“When the day of Pentecost had fully come, …” Luke Acts 2:1a NKJV

Pentecost. The day when we who receive, no matter our tribal name, join with that first group of 120 believers who gathered in the Upper Room. Waiting. Watching. Praying. Believing.

We join them in our longing, in our heart’s cry to be filled. And this miracle, this first century birthday of ‘The Church’ leaps off the pages of the Book of Acts and invades our right here, right now.

And once He is there, who can give Him an order of service? These moments, though prayed for, are not orchestrated. How could they be? For who can order or orchestrate the Grand Entrance of the Spirit of the Living God in our midst?

I have seen this in so many settings, no one can ever persuade me it is not straight from heaven and completely genuine. I have literally laid my hands on the sun parched face of an elderly Hindu goatherd who spoke no English, and prayed he be filled the Holy Spirit of Jesus and watched his face light up with first surprise, then joy, then a flood of happy tears streaming down his face. And a holy torrent of a prayer language straight from heaven that he was not speaking a moment before. His Telegu shifting to Heaven’s dialect.

I have seen Ifugao tribal people standing in torchlight (since as yet no electricity in that village, a full day’s hike from the nearest road.) Pagan animists for centuries, they now were hungry for the Living God. They raised their hands in praise and worship, and when we went to pray for them, across the language barrier, before we could even touch them, they fell, as if slain, by the Holy Spirit. Singing and praising God in a language their parents and teachers had never taught them. They had never so much as seen a western crusade or television program. They had never seen a television!

I have seen Thai children from fatherless homes be flooded by the power of the Holy Spirit, and fall. Lost in His love, their faces radiant with joy.

Pentecost! The day when heaven broke out on the earth and Jesus was able to keep His promise to us: I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.

We need this new awakening of the heavenly as never before. Joy and love and power to overcome all anger and division. Spirit. Come. We need You, Lord.

~ Debbie Ecker