped putting flammable material on the fire. The one way to ensure the fire continues is that you become the living offering. You should put yourself in the fire and just say, «God, burn in me.»
So here, let’s do this. You ready? On your marks, get set, Genesis 28. You have your Bibles, right? If you don’t have one with you, scoot next to somebody; I want you to see what we’re looking at tonight. Genesis chapter 28, verse 10: now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there all night because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of that place, put it at his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven. There the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, «I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west, to the east, to the north, and the south. In you and in your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.»
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, «Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.» I’ve been in a lot of church services exactly like that; one guy’s having a divine encounter, while the guy sitting next to him is wondering when lunch is. You know, God’s here and I didn’t even know it. Verse 17: he was afraid and said, «How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven.»
So read verse 17 again: «He was afraid and said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.'» Stop there for a moment. One of the most fundamental principles of Bible interpretation is that you pay special attention to the first mention of any subject because it sets a standard that the rest of Scripture tends to align with. If that makes sense, the first mention of the house of God in the Bible is this right here, and there’s no building.
As we read through this, I want you to pay attention to the indicators—those things that reveal this is actually the house of God. The house of God is portrayed in Scripture a lot: the Temple of Solomon, the Tabernacle of Moses—all those things. But the only one that represents the body of Christ, the New Testament temple of God, is the Tabernacle of David. All the others were for something else. The Tabernacle of Moses had a Brazen altar—that’s where blood was shed—and a labor which the priests would wash themselves with water. What came out of Jesus? Aside from blood? Water. That’s in the outer court. They come in, and we’ve got the table of showbread; we’ve got the candlestick; we have the altar of incense. On the other side, we have the mercy seat, the Ark of the Covenant.
So what do we have here? We have a cross, number one; number two, Jesus is the blood offering. Jesus is the Word. The washing of the water? He is the showbread. He is the bread of life. The light of the world, the candlestick? He is the great intercessor, and He’s the God of all mercy. So this whole Tabernacle was a prophetic picture of Jesus—not of the church. But interestingly, while there is no building here, this revelation reveals the nature of the house of God in ways unlike any other scripture in the Bible.
Okay, verse 17 again, «He was afraid and said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.'» So that tells us, number one, that the house of God is a gate. What is a gate in the natural? A gate? You may have a gate from your backyard to your driveway. You may have a gate from your front yard to the public sidewalk. The point is that it’s a passageway from one reality to another. Are you alive? You’re thinking and everything? So, this then says that the house of God is the gate of heaven, which means it’s a gate placed on the edge of two realities. What did we see earlier? It said the ladder; the angels were ascending and descending on it, going and coming. What is a gate? It’s a passageway between two realities—heaven and earth. The church is the gate.
Verse 18: Jacob arose early in the morning, took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, poured oil on top of it, and called the name of that place Bethel. That’s kind of cool, but the name of the city had been Luz previously. Luz, by the way, comes from a word that means «almonds.» So, the name was changed from Luz to Bethel—Luz, the house of nuts, to the house of God. There’s still a few nuts here, but verse 20: Jacob made a vow saying, «If God will be with me, keep me in this way that I’m going, give me bread to eat, clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. This stone which I have set up as a pillar shall be God’s house.»
In the New Testament, we are built together as living stones. So this is a prophetic picture. If you take the entire passage that we just read, we have, number one, we have an open heaven. Remember, the Father spoke, right? Angels ascending and descending. All right, go to John chapter 1. Thank you. John chapter 1, verse 43: «The following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, 'Follow me.'» Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, «We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.» Nathanael said to him, «Can anything good come out of Nazareth?» That’s interesting; Jesus wasn’t offended by his sarcasm. Philip said to him, «Come and see.»
Nathanael, coming toward him, said of him, «Behold—excuse me—Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, 'Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit or guile.'» Nathanael said to him, «How do you know me?» Jesus answered and said to him, «Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.» I love seeing the gifts of the Spirit functioning through Jesus because we sometimes don’t realize we have access to the exact same thing. «Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.»
