Pentecost

We Believe in Holy Spirit Power

I used to have a fear of flying....

I traveled by plane to fly away from things or to things, but only because I had to in order to get there.

I used to wonder how in the world a humongous hunk of metal could even lift off the ground, let alone fly at high altitudes for hours.

All I could picture in my mind on every flight was the humongous hunk of metal I was currently seated in, plummeting to earth in a fiery, out-of-control-downward spiral.

You see, I allowed my mind to focus on fear rather than focusing on the one who created the birds of the air.

Then, on one purposeful trip to the Bahamas, something changed.

No, it wasn’t a mission trip in the sense that I was going to the Bahamas for the purpose of serving, although the Lord orchestrates divine appointments regardless of what we call it.

A long-time, wonderful friend heard Brian and I were planning to go to Ft. Myers for our anniversary that year. She said, “Oh, no, sweetheart. You are not going there, you are going to the Bahamas because my husband and I loved the Bahamas and it would make me so happy.

Of course, it was too extravagant a gift and the more I refused the angrier she got, and she was a fiesty little woman.

So we graciously accepted this amazing gift. Along with the trip, we also needed passports.

As we boarded the plane, fear crept in. At first, what kept me from sheer panic was thinking about the place we were heading to and the reason for celebration.

Then something more spiritual than the promise of blue waters and warm, sand between my toes happened.

As I looked down at my passport in hand-I felt the Lord speak to me in my spirit and He said if you are going to go where I call you to go, you’re going to have to fly to get there.

In that instant, all fear left.

Tears formed puddles and as they spilled over, I tried not to blink as to not allow my mascara to smear.

I was overwhelmed with the promise of being sent beyond the boarders I had drawn myself, and overwhelmed with the joy that I was sealed by the Holy Spirit and He was giving me this boldness.

Now whenever I fly, there is a feeling of zuberance and expectancy of what the Lord has planned for the calling He has on my life.

As we remember Pentecost and celebrate it, as the children of the Lord who calls for feasts and celebrations, we remember that we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit to boldly walk out of doubt and into our calling and purpose.

As we remember Passover coinciding with Easter, one celebrating the

As we have learned and likely heard in many sermons, the deeper meaning and representation of the Jesus. Pentecost, the annual harvest festival that occurs seven weeks or 50 days after Passover. And in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit of promise arrived.

In Jewish tradition, the annual harvest and also became a covenant renewal festival of the giving of the law, the law which Jesus did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

In Francis Chan’s book, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, he says this: “"Empowering His children with the strength of the Holy Spirit is something the Father wants to do. It's not something we have to talk Him into. He genuinely wants to see us walk in His strength." We have the Fruit of the Spirit, the nine characteristics evidencing the Spirit’s presence in believers. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, one might say all good people possess all or most of these traits, believers or not. The difference is the supernatural part—the part beyond understanding, and the inexplicable way believer’s display this fruit in their lives. My reader has the same power in her that that rose Christ from the dead—when she grasping that truth brings powerful transformation.