The Day of Pentecost is a familiar Bible story for many believers. We’ve heard it preached several times and from several different angles. No matter what aspect of that famous day people choose to focus on, they all deal with the same basic element – the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit fills us.

On the day of Pentecost, the apostles were simply waiting around in a room after Jesus had died and was taken up into heaven. They had known Jesus and knew his teachings. They had experienced him. So why were they just sitting there instead of proclaiming the message?

The answer? They hadn’t received the Holy Spirit yet.

Jesus promised them that he would send the Holy Spirit to fill those who believe. He prophesied this, so the day of Pentecost was a fulfillment of prophesy. God knew way in advance that they couldn’t do what He called them to do without the Holy Spirit.

Neither can we today.

This is why there’s a difference between people who know God and have maybe even had an experience with Him when they were saved and people who actually let the Holy Spirit enter their lives. Sometimes it’s pride that gets in the way. We want to do things our way, so we refuse to let the Holy Spirit lead us. Sometimes it’s fear. We’re afraid of not being in control and of what He might lead us to do.

But like the apostles just sitting in the upper room waiting, people without the Holy Spirit just sit around in the upper room of their lives and wait. They go through their day-to-day, mundane lives never really fulfilling their purpose because they never allowed God to fill them with the power they needed. But if we let God fill us with His spirit, we can accomplish everything He calls us to do.

The Holy Spirit has many purposes – encouragement, counsel, teaching, conviction…but most importantly, He guides us and gives us power.

The Holy Spirit guides us.

We can’t live successfully in today’s world without the Holy Spirit guiding us. For one thing, we would have no clue what our purpose was or how to get there. We need His guidance daily, every step of the way. But also, we need the Spirit to guide us in truth and speak truth to us. How can we know what’s right and wrong without being told? That’s the Holy Spirit’s job.

We need the Holy Spirit to breathe truth into us to combat the lies that the world tries to pound into us every day. We need the Holy Spirit’s constant presence to renew our minds every day to make them align with God’s truth.

This is why Christians have a different standard of morals and convictions than non-Christians. So many sins seem so obviously bad to us. We naturally understand that they’re sinful and have negative consequences, whereas people without the Holy Spirit dwelling in them may see the same action as completely acceptable.

We need the Holy Spirit to successfully live for God in this corrupt world.

The Holy Spirit gives us power.

What did the apostles do immediately after receiving the Holy Spirit? They went out and preached. They witnessed to everyone around them. Remember, these were uneducated people who had no training in delivering a sermon. Since they had no real practice preaching, in all reality, they shouldn’t have been good at it, and they definitely shouldn’t have had any confidence.

But God had filled them with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit gave them power. They preached and witnessed to people so well that thousands were saved. In fact, every time the New Testament mentions that people are filled with the Holy Spirit, they then do something that takes a lot of confidence and boldness, something they wouldn’t have done on their own.

When we receive the Holy Spirit, we have that same power, and it’s meant for something amazing. We aren’t just filled with the Holy Spirit to do normal things we can do on our own. We get this power to do great things for God, and although we often get blessings through what we do with it, God didn’t just give us all the Holy Spirit for our benefit. He gave us this power to use to further his kingdom.

God wants us to demonstrate Jesus to the world, but we’re merely human. We’re all flawed. We are poor representatives of Christ on our own. With the help of the Holy Spirit, though, we can show God’s love and power to others in a way that will help lead them to salvation so they can receive the Holy Spirit’s power too.

The great thing about the way God works is that He can use anything to fulfill his purposes, but He chose to use us. Let’s not let that go to waste.

5 Minute Mini Message on Bringing the Pentecost Into Our Lives

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