Nathanael answered and said, «Rabbi, you are the Son of God.» It’s interesting, «Can anything good come out of Nazareth?» «Rabbi, you are the Son of God.» That’s a pretty dramatic shift; just a short conversation changed everything. Nathanael answered and said, «Rabbi, you’re the Son of God; you’re the King of Israel.» Here’s what I wanted to read: Jesus answered and said to him, «Because I said to you I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.» And He said to him, «Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.»
I saw a ladder from the earth reaching to heaven; angels were ascending and descending. You will see greater things than these; you will see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Why is that significant? A few verses earlier, actually in verse 14 of chapter 1, the scripture says that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. One of the ways it is described is that He is the Word of God made flesh. Jesus is the house of God, or God tabernacled among us in Christ. So, what is Jesus? He is the initial model or illustration of what God intends to do in the New Testament Church.
So Jesus is the Tabernacle of God, the dwelling place of God on Earth. He introduces Himself: «I am the light of the world.» But before He left, He said to you and to me, «You are the light of the world.» It’s not that we take His place; it’s that He extends what He carried to the believing human race. To not at least attempt to step fully into what Jesus illustrated and modeled is to miss the point. Here, Jesus announces to Nathanael and the others that they will see greater things than Him calling them out by a word of knowledge when He saw Nathanael under the fig tree. Of course, they did; they witnessed angels visibly coming and going. They saw the effect of the angelic realm partnering with Jesus.
Now, God can do everything Himself and never need an angel, but don’t argue against His design because He can also do everything without you and me, and He could do everything better. He could stand on Earth and speak in such a way that everyone on the planet would hear Him in their language, and it would be much more convincing than what you and I do. The point isn’t what God is capable of doing; the point is His plan. His plan is to take broken, redeemed humanity and use them in such a way that only God can get the credit for what gets accomplished. His longing from day one was co-laboring; it was the partnership between Him and people.
So Jesus then was the Prototype of what the body of Christ was to look like. We are called the body of Christ for a reason. The Bible says the government will rest upon His shoulders, not His head. Ephesians chapter 1 says that every power, every dominion, every ruler, and every name is put under His feet; it doesn’t say under His chin. The mind of Christ is actually to take the things He declares to be true and cooperate in our thinking with what He says to be true, even if we don’t feel it. It’s not mind over matter; it’s not about getting hyped up or psyching yourself out. It’s coming into agreement with what He says. Many people cancel the prayer they just prayed as soon as they’re done by saying something that actually cancels it. This happens all the time.
I’m not into pretending, so don’t misunderstand me here, but somebody might come and ask for prayer, let’s say they need healing in some part of their body. So I pray for them, and as soon as I finish, they say, «I know He can do it,» which is a religious decree that essentially means, «I know He didn’t do it.» It sounds spiritual but actually expresses unbelief. Sometimes we protect things that shouldn’t be protected, like unbelief or compromise in thought. The best way to do this is to create a spiritual term around it. Listen, this is done a lot by all of us. Someone who is critical of another person rarely admits it; they instead might say, «I have a real call from God to pursue justice,» because then we can hide our dysfunction under a spiritual virtue. Any dysfunction that we protect is hard to deal with, and it sets down roots that shape our personalities.
All right, thank you. I have more, so I hope you’re able—let’s do it this way: if you get done before I do, just go home, let’s go home. Their unrenewed mind does tricky things with the condition of our own heart. Do you understand that the condition of your heart actually influences what you think? Yes, that’s very spontaneous! If I have a bitter heart and I don’t deal with it, it will convince my mind that it has a gift of discernment. Now that doesn’t apply to you, but there’s a church somewhere in town that needs that one. It’s that condition of the heart that needs to be not just checked but repented of; it has to be abandoned. You don’t wash your way out of sin; you abandon it. You confess, you renounce, you turn from it—not just regret. You can’t say, «I’m only going to be bitter once a day for the next month, and then I’ll go to every other day.» You don’t wean yourself from sin; you abandon it. Any sin that you try to wean yourself from is going to become a close friend.
If I have anxiety and fear in my heart, and it plagues me and I don’t deal with it but protect it, that anxious heart will convince my mind that it’s not moving in fear; it’s moving in wisdom. If I have an impure heart, it will influence my mind to think, «It’s not lust; I’m just not bound by religion; I’m displaying freedom.» That’s the reason Proverbs 4 brings this exhortation: watch over your heart with all diligence because from it flow the issues of life. Keeping that central theme in your life is to remain tender.
