Praise the Lord! It’s so wonderful to be back in the fold with the family of God to read, study, and meditate the Word of God and together glorify His name in heaven and on earth through praise and worship and righteous living. The Scripture states that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) and he/she becomes part of God’s family on earth as fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household (Romans 8:14-17; Ephesians 2:19-22). God’s family accepts His majesty and sovereignty by acknowledging Him as the Lord and Savior of their life and begins to love and praise and worship and obey Him and live a life that is worthy of His holy name. In addition to this, we begin to live/remain in Him (John 15:4-5; 1 Corinthians 6:17; 1 John 3:24; 4:13) and unite with our fellow-believers for His glory (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:12). Although we are all separated from each other by space and time, the Lord continues to remain in our midst and connects us with one another by His Spirit – the Holy Spirit. Thus, we who are in Christ Jesus, despite being physically separated by space and time, are united together with one another as one body in Christ Jesus, and in the similar way we are united with God the Father [Yahweh] and God the Son [Jesus Christ] and God the Holy Spirit. This is what exactly Jesus desired for His faithful followers and asked of His Father in heaven that He wants His faithful followers to be one with Him as He is one with the Father:

… all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me (John 17:21-23)

Now, we, who are redeemed from the realm of death and destruction, are alive in Christ Jesus and are closer to Him more than ever before, in addition, we are connected with one another more closely than ever before. Such a close relationship between us and the Lord as well as between us and our fellow-believers is only possible because the Spirit of God/Christ lives in us. Apostle Paul explained it while he was writing to the believers in Rome, saying:

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you (Romans 8:9-11)

Therefore, it is necessary for us to live a righteous life that is worthy of our calling – being united with Christ and God’s family on earth. In the family of God we will be forgiven, accepted, loved, and cherished all day long for now and for ever and ever.

The Lord has blessed us with a hopeful and promising Scripture passage for our SftW meditation this week, which is based on Acts of the Apostles 1:4-8. The main focus of the passage includes the promises of God/Christ: the Holy Spirit, God’s Kingdom, and God’s Power for everyone who longs and waits for them. Just prior to His ascension to heaven, Jesus Christ promised the Holy Spirit from the Father, God’s Kingdom, and God’s Power to the apostles He had chosen, so that they will be able to carry out the ministry they were entrusted with after His ascension to heaven. The Holy Spirit will be always with them in the same way Jesus Christ was with them during His earthly life and ministry. Inheriting or becoming part of God’s Kingdom will be their ultimate hope and goal of their life.  And God’s power will empower them to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven effectively and enable them to endure the trials and troubles and torments and tortures and tribulations and so on which could possibly come against their life and ministry (John 14:27; 16:33). The ministry the apostles were called to carry out was the continuation of the ministry God the Father had started in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8-21) and that was carried on by His servants during the Old Testament times [which are described in the Old Testament Scripture from Genesis to Malachi and includes the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms] and continued by Jesus Christ during His earthly life and ministry [which are described in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John].   Jesus had entrusted this continuing ministry to the apostles he had chosen to carry it out and who will later entrust the responsibility of preaching the gospel to the next generation and this pattern would continue generation after generation until the Day Jesus returns.

Jesus commanded His disciples to remain in the city [that is, the City of Jerusalem] until they have been clothed with power from on high, as it is mentioned: [Jesus said] I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49; also refer to Acts 1:4-5). The promise of the Holy Spirit is for all who believe in Jesus and is given as a gift to them. The purpose of giving the Holy Spirit is to empower and guide them in their life and ministry, as Jesus promised: When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come (John 16:13). In addition, the Holy Spirit will enable and empower them to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:4-5, 8) and remind them everything Jesus has commanded them, as it is mentioned: the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you (John 14:26; also refers to Zechariah 4:6;  Matthew 10:20; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11-12). In fact, Jesus, foreseeing the oppositions and obstacles and hurdles His apostles and other torch bearers of the gospel after them would face while preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, warned His followers in advance of the dangers they would face for the sake of their faith in Jesus Christ and the consequences they would encounter while testifying the things they have heard and saw and experienced while they were with Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry (Isaiah 43:10-12; Matthew 10:22; Luke 6:22; John 15:18; Acts 1;8; 5:41; 9:16; 1 Peter 4:13-14; 1 John 3:13). Although Jesus commissioned His disciples to go, make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teach them to obey everything He had commanded them (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47-48; John 20:21-22; Acts 1:8), He neither wanted His disciples to begin the ministry in Jerusalem nor depart from Jerusalem to other places to carry out all that He commanded them to do without them being baptized in the Holy Spirit and receiving the power from on high (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-8).

