Come, Holy Spirit, Come!

Part 1, by Helen Jesze, 22nd May 2015

Acts 2

Last Thursday, 14th May was Ascension day, the day when we celebrate Jesus ascending to His Father, taking His place at the right hand of God, as our victorious Saviour and King. Before Jesus was taken up into Heaven, He gave His disciples and all who were watching, a promise and a command. The promise was that He would now send the Holy Spirit to Earth, to carry on the work that He had started; the command was that they were to wait for the promise to come. He also prophesied that „in a few days you will be baptised in (filled with) the Holy Spirit“. They were to receive power to be His witnesses throughout all the world.

They knew what it was to be baptised in water, but in the Holy Spirit?! Nevertheless, 120 of them obeyed, Mary, the mother of Jesus and other women were among them, and for the next 10 days they spent much time in prayer and waiting on God. The King James version of the Bible says in Acts 2, 1: „They were all in one accord, in one place…“. In other words, in these 10 days, something had been happening in the hearts and minds of these men and women. Their grievances and differences of opinion had been crumbling and disappearing; they now focused on Jesus and His words; a new love for God and for each other filled their hearts in a way they had not known before. Instead of pulling and pushing in different directions, there was a harmony, a crying out for the ‘promise of the Father’, a hunger and thirst in their spirits, which was stronger than everything else.

And He came, this Holy Spirit, on the day of the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, as they were all together in the upper room, announcing His presence with the sound of a rushing, violent wind which filled all the house where they were sitting. As they looked up in surprise, perhaps fear, they saw what seemed to be „tongues of fire“ coming to rest on each head!

„All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues or languages, as the Spirit enabled them,“

Acts 2, 4 NIV.

They poured out into the street and the crowds outside heard them and were amazed that these men who were from Galilee, were speaking in the languages of those who were visiting Jerusalem for the Feast from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Asia and many other places. They thought surely they must all be drunk, but so early in the day…?

Peter, now with a new boldness, stood up and preached Jesus unto them, about His death and resurrection and their need to be saved. That day 3000 souls were added to this brand-new Church of the living God, and the Age of the Holy Spirit had begun! In the book of Acts, we read that this baptism in the Holy Spirit was experienced by many – if not all — of the new converts. It happened to Christians through the centuries since then, although to a smaller amount of individuals.

But at the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th, God began to pour our His Spirit in a new way, on a wider basis. My father’s family belonged to the Salvation Army and were all committed Christians, playing various instruments in the band and active in evangelistic outreaches. But his mother was hungry for more, and one day she was sitting by the kitchen fire, reading a book about the revival among Christians in varying churches and countries which was taking place at that time, when the power of the Holy Spirit fell on her, and she began to speak in other tongues!

This spread throughout the family but was rejected and misunderstood by many of their friends. They were no longer welcome at the services. The same happened in other denominations, and those who had received their personal Pentecost were soon called „Pentecostal“, and were sometimes scorned and persecuted, being shut out by their former friends and Brothers and Sisters in Christ. They started to have meetings in houses which were called „cottage meetings“, for they had no church buildings. There were soon so many Holy Spirit baptised Believers that there was no room in the cottages. Also, a need for teaching and structure became evident, and the Pentecostal Movement came into being. Through the years this too, has become many different streams with some differences in doctrine, structure and administration.

So I was born into a Pentecostal home, my parents having met at a cottage meeting (my mother and her family came originally from the Methodist church), and I saw several people receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Having received Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour when I was 9 years old, baptised in water at 11, when I was 14, I began to reach out for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Jesus, speaking about the Holy Spirit, said that we must be „thirsty“ for the Spirit and we will receive. We used to have conferences on special days or weekends and then, they were called ‘conventions’.

It was a Pentecost weekend convention in 1957. I had been praying all weekend to be baptised in the Spirit, but nothing happened, and now it was Monday. I was disappointed and now the last meeting was nearly over. Everybody seemed to be so blessed – was I the only disappointed one? I opened my eyes and saw everybody with raised hands, praising the Lord, some laughing, some crying, and this thirst that Jesus talked about became much stronger. I jumped up and ran round to my uncle, who was the pastor, and said, „Uncle, I want to be filled with the Spirit! Now!“ So he and a lady from the church prayed for me and within a few minutes I was speaking fluently in other tongues, in a language I had never learned.

I was filled with a great joy and in the days following, I noticed that I could understand the Bible better, as though someone had switched on a brighter ‘light’ in my spirit; I could also witness better to my school friends and teachers than before. Then there was the dream, which kept coming, the same one on several nights. I saw myself…but no, I’ll tell you about that next time, in Part 2!

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I open my heart to you today in a new way. You are the Baptiser in the Holy Spirit and I ask you to baptise me today. Give me my „personal Pentecost“. I want everything you have prepared for me. Just like the disciples, I am now waiting and expecting the „Promise of the Father“ to be made manifest in my life. Sweep through me with your power and love! Change me and make me what the Father wants me to be!
In your Name, Amen!

Helen Jesze on Ethiopian TV programme “El-Shaddai”