I’ve gotten off subject, so let’s go to John chapter 20 and Luke 24. Have those two chapters open. Now the 11 remaining disciples are here. In verse 19, it says, «The same day, evening being the first day of the week, the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'» When He said this, He showed them His hands and His side; then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. They weren’t glad when they first saw Him because they didn’t know who He was; they were terrified. They were hiding, afraid of being killed by the Jews, and then someone walks through the wall, which doesn’t help their fear.
Jesus shows His hands and His side, and they realize who He is. Remember, when Jesus appears, He does so in various ways; over and over again, He appears differently. On the road to Emmaus, they had walked with Him for years but didn’t recognize Him because we’re to recognize Him not by external appearance but by the Spirit. If you just go by externals, then He has to meet certain qualifications for you to recognize Him. People do the same with revival—certain ways revival should look—so when He comes along and brings joy, many people couldn’t handle it. They couldn’t see in Scripture that in His presence is fullness of joy; it just didn’t compute for them. What these people needed was to be on their faces repenting, yet God gave them joy and they rejoiced out of their lifestyle of sin. It was different from what everybody expected. When you learn to recognize by presence, not by externals, you realize who’s in charge.
Here, He shows them His hands and His side. In verse 20, the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, «Peace to you, as the Father has sent me, I send you.» When He said this, He breathed on them and said, «Receive the Holy Spirit.» The 11 remaining disciples received the Holy Spirit in John chapter 20. The indwelling, born-again experience was made available to the disciples in John 20. He breathed on them and said, «Receive the Holy Spirit.» This wasn’t a symbolic act; everything He did was very calculated and intentional. In Luke chapter 24, before Jesus ascended to heaven for the final time before Pentecost, He said in verse 49, «Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.»
What’s the point? They received the Holy Spirit in John 20, but before Jesus ascended to the Father, He told the guys, «Stay in Jerusalem till you’re clothed with power.» There was the indwelling, but there was also the clothing; there is the baptism. Biblically, they can happen at the same time, but the initial revelation was that they are two distinct experiences. Jesus has been having you turn to every scripture; I usually just quote them, but I’ve been finding people need to see them in their Bibles. So go to Matthew 28. Instead of quoting Matthew 28, I’ll have people see this for themselves.
Now, when Jesus chose the twelve, He met with them and said He gave them power and authority. Do you remember that? It’s in Luke 9; He gave them power and authority. I like to describe it this way: Jesus came, commissioned from the Father, so He had all authority. When He was baptized in water, He came up out of the water and was clothed with the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit rested upon Him in the form of a dove and remained. So, I’d like to put it this way: Jesus came to Earth having been commissioned from the Father to take our place in death and be the sacrifice. He came with authority. I don’t think He came with power. Now, as God, obviously He has all power, but the point is He chose to self-impose restrictions to live with the limitations of a human being, although He had access to everything.
Make sense? Kind of? So He came with authority. How do we know? Because the authority you walk in is equal to your submission to the commission. Authority is directly connected to the commission. Chris Belton is one who put it this way: first, you have to be in submission to the primary mission; that’s how you’re co-commissioned.
All right, does that make sense? So He came to Earth with authority because He was commissioned by the Father, but He still needed to be clothed with power. So He goes to John for water baptism. John says, «I’m not worthy to untie your shoes.» Jesus says, «Permit it.» He baptizes Him in water, and the Spirit of God comes upon Him in the form of a dove and remains. There, He receives power. If you read in Luke chapter 3 and 4, it was after that water baptism where the Spirit of God came upon Him; it was after that power was displayed, but not until then.
Now, fast forward. Jesus is at the end of His life; He’s already commissioned the twelve—there are now 11 left. He has already given them power and authority, but what does He do after He dies? He resurrects, appears to them, and in Matthew 28, Jesus came and spoke to them in verse 18, saying, «All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on Earth. Therefore, go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.» What are some of the things He commanded? Heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out devils. Here in the Great Commission, He’s saying, «Teach your disciples what I commanded you,» which includes healing and deliverance. «And I am with you always, even to the end of the age.»
The point I want to make is that even though all 12 of His disciples—11 remaining—had been given power and authority while Jesus was on Earth, I like to put it this way: they were deputized under His mantle of anointing. They functioned under the umbrella of His gift. I’ve seen it happen; I could take time, but I’d end up exhausting all of you. I’ve seen where you work with someone in their gift, and their anointing affects you. As long as you’re with them, you function like them, and you think you’ve got it. Then you try to do it on your own and it doesn’t work. It’s like a wake-up call: «Oh, so that anointing wasn’t mine? Yeah, it just… you just pay a price for these things, that’s all.»
So here’s Jesus; He comes back and the first thing He does is tell them they have authority. Well, I thought they already had authority? Yeah, they were deputized under His authority, but now they’ve got to have their own. So the first thing He does is appear to them and say, «All authority has been given to Me; therefore, go.» What is He doing? He’s imparting authority for the mission, the Great Co-mission, and then He says, «Don’t leave Jerusalem until you’re clothed with power.» I thought they already had power? Yeah, they were deputized; now they have to get their own.
Do you remember when Jesus told His disciples, «It’s better for you that I go»? I doubt there was one disciple that believed that, because they had Him right there. They could ask Him anything; He corrected them. It’s the only time they were embarrassed and felt good about it. Jesus adjusted their lives continuously and said, «It’s better that I go.» Then He made this statement, «The Holy Spirit who is with you will be in you.»
The Spirit of God who is with you will be in you, and that’s what He was announcing. So, in John 20, He breathed on them and they received the Holy Spirit. But we’re not done. Don’t leave Jerusalem until you’ve been clothed with power.
One of the kind of bizarre stories in Scripture is about Gideon. I won’t have you turn there, but it’s in chapter seven or eight. It says, «And the Spirit of God came upon Gideon,» and it was an extraordinary feat that was accomplished. In the footnote, it literally means the Holy Spirit clothed Himself with Gideon. Michael Thompson told us this 27 or 28 years ago. It means the Holy Spirit put Gideon on like a glove. That’s what we need: for the Spirit of God to put us on like a glove. It’s got to fit well. That glove can’t have a mind of its own; it can’t have a preconceived idea of what it needs to look like. It’s got to be supple, tender, and very flexible, just like the Holy Spirit puts you on. He does what He wants.
So He tells them in Luke 24, «Don’t leave Jerusalem until you’ve been clothed with power.» Let’s go to Acts chapter 1. I’ll start wrapping this up. Remember, we started tonight with this most difficult-to-comprehend concept of God wanting to fill us with His fullness. I can’t think about that very long because it will hurt my head.
In Acts chapter 1, you remember that Acts is written by Luke, just like the Gospel of Luke. A great way to read those two books is back-to-back because it picks up in chapter 1 of Acts right where Luke 24 left off. Luke 24 says, «Stay in Jerusalem; tarry until you’re clothed with power.» We come to Acts chapter 1.
Verse 1 says, «The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach.» I love that. I like Mark, and I underline anytime I see «do» and «teach» in the same breath. In our culture, doing and teaching are separate. In our culture, you can be taught by someone who doesn’t do. You can take business classes from someone who doesn’t own a business, and it’s common in our culture because we elevate knowledge concepts above experience. John Wimber brought an amazing example years ago in his book «Power Evangelism.»
He gave this illustration of elderly Chinese people being given a questionnaire. First, there were statements made, and then there was a question. One statement was made: «Coffee doesn’t grow in cold climates.» The second statement was, «England has a cold climate.» The question was, «Does coffee grow in England?» The Western mind thinks this is an easy answer. But for especially the older Chinese generation, when asked if coffee grows in England, their answer was, «We don’t know; we’ve never been there.» The Eastern culture focuses on the value of experience, whereas the Western culture elevates concept where you don’t even need experience.
So we have intellectual Christians that don’t have a relationship; philosophical believers. I’m not trying to shame anyone. I’m just trying to say we need to realize the challenges. The challenges that we have in learning are not them; it’s us. So when he says, «Here’s an account of Theophilus of all that Jesus began to do and teach,» it’s important; it’s not a casual comment. Nicodemus came to Jesus and said, «We know that You’re a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs You do unless God is with Him.» We know You’re a teacher because no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him. There’s the teaching and doing; it’s all through Scripture.
All right, verse 2: «Until the day in which He was taken up, after He had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen.» «To whom He also presented Himself alive after suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.» So what’s the point? After His resurrection, He kept appearing to the eleven disciples and others outside the original group over a period of 40 days. Pentecost means 50. From the death of Christ to the day of Pentecost is 50 days, but He spent 40 hanging out with the guys, which means there were 10 days that they had a prayer meeting.
He says, «Don’t leave Jerusalem until you’re clothed with power.» I wonder what they did in those 10 days? Ten days is a long prayer meeting! They had already been competing with each other, thinking they were better than the other, so they probably took 10 days just to work this stuff out. Throw them in a prayer room: don’t let them get out!
Peter, for example, had already declared, «I love You more than all these,» so Jesus showed up and asked, «Do you love me more than these?» They had a few things to work out in this prayer meeting. It’s interesting; Jesus appeared to over 500 people announcing what was to happen. We don’t know how many people were in the room when the prayer meeting started, but 10 days later there were 120.
What did Jesus talk to His disciples about during the 40-day period? The Kingdom of God. «Being assembled together with them,» verse 4, «He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.» Which He said, «You’ve heard of from Me, for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.»
When they came together, they asked Him, «Lord, will You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?» He said, «It’s not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.» But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the end of the Earth.
Go to chapter 2 of Acts, verse 1. «When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.» There’s the miracle! Ten-day long prayer meeting—they’re now in one accord; that’s awesome! Suddenly, it says, «There came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.»
And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. There were dwelling in Jerusalem devout men from every nation under heaven. When this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language.
They were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, «Look, are not all these who speak Galileans?» How is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, and those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, Egypt, and parts of Libya…
Verse 11—Cretans, Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God. They were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, «Whatever could this mean?» Others were mocking: «They are full of new wine.»
All right, here’s what you want to know; do you want to know what the signs of a revival are? Here are the signs of a revival: Verse 6 says they were confused. Verse 7 says they were amazed. Verse 7 also says they marveled. Verse 12 says they were amazed and perplexed. Verse 13 says they were mocking. That’s revival. It doesn’t mean you do stupid stuff and blame God for it, but when God has His way…
The angel comes to Mary and says, «You’re going to give birth to the Christ child.» She says, «How can this be? I’m a virgin.» The Spirit of God will come upon you. When it happened, there was no external evidence, but eventually she couldn’t hide what she was carrying. Every burning revivalist tries to conceal it for as long as they can until suddenly the work of the Spirit of God upon them is so obvious.
Her privilege and responsibility were to reveal Jesus to the world, just like ours. How did it happen for her? The Spirit of God came upon her. I’m not trying to diminish the significance of Mary and her surrender in the virgin birth; it’s stunning. But don’t underplay the privilege and responsibility that we have as believers to yield.
The natural spirit of God came upon her and produced Jesus. You are natural and the Spirit of God comes upon you, and Jesus is manifest. The second thing I want to point out is that when the various nations heard the 120 pray in tongues, they heard different ones speaking in their languages. Verse 11 says they heard them speaking of the mighty deeds of God.
The people praying in tongues didn’t know what they were saying, but those who heard them did. When you pray or sing in the Spirit, you declare the mighty deeds of God. He who speaks an unknown tongue doesn’t speak to men; he speaks to God. It can be an intercessory prayer or declarations of praise.
I talked with my mom this week about an experience our family had—goodness, it was about 100 years ago—when my grandmother and one of my mom’s aunts were baptized in the Holy Spirit and wrote in perfect Chinese! One thing I learned this week is that one of them wrote in an ancient Chinese language. A missionary came to town who was able to read it, and the first one he read was, «All praise to God.»
The other one read from one of my relatives was the 23rd Psalm in Chinese. Now, writing in another language isn’t on the list, but the list of Scripture doesn’t contain God; it reveals Him. God doesn’t corral Himself with a list; He reveals Himself through the list. What we see is they’re speaking of the mighty deeds of God in foreign languages, and then 100 years ago, our relatives wrote in a foreign language and did the same thing, speaking of the mighty deeds of God.
