by Pastor Rich Carlson

Previously I suggested that the first prerequisite for receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit is waiting. Now I suggest a second requirement: waiting together. “They were all together in one place," Acts 2:1 tells us.

Here are some observations I made from Acts 2 about Jesus’ followers as the Holy Spirit came upon them:

1.    They were waiting for God.

2.    As they waited, they were meeting together for a spiritual purpose.

Sometimes in the past, I have placed the "spiritual" above the "religious," implying that church or ritual or tradition are not as important as a relationship or personal experiential connection with God. I was reminded this morning that the Holy Spirit came on these men when they had come together for a religious ritual. It was, in fact, a ritual promoted by an organization they were in the process of converting away from! The disciples were breaking the bonds of Judaism in favor of Christianity. Yet they still went to the equivalent of a Jewish campmeeting. Though I still believe the highest emphasis should be placed on my own personal connection with God, I need to be careful not to deny the importance gathering together. It was during that experience that God poured out His Spirit.

OK, back to the list I began earlier: 

3.    God did something supernatural they could explain only by giving full credit and glory to God. Then tongues of fire descended and the Holy Spirit filled them.

4.    When they were filled with the Holy Spirit they did something of which they had been incapable before: They spoke in tongues! Not unintelligible mumblings that might arise from an emotional experience, but languages that the people from all over could understand. And what they understood was truth—the greatest truth of the Bible. It was the truth about Jesus.

5.    This manifestation was interpreted by God-fearing Jews with wonder, and by others with skepticism. Some things never change!

When I experience God’s leading in my life, perhaps in miraculous ways, some hearers will be blessed, and some will be bewildered and will not believe. But God will act, and when He does I may never be the same again.

Rich Carlson is campus chaplain at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. "God is Faithful" is adapted from the email devotionals he writes regularly for the Union College family. Rich enjoys filling his life with God, his family, and especially his five grandchildren.