It was not the first time Jesus told the apostles to wait in the city to be clothed in power from on high (Acts 1:4-8) but He kept on telling them time to time regarding the promise of God of sending the Holy Spirit who will empower them and help them in carrying out all that He commanded them (Joel 2:28-29; Ezekiel 36:26-27; Luke 24:49; John 14:16-18, 26; 15:26; 16:7; Ephesians 1:13-14). For instance, prophet Joel prophesied about God pouring out His Spirit (the Holy Spirit) on all people in the last days: [God said] I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days (Joel 2:28-29). John the Baptist testified regarding through whom the anointing of the Holy Spirit would take place:

John gave this testimony: I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One (John 1:32-34)

Although God filled certain individuals and group of people with His Spirit (the Holy Spirit) during the Old Testament and New Testament times (Genesis 6:3; Numbers 11:25, Judges 13:25; 15:14; 1 Samuel 16:14; Psalm 51:11; 29; Isaiah 11:2; 61:1; John 20:22), the pouring of the Holy Spirit on all people did not happen until Christ Jesus was glorified, as Apostle John stated: By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:39; also refer to Acts 2:3). During His conversation with His disciples, Jesus told them in advance that it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you (John 16:7). As God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ promised about sending the Holy Spirit, God sent the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4); which was on the fiftieth day after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead – that include forty days of post-resurrection appearances and speaking to His disciples about the Kingdom of God [Luke 24:13-35, 39; John 20:27; 21:12-13; Acts 1:3] and ten days after being united with His Father in heaven following His ascension to Heaven. As Jesus promised His disciples that He will continue to remain with them to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20), He humbled Himself and returned to this lowly earth again in the form of the Holy Spirit in order to remain with His people until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20), as Apostle Paul mentioned while he was writing to believers in Corinth that the Lord is the Spirit – the Holy Spirit of God: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17; [13:5; Galatians 2:20; 4:19; Colossians 1:27); also refer to John 4:24, where it says God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. From all these revelations, we can understand that the Spirit of God the Father, and the Spirit of His Son, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are the same; and, you and I and everyone else who accepts His Son Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of their life are united with Him and become one with Him in spirit as Apostle Paul stated, whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), which would fulfill what Jesus foretold His disciples while He was with them: On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you (John 14:20; also refer to John 17:6-26). Apostle John stated: The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us (1 John 3:24); and elsewhere John quoted Jesus’ words: Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them (John 14:23). Apostle Paul also spiritually challenged the believers in Corinth to examine themselves and see whether Jesus lives in them or not: Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test (2 Corinthians 13:5). In a nutshell, we are all (that is, you and I and everyone else who have become part of the family of God through Christ Jesus) united with God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit through His Spirit that is given to us (refer to Joel 2:28-29).

We, as the chosen people of this generation, can read in the Holy Scriptures that the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost and filled those who were waiting in the Upper Room in Jerusalem with His Spirit and empowered them to embark on the ministry they were called to. When the apostles and other disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and clothed in power from on high, they became fearless and courageous and began the gospel work in Jerusalem, and carried it out in to all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Since the Day of Pentecost – the day the Holy Spirit descended upon all those who waited in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, God never stopped filling His people with Holy Spirit, and this will definitely go on until the Day the Lord returns. Today the followers of Christ [the Church] multiplied to be the largest God-fearing people group in the world and the number still expanding and will continue to expand until the day of Christ’s return to the earth in a visible manner (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Believe it or not, it all started from a very humble beginning with just a handful of people (Jesus, the Apostles, and a few other faithful disciples of Jesus). The Apostles were fearless (Peter and John along with other apostles confronted the Jewish religious leadership who opposed them preaching the gospel and healed the sick and boldly said they will obey God’s commands rather than men’s commands); the early Christians were fearless to live as the followers of Christ in word and deed and boldly carried out the commands of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ even during life-threatening situations; the church from the first century to the present day was fearless in spreading the gospel. Now, it is our turn and calling to preach the gospel. God the Father is ready to grant us all that we ask for, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is ready to go with us wherever the Father sends us, and the Holy Spirit is ready to fill us, empower us, help us and guide us. Now, the question is:  Are we ready to take up the cross and follow Jesus Christ and fulfill the ministry for which we are called? Remember, with the help of God, we can change the world through prayer, intercession, preaching, and a godly life. May God Bless us all! Amen!