It’s not on the list, but is it consistent with the list? Learning the ways of God that are revealed through His lists helps us discern if something is from the Lord or not. Some people look at the list, focus on externals, and only end up recognizing Jesus if He appears the way He did while they walked together for three and a half years.
But what if He reveals Himself differently? You have to recognize Him by presence and likeness.
And this is where I’m going to end—I promise! You know what? I am closer to the conclusion than I’ve been all night. I am—this is a fact; it’s not even an exaggeration.
When this sound occurred, the multitude came together. I grew up thinking that thousands of people, if it’s nine o’clock in the morning, with moms playing with their kids and people in the carpenter shop doing their work and all the agricultural teams with their animals ready, suddenly just drop everything they’re doing in Jerusalem to follow a sound.
I thought it was the sound of people speaking in foreign languages, but that’s kind of silly. It’s an international city; they have people talking in foreign languages all the time. But it wasn’t the sound of foreign languages; it was a sound from heaven.
What is it? It’s a sound that came from heaven. One of the words used for this sound is a roar. A roar came from heaven. Remember, we have 120 individuals to the max, and as we know by our own experience, you can be in a group of people you really love and care for, but we often have our own agendas. Ten days of prayer together probably worked all that out.
So now we have everyone tuned to the same sound. In an orchestra, you can have instruments tuned to each other, but they can be completely out of tune with what is a proper sound. They sound good together but aren’t authentic. So they take one tuning fork, and all the instruments tune themselves to this one thing.
So do these instruments unite? Not by working on unity; they unite by tuning their hearts to the one standard. Everybody adjusts to the one thing, and they find themselves in tune with each other. I believe in unity, but sometimes we’re attuned to each other but not to Him. Unity with each other actually starts with unity with Him.
I surrender to you. I embrace your sound. So here are 120 people over 10 days adjusting their instruments until they’re all tuned to the one sound. Then a roar from heaven comes across the hearts of 120 reeds, and a sound is released over a city. People drop everything; there’s a sound that summons them. It’s more than just a musical sound; it’s something other.
People wonder what they’re doing with a plow in their hands or the toys of their children. Everybody drops everything, and thousands start flocking to where there are 120 praying. They are standing there bewildered, mocking, and don’t understand.
They have 120 people that appear to be intoxicated. This isn’t the best way to present the gospel the first time out, but apparently, it was the disciples who didn’t know enough to influence that first meeting. If there’s any meeting that was fully governed by the will, purpose, and presence of the Spirit of God, it was the first one.
And we’ve voted ever since. So here they are, 120 people, and suddenly a roar comes. Different ones spontaneously combust; they explode, and the fiery languages of heaven—the tongues of men and of angels—are speaking of the mighty deeds of God. Who knows how long it went on? Finally, the city begins to gather; Peter collects his thoughts and says, «The prophet Joel announced this day.»
He tells them the passage out of the prophecy out of Joel: «It will come to pass in the last days that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters will prophesy.» Your young men will see visions; your old men will dream dreams. «Upon My maidservants and My menservants, I will pour out My Spirit; they shall prophesy.»
Dear Pentecost, 120 people. Is there any record of any of them prophesying? Is there any record of visions? Is there any record of dreams? No! What happened? Fire, wind, and tongues. Peter says, «This is that.»
Why don’t you stand? Oh goodness, I could charge your rent tonight. I haven’t talked that long in a long time. It’s your fault, though; you’re very kind.
Here’s the deal: I probably should have just done this in the last two minutes—it would have lasted about two minutes. Don’t be drunk with wine; don’t live under the influence of something artificial. Live under the intoxicating influence of the fullness of the Spirit of God in your life. Be filled.
Let’s come and ask Him. It’s not a one-time experience; it’s an ongoing lifestyle of yieldedness to the work of the Holy Spirit. I need it as much today as I did 50 years ago. I need it more today, actually.
So ask Him. Timid prayers get timid answers. Holy Spirit, come! Come with a fresh baptism—a fresh baptism for every person. Thank you. You’re welcome to stay where you are and pray. We’re going to take some time for this, but some of you are so unusually stirred that you need to come down to the front. So just come down to the front. Don’t do it because somebody else is; just follow the unusual stirring in your own heart. Come kneel, stand, or do whatever, but just come.