Search
Search

Don’t Pray for Wind. Set the Sails.

LISTEN NOW!

Acts 2:1-4 (NIV)

When the day of Pentecost came they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

CONSIDER THIS

On the the Day of Pentecost, the heretofore impenetrable seam between the Heavens and the Earth collapsed and the realms became a seamless reality. This was not a dissolving of the Heavens into the Earth but rather an interpolation of the realms into a seamless reality. 

How do we know these things? We see it all in the biblical text. This was not a quiet, subjective, spiritual happening later adherents could have embellished and later mythologized. This is eyewitness-based, attested history. Acts 2:2-4 and following are not an interpretation of events by later observers and analysts, but a dynamically unfolding account of the ground zero event of the birth of the Church Jesus is building. 

The collapse of the seam between Heaven and Earth was sonically demonstrative. 

2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

The collapse of the seam between Heaven and Earth was a visually demonstrative. 

3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

The collapse of the seam between Heaven and Earth was transcendently demonstrative, with Divine personhood entering into human personages.

4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit

The collapse of the seam between Heaven and Earth was linguistically, ethnically, and culturally demonstrative.

and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

On this day, an exponentially multiplicative movement launched into the world and for three hundred years astoundingly turned the mighty Roman Empire upside down. The prayer of Jesus—”Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” unfolded in myriad fulfillment from the mundane to the miraculous. There was both sudden fulfillment accompanied by long “patient ferment,” to borrow Alan Kreider’s poignant phrase. It is an oversimplification to be sure, but then came Constantine and later Christendom and Roman Catholicism, a massive split, a mighty Reformation resulting in twenty something thousand splinter movements (aka denominations), a series of great awakenings and lesser revivals and here we are. 

We stand in the ruins of the still collapsing facade of Christendom. And all our churches are like so many blind people standing around a massive elephant each with our hand on a different part of the animal and each proffering and preferring a different diagnosis, prognosis and plan. 

So what’s the point today? The point is to say the Day of Pentecost never ended. We need not return to the first century church but to restore the 21st century church. This will come by Word and Spirit and the recovery of plain Scriptural Christianity. We must cease fiddling with forms and fads. We must find each other again, not as so many churches but as “Church.” We must cease chasing after phenomenology and begin to run after Jesus on the path of the race marked out for us. 

We must meet one another again at the level ground of the foot of the Cross and awaken to the fact the Heavens have been rended once and for all. Jesus is ascended as Lord and King. The Spirit is outpouring in unceasing abundance. We don’t need the Lord to somehow do Pentecost again. We need to awaken to the fact that he is now doing it. He never stopped. The Wind of Heaven is blowing. It is time to reset the sails. We have enough songs and books and bible studies for the next hundred years. We are the most resourced Christians in the history of the Church. It is time now for a great awakening of bold love and courageous faith. 

It’s time to stop asking for the Wind. It’s time to set the sails. 

Still Day One.

THE PRAYER

God our Father, who with your son Jesus Messiah, fills us with the Holy Spirit, thank you for the miracle and the mystery of Pentecost. Reset our sails to catch the Wind of Heaven that never stopped blowing. Awaken us to Jesus, the Lord of the Church, to the Word and Spirit. Lead us to find one another at the lower ground of the Cross and to open our hearts to one another like never before. Come Holy Spirit, bring us great awakening to who you are and what you are doing in our day. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen. 

THE QUESTION

Do you sense faith, hope and love rising up in you? How might the sails need to be adjusted to catch the fresh wind? 

P.S. Some Good News

First, an update on “The Wake Up Call” proposed name change to the Daily Text. We asked and you responded. Thank you. Here are the results so far.

A. Love it! Slam Dunk = 62%
B. I get it. Warming to it = 32%
C. Don’t move my cheese = 5%
D. Hate it! = 1% 

Second, on Friday, we crossed over our annual fund-receiving goal of $950,000!!! We celebrate with you the faithfulness of Jesus to provide for this mission and express our gratitude for the generosity of so many of you who have responded. I am so happy to share this with you all. We are sowing for a great awakening together dear friends!!! 

For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

Subscribe to the Daily Text Here

Share today's Wake-Up Call!

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

Comments and Discussion

4 Responses

  1. I love your analogy of “ We stand in the ruins of the still collapsing facade of Christendom “. Please allow me to expand upon it: Now is the time to pray for the Architect and Builder of His Church to bring in the bulldozers and clear the Foundation of the debris on it so that new construction can begin. Our part as “ living stones “ is to yield to his blueprint.

  2. Though I do fully agree with all of what you say, and long for the Church to be one body of Christ, I do wonder if it is possible. I feel too many would only be willing to join as one if the ‘other side’ admitted ‘they were wrong’.
    Even our buildings are divisive with their signs stating what body they belong to: Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, etc. How many would be willing to rip these down and replace them with a sign that simply said: The body of Christ?
    Is oneness possible? In doctrine based oneness, I’d say, no. In love, if pure and Christlike, yes.
    Why? Because the first states, for us to be one, you must agree with me in everything, the second states, we have to be like Jesus in everything.

  3. The First Spirit-Led, Christ-Centered Town Hall Meeting (Ekklesia) Was Windy!

    The sound of violent blowing
    Spread visible spiritual fire
    To all of Jesus’s gathered disciples
    Opening their mouths
    With supernatural words
    And giving them boldness
    To hit the streets
    Rejoicing with
    The living Jesus
    So that people
    From around the world
    Could hear and see
    The marvelous liberty
    Of Christ in you
    The hope of glory!

    That wind continues to blow
    But too few actually know
    And surrender to
    The mind-blowing
    Power and presence
    Of the Holy Spirit.

    Instead, we let the walls
    Of institutionalism
    And pride
    Cause us to hide
    As we substitute religious formalism
    For Spirit-led freedom.

    Now is the time
    For Christ-followers
    To take our boats
    Out of dry dock
    And set sail
    In the wind
    Of the Spirit.
    Launch out!

  4. “Being Holy for I am Holy” (1 Peter 1:16) is not a destination. It is a process of daily sanctification. It’s who we are becoming, and we can’t do it for anyone else. We are to live where someone what’s what we have, Jesus, because He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
    Our flesh and its evil desires will try oh, so hard to keep that from happening, even in some churches. One way is that sin influences people to bend the Bible into current cultural beliefs, a “feel-good about my sinful-self” approach. Culture should always bring itself into the Bible. Any other process than being obedient, faithful, and trusting God’s word keeps us from living in the freedom found in Christ (John 8:32.,36), having heaven on earth through the Holy Spirit. This is denying self, being dead to sin, and being free in Him.
    Sin says freedom is in rebellion.
    God says there is freedom in obedience.
    May our spirits awaken daily at the foot of the cross.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *