Holy Spirit – How to Walk into Your Own God-Ordained Amazing Adventure
Right before Jesus’ ascension, He told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for a special Gift that He would bestow upon them. Ten days later, all 120 of them were gathered together in one place. (Some scholars speculate that this place was within the temple precincts because it was the disciples’ practice to continually meet there.) As they patiently and obediently awaited the Lord’s promise, a mighty rushing wind blew through the house, and what appeared to be tongues of fire rested upon their heads.
What happened next was equally profound. All of them began speaking in foreign languages. As they were speaking, foreign Jews who were in town for the Feast of Weeks could hear and understand what the disciples were saying in their own languages. These foreigners were understandably dumbfounded because the disciples were uneducated locals of modest backgrounds and thus could not be expected to be able to speak in these foreign languages.
Indeed, this phenomenon signified a special anointing and was indicative of the Lord’s purpose for them. What happened afterward was truly unfathomable. In short, this group of 120 ragtag followers turned the world upside down by spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ and His saving grace from its epicenter in Jerusalem, throughout all of nearby Judea and Samaria and unto the ends of the earth.
Through these disciples, and those who were subsequently saved, the Gospel raged like an uncontrollable fire westward throughout the Roman Empire and eastward into the Middle East. It then spread outside of the empire’s boundaries continuing northward into northern Europe, southward into northern Africa, and further eastward into Asia.
At various times, Christianity contracted and expanded. However, by the early 17th century, it had spread around the world into the Americas; and by the 19th and early 20th centuries, it had expanded into southern and middle Africa, the entirety of Europe, northern Asia, and all of Australia. From the mid-20th century onto the present time, Christianity has been blossoming in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Presently, the number of Christians worldwide is growing at an unprecedented rate.
In his book, Missions Power, author Terry Wong states that for every baby that is born into the world, 3 ½ people are born-again.
Besides the amazing geographical spread of the Gospel, there is an equally profound march of the Gospel through time. If you are a Christian, imagine if you could reach your hand through time to grasp the hand of the person who led you to the Lord. Imagine if that person could reach back in time to grasp the hand of the person who led him/her to the Lord. Imagine if this could be repeated, from generation to generation, through the veil of time, back into the mist of history. Eventually, you would be able to see the face of one of those first 120 disciples who had initially received the gift of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem.
That particular disciple and all the rest of the people in that chain of hands through time whose legacy you are, were obedient to the Lord’s calling upon their lives, and you owe a debt of gratitude to each and every one of them.
Each of the original 120 disciples, and each of the people in your chain of hands through time, were obedient to the Lord and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, thereby empowering them to be used mightily by the Lord and changing their lives forever.
The Book of Acts records the actions of mainly two of these disciples, Peter and Paul.
Peter was a rude and crude fisherman. He was known for acting impetuously and for his cowardice. If he had not come to know and follow Jesus, he most probably would have lived out a simple fisherman’s life and disappeared into anonymity along with all the other unknown people of his ilk. However, this was not the case because Peter was obedient to the Lord and thus had received the gift of the Holy Spirit, which changed him from what he was into a mighty Apostle of the Lord. Uneducated Peter became a mighty orator who led thousands of people to the Lord when he preached. Miracles, signs, and wonders followed him as he obediently followed the Lord. Peter had led an amazing life.
Paul was a highly accomplished Jewish leader during the time of the early church. He had viewed Jesus as a false prophet and Christianity as a wayward sect. With this mistaken belief, Paul set about doing his best to annihilate the budding Christian movement by any means, including the use of violence. To put it bluntly, Paul was a terrorist.
However, the Lord had a different plan for Paul. Since Paul was a hard case, the Lord took a drastic measure. As Paul was traveling to Damascus for the purpose of finding, arresting, and returning Christians to Jerusalem for prosecution, the Lord blinded him and spoke to him, convicting him of his wrongdoings and directing him to complete his journey to Damascus where he would be told what to do next.
After Paul reached Damascus, he was so remorseful that he refused to eat or drink for three days. The glory of the Lord revealed to Paul by this event was so powerful that it led him to repent and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. While there, the Lord sent a man named Ananias to lay hands on him and pray for him. When he did, Paul regained his sight and was filled with the Holy Spirit. Consequently, the Lord transformed him into a mighty Apostle.
The rest of Paul’s life was a grand adventure. Paul at once began to preach in the synagogues declaring and demonstrating through Scripture that Jesus is the Son of God. He traveled the world sharing the Good News with kings, commoners, and prisoners alike. Miracles, signs, and wonders followed him. He survived years of imprisonment, multiple beatings, one stoning, three shipwrecks, and being lost at sea. He healed the sick, preached the Gospel, founded churches, raised up leaders, and wrote about one third of the New Testament. Paul had also lived an amazing life.
What about you? Do you want your life to have ultimate meaning? Do you want your story to be an adventure? Do you want to walk into the best life that the Lord has planned for you?
In order to live life to the fullest, you need to be given to a transcendent cause. This transcendent cause must be truly epic. It has to be something which is way bigger than you are, something which is outside of yourself. Saving the whales, fighting air pollution, conserving a forest, and other such causes, although noble, pale in comparison to the one true transcendent cause – that of the cause of Christ which is the salvation of the world.
In order to transform your life, follow the example of those first 120 disciples. Do what Peter and Paul did. Repent, and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Submit yourself, that is, your spirit, soul, and body to the Lord. When you do this, you will receive the Holy Spirit who will guide you as you walk into your God-ordained life. When you are filled with the Spirit, you will be empowered to do amazing things for the Lord. There is no telling how mightily He will use you; but one thing is for sure: your life will become an amazing adventure.
For more articles by H.W. Leung, visit, “A+O=Answers,” at aoanswers.com