In Acts 2:17(NLT), God made a promise to born-again believers living after the ascension of Christ. He said, “In the last days…I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.” We are in truth living in the last days, because we are living after the ministry, life, sacrifice, and resurrection of Christ. The term ‘last days’ is used by many to estimate or approximate the coming of our Lord and Savior, and although his coming represents a tremendous hope for the body of Christ, we just don’t know the hour that he will appear. Many have speculated and declared that God has told them when Christ will come, but they have been wrong. I don’t believe Heavenly Father wants us to focus our attention on the timing of his appearance. Instead, we should be focused on what Christ is doing to prepare us for it.
God has given us concrete information about what those of us living today can expect from Him. He told us that He would pour out His Spirit upon His people. In Acts 2:17, Heavenly Father expresses the tremendous generosity of what He has made available to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Even in eternity, we can never deplete God’s inexhaustible resources. Because of what Christ accomplished on the cross, God opened heaven and spiritual blessings began to pour out of it when He made the infilling of the Holy Spirit available. The biggest mistake, and perhaps the biggest sin, of our day is ignoring the power God has made available through the Holy Spirit.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed Heavenly Father in the Old Testament Book of Genesis, they did so by believing the words of the devil over the Word of God. Heavenly Father had given them a direct commandment not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In Genesis 2:17(NKJV), God told them, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Adam and Eve fully understood the Word of God. Heavenly Father would not have held them responsible for a law they lacked the capacity to understand.
The devil planted doubt in their minds and hearts, and they allowed him to do so. We can see very clearly that the emotions and thoughts that cause us to doubt His Word are an enemy of God. Doubt will cause our lives to unravel very quickly, because it turns our focus and attention away from our relationship with Heavenly Father. And we must know that our relationships with Him must be built on our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 4:12(NLT) says, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” The Word that God spoke to Adam and Eve would keep them alive and thriving. The Word of God is true, and it has quickening power. It is so pure and razor sharp that it slices our motives to the core. It reveals the truth of what we are about. If Adam and Eve had trusted God’s Word and not been tricked by the devil, their relationship with God would have been preserved, but this didn’t happen. They were cut-off or disconnected from Him because their disobedience caused them to lose the holiness God had given them.
Jesus Christ restored what Adam lost. Jesus reconciled us back to God. He came to earth to complete the work that God wanted him to do. He did what no other could do. Colossians 1:13 tells us that God rescued us from the realm of darkness and delivered us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son. Jesus said in John 14:26(NLT), “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.” The work of Christ didn’t end when he left the earth and returned home. He went from showing us the truth to actually branding the truth upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
God didn’t give us a gift we couldn’t understand. He was patient with us, and when it was time, He sent His Son to show us the way—to reveal His plan for who and what we were created to be and do. Jesus Christ gave us an up-close and personal demonstration of God’s love in operation. When he finished his work on earth and ascended to heaven, he made it available for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to also operate by the Spirit’s power in the way that he did.
The enemy sought to devour Adam and Eve, and his weapon of choice was doubt. As God’s sons and daughters, we have been spiritually equipped and shouldn’t be easily tricked by doubt and fear. Jesus Christ said in John 16:13 that the Spirit will guide us into the truth and tell us what he hears from Jesus. Because of Christ, the Holy Spirit lives inside our spirits. He is the Spirit of truth, and he writes the truth in our hearts. 1Corinthians 6:19 tells us that because of what Christ accomplished, our bodies are the Spirit’s temple. Truly he is a magnificent gift from God, given so we can live with power, satisfy God’s purpose, and live by the fruit he produces.
We are commanded to carry out the work that Christ started over two thousand years ago. We are his ambassadors! The times are too complex for us to navigate successfully without receiving specific instructions and revelation directly from Christ that the devil cannot hear. God has poured out His Spirit, and it is our duty to receive what He has so freely given. Then we will be spiritually equipped to hear, see, and receive a Word from Jesus Christ internally—Spirit to spirit. This will give us the assurance and confidence that we can live-out our days always doing exactly what God requires.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“What God Requires from Us Today” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2018. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.