THE GLORY OF PENTECOST
THE GLORY OF PENTECOST
Sunday, June 5, 2022
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Acts 2: 1-4: When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, ad it sat upon each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
This past week, we were blessed to participate in Light Up America Conference. The Lord spoke to me and said, “preach on the Anointing.” Thursday evening at midnight, (midnight hour), I received a visitation of the Holy Spirit, whereby, He took over my body from within in waves and waves and waves of glory. This lasted for about one hour. My physical body was exhausted from a full week of ministry, but I yielded my strength to the anointing.
Eph. 3;16: That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man… (Vs. 19) that you might be filled with all the fulness of God… (Vs. 21) Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages…
And so, the glory fell on the message. The prayers and hunger of the Nigerian delegation pulled the anointing in from the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is to be exalted in the church and recognized as the third person of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit will always glorify the Son. “He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. (Jn. 16;14). Taking from Christ and imparting that treasure to His people does not glorify God’s ministers; it glorifies the Christ. John 15:26: The Holy Spirit will testify of Christ. That is why he came into the earth. He came to take the place of Jesus, the faithful and true witness.
1 John 5:7: For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word (Jesus), and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one.
Jesus never did anything of Himself. He always had the leadership of the Holy Spirit. He has now made that available for us. In Christ and through the Holy Spirit, there is a place of unlimited anointing. The anointing in Jesus’ voice brought men to their knees and sent soldiers back to their superiors in abject defeat. It caused a fig tree to wither, the violent wind to die in a moment, and fish to hunt for a net. It brought hope and life to the hungry and oppressed. He never had to carry a purse, for He walked in unlimited finances. If he needed much, He multiplied the little. He met the need out of the fish’s mouth.
John 3:6: That which is born of flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus telling him “You must be born again.”
He then told Nicodemus a very strange thing in John 3:12-13: If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? No man has ascended up to heaven; but he that came down from heaven; even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Jesus said that He is in heaven at the same time he was living on earth. It was too much for Nicodemus to comprehend.
It is true! Hebrews 10:20 tells us that the Veil that separated heaven and earth was His flesh. One side of the Veil faced the sanctuary with its candlestick and the priests who ministered daily. This was his earthly existence; but the other side of the same veil faced the Holy of Holies and the Shekinah Presence of His Father. So, he could say, I do only those things I see my Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner (Jn. 5:19). Christ lived on the earth where men could see him, in an earth body. But, in that body, He also walked continually in a heavenly place on the other side of the veil.
Many people saw Jesus every day, and most thought of Him as just another man. But, inside that man lived the glory of God. God’s Presence in its fulness dwelt behind the veil of His flesh, just inside that simple tent that Mary had given Him at birth. The prophet had said “there was no beauty in Him that we should desire him.” But He was the fulness of the Godhead bodily, the express image of His person, the brightness of His glory.
The Son of Man was sinless and spotless from His birth until His death, but He was not declared perfect until He had learned obedience by the things which He suffered. He had to be made perfect through sufferings (Heb. 2:10).
God received Him back into heaven as perfect man, where perfect humanity was absorbed back into deity---making Him to be both Lord and Christ. He must needs go back into the heart of God, receive that Name which is above every name in earth, heaven, or under the earth---that now He might come forth again in the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son and of the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, who comes forth from the heart of God to begin the circle of Truth over again. As He comes to us, He comes to bring from the heart of God, all that Divine glory and power and life that is now inherent in perfect God and perfect man---that the perfections of the risen and glorified Christ might become our very life. He must needs go away, back to the Father, that in the coming of the Spirit of God into our lives we would have One who would take the things of Christ and reveal them unto us” (Warnock).
The Holy Spirit will lead His people into all truth. The Holy Spirit will continue the work that Jesus started and lead the into further revelation of truth. He will speak only what He hears. He will show you things to come. The Word from the throne will be accurately and precisely declared in the earth. Therefore, his ministers in the earth will be under obligation to speak only what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
There will be a people raised up in the last days who will once again, in simple human bodies (in tents of skin, if you please), manifest the image of a living God. The entire creation is groaning and travailing for this manifestation (unveiling) of the sons of God. But these will not boast. For it is God who shall be glorified, and creation shall be set free from the corruption of death and decay.
Christ alone has immortality in a human body (1 Ti. 6:16). He alone has preceded us through that veil (Heb. 6:19-20). We are anchored behind that veil. We are there because we are in Him. The redemption of our bodies into full immortality waits for His coming. But my spirit is there already. By the power of His resurrection and His righteous Blood, I have crossed the golden altar and stepped behind the veil. Like Paul, I groan for this tent of skin that I now live in to come into that glorious place where my faith now dwells.
Romans 8:23: Not only they (creation), but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
The Lord Jesus has assured us that when He speaks from heaven it will be sounded in the earth as clearly, as distinctly, and as purely as when He was here in our midst.
1. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. He is described as “another Comforter,” for the Man Christ Jesus is the Advocate on the throne, while the Holy Spirit is the new Advocate who would abide in His people in the earth. But He is in fact the very Spirit of the Lord Jesus.
2. The Holy Spirit will perform Greater works than when Jesus was here.
Not because His people are great, we are much more frail, much more
subject to weakness. But it is because Jesus has gone to the place of all power
and authority in the heavens. Now the Father is “glorified in the Son” and
the Son is “glorified” in his brethren in the earth (Jn. 14:13; 17:10).
3. Jesus the Way ---Then and Now. “Whither I go, you know, and the way you know” (Jn. 14:4). The Spirit of Truth took up His habitation in His own in the earth (Jn. 14: 17).
4. Intimacy with Christ assured – then and now. “At that day, you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. (Jn. 14:20). This new intimacy of fellowship in the Holy Spirit would be of the same kind and nature as that which He Himself had with the Father.
5. His People to be a Home for Father and Son--- “We will come into him, and make our abode with him” (Jn. 14:23) the eternal longing in the heart of God for a Home will be realized in the hearts of His people, the only Temple that God ever longed for.
6. There will be a Continuous Revelation of Truth – The Holy Spirit will not fall short in His ministration of truth to His chosen ones. He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (Jn. 14:26). Howbeit, when the spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth (Jn. 16:13).
7. There will be a Vine and Branch Relationship--- Union with Him will be as real as the union of a branch in the vine.
8. There will be a certainty of answered prayers--- In this abiding relationship with the Vine, the prayers of His people would be just as effectual as the prayers of the Son himself.
9. God loves His own with the same Intensity by which He loves the Son--- As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you; continue ye in My love (Jn. 17:26).
10. There is a Divine Provision to Abide in this Love--- If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. (Jn. 15:10).
11. There is Divine Enablement to Manifest that Love--- This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you (Jn. 15:12).
12. Jesus tells His secrets to His friends--- Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his lord does; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My father I have made known unto you. (Jn. 15:15).
13. His people are assured of fruitfulness – I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit (Jn. 15:16).
It is surely evident that God’s chosen vessels in no way equal to Christ---in no way to be considered as other little Christs, other voices, or any such thing. It is only as we abide in Him that we are able to partake of the high and holy calling. Apart from Him---severed from him as the branches cut off from the vine, we are nothing. Only He is the Anointed One.
2 Co. 13:14: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Bill Britton; and George H. Warnock. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labors.