This week in Promise Kingdom we will be learning about the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Lesson #44). You can read the account from Acts 2:1-12.

Growing up I had often heard the word "Pentecost" but had always associated it with a formal season in the church. As I got older I began to link it with "Pentecostal". It was only as I started to study the actual event in the context of the book of Acts that it began to make sense. In fact, I realized that most of us don't understand just how important Pentecost was to our faith.

At Pentecost God’s people experienced a more powerful, new-covenant experience of the Holy Spirit. The “last days” have now begun! I think of Jesus' words in John 16:

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7 ESV)

It may not have seemed like it at the time, but we now know the advantage of the Holy Spirit's empowering presence in our lives. The Spirit of Christ goes everywhere we go, bringing us affirmation as God's children, comfort, empowerment, and growth in our likeness to Jesus.

I agree with John Stott, "Without the Holy Spirit, Christian discipleship would be inconceivable, even impossible. There can be no life without the life-giver, no understanding without the Spirit of truth, no fellowship without the unity of the Spirit, no Christlikeness of character apart from his fruit, and no effective witness without his power. As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead."

Thank God for Pentecost!