Years ago, while living in Canada, my quiet Saturday morning was interrupted by a short, but disturbing jolt/boom. I remember looking around for the source but found none. I was certain I had heard and felt something. Then I realized I had, just a bit earlier, built a fire in the airtight wood stove in the basement. I raced down expecting to see the room in flames. Nothing. Eerily still. Something had taken place, but I couldn’t identify it, never having experienced it before whatever ‘it’ was. Hours later, I heard the radio report of a distant earthquake that reverberated for miles outward from the epicenter to our city. And it was only a small quake! I empathize with anyone who’s experienced this or other powerful events like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, wildfires, etc.!
The Old Testament prophet, Joel, describes the Day of the Lord as fearsome, unstoppable, causing the earth to tremble and the heavens to shake, making the sun and the moon become a void of darkness, and making the stars lose their radiance. (2:10,11, NLT) His army is described as an invasion of locusts, too numerous to count. It is His time of judgment on His wayward people, calling for repentance, a turning of their hearts away from their false gods and back to Him.
And! If His people were to repent, God says: “ . . . you will know that I live among My people Israel and that I, the Eternal One, am your God and there is no other . . .” Then follow immediately the now famous words: “I will pour out my Spirit to all humanity; your children will boldly and prophetically speak the word of God. Your elders will dream dreams; your young warriors will see visions. No one will be left out. In those days I will offer my Spirit to all servants, both male and female.” (vv. 28,29, NLT).
Approximately 1000 years later, those ancient words were dusted off and downloaded by the Holy Spirit into Peter as he stood before the crowd of thousands on the Day of Pentecost to give account of what was happening! Peter was no scholar of Scripture. He was a fisherman from Galilee, a Galilean, a country bumpkin, a rube. Initially, it was the roaring sound of a violent wind that brought everyone running. Then, they heard all these simple, unlearned men, speaking eloquently in a wide range of languages about the glory of God! It begged the question, “What does this mean?”
We are 2000 years past that indescribable event, and, just as before, God seeks the repentance of His people with the promise of a fresh outpouring of His Spirit. Church history has seen many times of widespread prayer and repentance followed by the promised outpouring of the Spirit. What God began through the lives of these unsuspecting, unschooled guys, continues to light fires of the Spirit all around the world. If He accomplished all that, through them, it gives us great hope. Another Old Testament prophet, Habbakuk, in chapter 3:2, pleaded with God: “I have heard the reports about You, and I am in awe when I consider all You have done. O Eternal One, revive Your work in our lifetime; reveal it among us in our times. As You unleash Your wrath, remember Your compassion.” AMEN. PD
Don graduated from Regent University in 1988 and moved to France for seven years, coming back to the US briefly to marry Sue in 1990. The work in France included working in a Christian School and helping plant a church before returning in 1995. He’s been pastor of Peninsula Vineyard since 1999. He enjoys counseling, especially married couples, traveling back to France (with Sue), reading, doing Sudoku puzzles and sleuthing out good, dark chocolate. Don serves as the senior pastor of the Vineyard Church Peninsula, in Newport News, Virginia.