Email from Abiding Place Daily Bread – November 12, 2024 (The Third Day – Genesis 1:9-13) Acts 2:1-4 – And on the day that Pentecost came, they were all of one purpose in the same place. And suddenly there came, out of Heaven, the sound of a violent rushing wind and it filled the whole house where they were seated. And there appeared cloven tongues like fire, and they set down upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit spoke forth from them. The Ongoing Manifestation Of God’s Glory & Power Pentecost was the day the Church was born. When the First Covenant was inaugurated and ratified, Mount Sinai was clothed in the fire of God’s presence and the sound (‘echei’) of the shofar grew louder and louder (Exodus 19:16). When the Church was born on the Day of Pentecost, the sound (‘echos’) of a violent wind was heard. The Heavenly noise and the fire of God accompanied the inauguration of the Church even as it did the inauguration of the Law. On the first Pentecost, the nation of Israel was empowered with the grace to be the expression of God’s Kingdom on the Earth (Exodus 19:5-6, 29:45-46; Deuteronomy 14:2; Leviticus 26:11). On the day the Church was born, that mantle was passed to those who were washed in the blood of the Lamb and filled with the Spirit of God (Matthew 21:43; 1 Peter 2:9). The sound of this Heavenly noise and the fire of God was the expression of how God had come to dwell in the midst of His Church. The power and authority of Jesus Christ was poured out upon each member of His Church so they might be witnesses of His resurrection and of His dominion over all things (Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:20-23; Acts 1:8, 2:33; Luke 24:49). This same manifest glory of God’s presence in the midst of the Church was to be present as long as the Church exists (1 Corinthians 12:7-11, 28-30; Acts 2:16-18, 38-39). The Church is the Body of Christ – the manifest glory of the rising and exalted Savior, Jesus Christ, in the Earth today. The Church is the fullness of God that is to be as a city set upon a hill to give light to all of the world (Ephesians 1:23; Matthew 5:14-16). Paul, describing the glory of the Church as it relates to the first Pentecost, describes it as an ongoing manifestation of God’s glory and power when he says we have now, “come to Mount Sion and the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and myriads of angels, to the joyful gathering and church of the firstborn which are written in Heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant, and the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than Abel!” (Hebrews 12:22-24). Blessings, Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
Daily Bread 11/12/2024
