What Is The Great Outpouring Of The Holy Spirit?

The great outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the pouring out of God’s Spirit to fill and indwell people- was prophesied in the Old Testament and was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost (Act 2). This event was predicted in the Old Testament. Isaiah 44:3 God said to Israel, “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessings on your descendants. The Holy Spirit is pictured as the “water of life” that saves and blesses dying people. On the day of Pentecost. Peter quoted another prophecy as being fulfilled: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days… And everyone who calls on the day of the Lord will be saved.” (Joel 2:28-29). I believe that “those days” are today.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit ushered in a new era, the church age. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was a rare gift that was only given to a few people and usually for only a short period of time. When Saul was anointed King of Israel, the Holy Spirit came upon him (1 Samuel 16:14). But when God removed His blessing on Saul, the Holy Spirit left him (1 Samuel 16:1). The Holy Spirit came for specific moments or seasons on people like Gideon and Samson. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on all believers in Christ and He came to start. This was a pivotal point changing the Holy Spirit’s work.

Before Jesus’s arrest, He had promised to send His disciples the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit lives with us and will be in His believers.. Jesus said I John 14:17 that this was a pprophecy of the indwelling of the Spirit, another distinctive of the church age. Ever since Pentecost, the Holy Spirit ahas baptized every believer into Christ at the moment of salvation (1 Corinthians 12:13), as He comes to permanently dwell i His children.

In the book of Acts, there are three outpourings of the Holy Spirit, to three different groups at three different times.

The First; was to the Jews and proselytes in Jerusalem (Acts 2).

The Second; was a group of believing Samaritans (Act8).

The Third; was to a group of believing Gentiles (Acts 10).

Significantly Peter was present at all three outpourings. Three times, God sent the Holy Spirit with demonstrable signs, as the Great Commission was being fulfilled. The same Holy Spirit coming up in the Jews, Samaritans, and the Gentiles in the same manner in the same presence of the same apostle that kept the church unified. There was not a Jewish church, a Samaritan church not a Roman church – there was one church, one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:5).

The outpouring of the Spirit is different from the filling out the Spirit. The outpouring was a unique coming of the Holy Spirit to earth; the filling happens whenever we are surrendered to God’s control of our lives. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). In this regard it is possible for the believer either to be “filled with the Spirit” or to “quench” the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). In either case, the Holy Spirit remains with the believer. The filling of the Holy Spirit camel as a direct result of submission to God’s will, and the quenching isa direct result of rebelling against God’s will.

Some still look for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on a specific group of people in a specific place or time, but there is no biblical support for the repeat of such a Pentecost-style event. The church has already begun, the Apostles have already laid the groundwork of that foundation (Ephesians 2:20).

Sometimes we sing songs that ask the Holy Spirit to ‘come’ but the reality is that He has already come to us -at the moment of our salvation, and once He comes, He does not leave. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a completed prophecy that usher in the church age and the New Covenant in which all believers are given the Holy Spirit.

The Difference Between Happiness And Joy

We often use the terms “happiness” and “joy” interchangeably, but are they they same thing?

Though you have not seen His; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

1 Peter 1:8

Happiness and joy are seemingly similar, but are quite different. The key point being that God promises joy, but He never promises us happiness.

Being happy is an emotion, just like sadness or jealousy or fear. It is fleeting. You might be happy about something, but you are not going to be continually happy. Happiness is great, but we can get happiness from a lot of things.

Joy on the other hand, is a long-lasting state of being. Joy is promoted by God and something we should strive towards. Hebrews 12:2 states, “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

We all know there will joy in heaven, so we can have joy now in our expectant waiting. God promises us joy when He promises salvation. When we keep this truth in the front of out minds, we can find peace and joy even in our earthly suffering.

Psalm 16:11, says “You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.”

Once again, God gives us joy, even if we are not happy. We do not have to smile all the time. We are not promised sunshine and rainbows in this life, but we promised salvation and eternal life, which is cause for great joy even in the midst of pain and unhappiness.

Biblical Faith -VS- The World’s Faith

If faith is what empowered and guides a follower of Christ, we should expect to find a counterfeit form of this faith that the evil one uses to confuse him. The world’s version of faith can be recognized by different coats that it wears. However, its deceptive heart is essentially the same throughout the generations of human mankind. We need to ask two questions.

1. What does today’s version of counterfeit faith look like?

Biblical faith shapes the lives of God’s people. Faith is not the end but the means. God is the end. Faith allows man’s soul to connect with God in Christ. From this heavenly faith, his earthly life is changed.

The world believes faith shapes their lives too, but they have something else in mind. Rooted in humanism, their faith is dependent upon what they can dream up. Their faith is limited to man itself. This faith is limited to man himself. Even their decoded religions and philosophies are but reflections of their own heart. Because of this, his announced life goals are to reach himself. They need to word harder at dreaming, and being more inspired, so that their faith might develop to its full potential

Today the breeding of confidence in man is more structured than ever. This means we have yet so see the worlds worst. Just like the schools of Al-Quids have produced thousands of men who are willing to kill themselves so they could kill others, so our educational systems are breeding humanists. They do this both through destroying allegiance to their parents and by emphasizing self-esteem and self-confidence. Advances in medicine, science and knowledge have regularly deceived man so that now he is inflated into a balloon of pride. Man is more confident that ever that he can handle whatever comes. There is a wish that man would humble himself a bit and state at the mess that we are standing in.

