One last great outpouring of the Power of the Holy Spirit

It is interesting that the filling of the Holy Spirit is often characterized by manifestations that make people think that people are drunk, those who are filled with the Holy Spirit. That is why Paul also says that: "Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit" there is a comparison as with getting drunk with alcohol and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

There are times, there are times when God can baptize us with the Spirit so that our brain kind of has a short circuit and we start talking incoherently or moving incoherently, and it would seem that we are drunk because we are saturated with that new wine of the Holy Spirit.

"And Peter stands up" Acts chapter 2 verse 14, with the other disciples "and raised his voice, and spoke to them saying:" because some were making fun because it seemed like they were drunk, how interesting. What was it in the lives of those disciples filled with the Holy Spirit that made people think they were drunk? Were they moving in a weird way? Were they talking loudly? Were some of them running around like a drunkard?

The fact is that Peter says to that crowd: Hey, these people that you see here acting in that strange way, it is not that they are drunk, but that it is the fulfillment of what the Lord said by the prophet Joel. So the apostle Peter goes back to the prophetic scriptures and quotes the Book of Joel, a very interesting passage. It's Joel chapter 2 I think it's, yes, Joel chapter 2, where Joel prophesies that in the end times the Holy Spirit was going to be poured out on multitudes. Very interesting that connection that the apostle Peter makes.

Verse 17: 2 says: "And in the last days I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy." Peter is connecting what is happening at that moment on the Day of Pentecost with Joel's prophecy, and he is telling them: that's what God said.

How interesting that in the Old Testament the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is already predetermined, it is the unity of the Word of God that we have seen when studying the life of Saul and how the Holy Spirit moved in the Old Testament.

So Peter is saying that this is the same thing that is happening now. It is the fulfillment of various prophecies that referred to the Messiah who was to come, His spiritual Ministry and that this is the sign that Jesus is truly the Messiah, that God had prophesied that he would come to Jerusalem. Then Peter proceeds to a series of apologetic expressions in chapter 2, to prove that what is happening is validation of the Ministry of Jesus as Messiah, as God's anointed.

I cannot repress an interesting comment. This passage from Joel is one of those prophetic passages that has two fulfillments. One is the fulfillment that the apostle Peter suggests occurs on the Day of Pentecost. But as with some of the Old Testament prophecies there are two fulfillments of those prophecies and that is something very mysterious about prophetic speech. Because we see that Joel saying that prophecy that God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh and that sons and daughters will prophesy, etc., but in this text of Joel the prophet is speaking regarding a time that is to come, that It is called the Lord's time in the Bible many times, having to do with the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at what Joel 2 verse 30 says, it says: "And I will show wonders in heaven and on earth" speaking of this prophecy of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days: "I will show wonders in heaven and on earth, blood and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and dreadful day of Jehovah comes; and everyone who calls on the Name of Jehovah will be saved, for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be salvation , as Jehovah has said, and into the remnant whom He will have called. "

Evidently this prophecy, in its original meaning and application, is referring to a time to come in the end times, in those days of which you can clearly read, the prophet Joel speaks. Those days have not yet come.

However, Peter, led by the Holy Spirit, understands that Joel is referring precisely to the first manifestation and expression of Power, to the first Pentecost so to speak, which is the Day of Pentecost that records Acts chapter 2, but evidently the fullest fulfillment full of that prophecy will be given in the end times, because this of the moon turning into blood, the sun denying its light "and the great and fearful day of Jehovah" all this refers to the facts that are suggested in the Book of Revelation related to the last Coming of the Lord, where Jerusalem is going to play a very important role also in those last times, the time of Armageddon and the Coming of Jesus Christ and all that.

What this clearly suggests is that before the last Coming of Jesus there will be one last great outpouring of the Power of the Holy Spirit as there has never been before. And I don't think it necessarily refers to, say, the Pentecostal movement that has been on Azusa Street in the early 20th century. I think and it is clear to me that Joel is referring to a time before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ when there is going to be a great, powerful manifestation. That latter rain of which in fact Santiago also speaks, the early and the latter rain. The Lord says ask Him and He will give early and latter rain. The early rain we could say is that rain of the first fruits in Acts chapter 2, the latter rain will be a last, great and powerful, worldwide manifestation of the Power of the Holy Spirit in the last times, in which the Church will receive an extraordinary Power.

I believe that in the end times there will be a great outpouring of the Power of God and the Holy Spirit and that we, the Church of Jesus Christ, will be endowed with supernatural power in an unprecedented way to announce the Gospel, a last great harvest before come the last, the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So from Joel, who Peter interprets as Pentecostal, he still needs one last turn of the screw.

As for example, the Lord also said that before the Messiah comes Elijah will have to come, and the Lord said: Well, Elijah is John the Baptist if you want to believe it, and certainly John manifested many aspects of the ministry and the anointing of Elijah; but it is also clear that the prophecy that is recorded about Elijah in the Book of Zechariah, the last chapter of the Old Testament, that prophecy of the coming of the prophet Elijah still has to be fulfilled a second time before the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Second Coming, another one of those prophecies that also has to be fulfilled twice in one sense, and we could back this up in other ways.

But how complex is our God, and I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ must be waiting for one last Pentecostal manifestation of the Power of God, one last great baptism in the Holy Spirit before the Coming of the Lord. I long to see that latter rain that is to come in recent times. May the Lord bless you my brothers and we will talk in the next presentation about more elements of the Holy Spirit filled life.