We only have to view the horizon of history to see some of the greatest ‘reaches’ of man. For example; the world idealized utopias are but secular versions of heaven. They build upon many biblical principles but substitute man for God. God is stripped along with His Holiness. Mao killed millions; Statin did too. The Cambodia Fields are still red-stained by ruthless murders. Why? All to accomplish an ideal of man. Today millions are human babies are being murdered. And no -one seems to even blink an eye.

Their faith is for themselves. This idea has been popularized by having confidence in oneself or even the distorted version of self-esteem. They believe just so they believe something, it can be done. This self-faith provides the needed positive orientation to be accomplished in life. They are happy to focus on what can be done rather than what cannot be done. They defy fear by substituting a blind confidence in themselves. We may ask “what’s wrong with this?“

2. What is the world’s Faith like at heart level?

Man and his goals haven’t changed but only accelerated.. Indeed the modern tools we now posses for travel, information, processing and technology are simply amazing. We see this human potential revealed thousands of years ago in Genesis 11:6-7.

And the Lord said, behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And that is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.

Genesis 11:6-7

Man will naturally thing that they can do well. And to some degree that is true. God said, “nothing which they purpose to do will be Impossible for them.” One might wonder why did God has to hold back this progress ? It was not because God felt threatened. We read in Daniel 12:4, that the end of tine will amass great amounts of knowledge. He will allow this knowledge to increase but at His time. When He allows it, then man will reach a point where his pride will keep him from seeing God and being restrained from their evil.God held back an so that the world would be preserved longer for man will literally destroy himself.

The two main problems are inherent in the humanism model from the old.

Their Vision Is Astray

They seek things that are a mere shadow of what God desires. Man is chasing after a picture of a rather than holding and treasuring a genuine one that’s already in their hands. Man’s utopia are but fully secularized versions of biblical faith. They do this by stripping God out of the equation. Biblical faith brings courage and Vision because God is doing something special. Their focus and glory is in God. Man’s worldly faith. Accentuate his own works, accomplishments and goals. It will end where it began – in dust. Satan tempts man with having all the treasure without submission of their hearts and wills to their creator. Satan is himself self-deceived and still believes his version is better.

Their Method Is Corrupt

The other problem is that these men are evil. They not only seek things that did not please God, but their ways of accomplishing these things were evil in themselves. Human, cloning, stealing brain cells from babies, freedom to spread evil information such as pornography, the usury of credit card companies, gambling to the extent that families are starving and people are homeless are commonly accepted today. If given the chance, the secular touch always turns into terror. Every great communist utopia in the 20th century, ended in mass graves Hitler’s millennium dreams used extermination camps to implement their plans.

The world’s faith is in corrupt man. So full man has sinful plans which will end in correctness.

Biblical faith sprinkles and even pours forth extra grace, love and joy into God’s people while they live in the midst of the world.

If we all think the world is in a bad place right now. It is not to be compared to what will happen in the future. We will destroy ourselves Day by day. And God does show up. It will be to late. There will be true hell to pay.

Confess Your Faults

I think there is a place for eventually sharing with someone else what which have occurred in our lives. There is something tremendously healing about verbalizing it to another person (or just speaking out loud to yourself and God) that does wonders for us.

When I finally decided I had to let the bad feelings and flaults that were poisoning me from the inside out. I began to heal. At first I could only tell these to God and I cried so much. But, later I was able to trust someone enough to listen and not repeat what I told them.

So, if you’re ready to confess your deepest secrets and faults, be Spirit-led and choose someone you know you can trust. Be sure by sharing your burdens with someone else, you do not place it upon that individual’s shoulders, trying to dig up old injuries long buried and forgotten in them.

It is so important to use wisdom and balance in these matters. If you are going to share your problems with someone, let God show you who to choose as a confidont. Pick a mature believer, someone who is not going to be burdened down or harmed by what you share or use it to hurt you or make you feel worse about yourself.

Many times there is a release that comes to us as we finally tell someone else those secrets that have been slowly poisoning us from being crammed in the background of our lives for year’s, especially when we discover that the person with who we share them still loves and accepts us in spite of them.

Bringing Things Out In The Open Causes Them To Lose Their Grip On Use, And We Begin To Heal

The Anguish Of Self-Doubt

Of all the traps and pitfalls in life, dis-esteem is the deadliest, and the hardest to overcome. It is a pit designed and dug by our own hands, summed up in the phrase, “it’s no use -I can’t do it.”

The biggest injury a human being can inflict on themselves is the loss of self-confidence. In today’s world, self-confidence is an important factor in pursuing the passion, earning that dream job and attracting great opportunities we least expect would come our way. Powerful – that is what it is.

No one was created worthless. We all have something to offer in our existence on earth. Over they years, you may have held onto the numerous failures, fear, demeaning encounters which has been the catalyst for your current state of what I call self- torture.

The absence of confidence in one’s self can indeed be frustrating and hinders self-development when we thoroughly think about it – especially when we see the stellar strides the people around us have made within the same period. While we try to stay true to ourselves, we may realize that we form part of our in-progressiveness not because we do not make an effort but just that we do not believe in ourselves in the first place.

We fondly admire individuals we see on our screens, hear on radio, classmates, and others passionately, doing what their good at. While we stare admiringly at them and wish in our hearts that we could do the same. We can because our creator has blessed each and every one of us with something we can present to the world to make it a better place.

In today’s world we have to have the skills because as it may sound hurtful but true people are reluctant to listen or back projects by individuals who are nervous, very apologetic people. We must maximize every avenue at our disposal to build ourselves up and find our talent.

We must keep moving forward and leave self-doubt behind us. We must leave our audience no matter how large or small with a wow impression if we are to get anywhere in life.