I hope you had a great Pentecost Sunday! When I was pastoring a church this Sunday was one of my favorite. I would make sure to be around for that Sunday to preach on the coming of the Holy Spirit from Acts 2 to share about how a group of weak followers of Jesus waited in prayer. Waited until they were anointed and filled to overflowing with the Fire of Heaven to represent His temple-which would fill all the earth with His glory.

I first realized the importance of the Holy Spirit when I was in my final semester of seminary. It was a cold rainy January in Southern California. I was in our apartment on a Monday morning trying to study but looking out the window thinking about how I wanted to quit school and give up on the calling into ministry. My head and been saturated with so much knowledge but my heart was a spiritual wasteland.

The next thing I remember I was kneeling by my bed soaking the cover with tears. My heart felt on fire as a weighty presence filled the room. I was never more aware of my sins and my brokenness and yet at the same time an overwhelming sense of love- love that washed away a boat load of sins and filled me with “a joy unspeakable and full of glory,” 1 Peter 1:8.

I spent the rest of the day in a sense of awe and praise for the gift which had been given so unexpectedly. I didn’t fully comprehend what had happened as nothing like this has been taught in our Theology classes so I kept this experience to myself. Then 2 weeks later a professors called out of the blue and asked if I would come to his house for lunch.

It was during that lunch I got up the nerve to share what had happened on that rainy day. He got up went to his office and came back with a book by Martyn Lloyd-Jones called “Joy Unspeakable – Power and Renewal in the Holy Spirit.” It would be a life changing conversation and read which would impact me for the rest of my life.

Both the encounter and the conversation taught me my absolute need to daily depend on the the power of the Holy Spirit for everything in life and in ministry. The Holy Spirit showed me the depths of my sin and weakness. It didn’t matter how well trained I was or how many gifts I had, I had nothing to offer anyone in and of myself. Yet, out of my weakness, out of my brokenness HIS LOVE could pour through revealing waves of His amazing grace.

I went from a “know-it-all seminary student” to an”infant” who needed constant care just to survive. That is why I love Pentecost so much. It reminds me of my absolute need to depend upon the Holy Spirit moment by moment.  My flesh is so weak. The powers of this world so strong. Without a daily filling of the Holy Spirit I simply won’t make.

I encourage you to read Acts 2 again in case you missed it on Sunday. The Father took a bunch of sinful and broken men and women and filled them with His presence and brought in a New Kingdom that is unstoppable. These followers of Jesus knew they leaked and so you see them again and again in the book of Acts asking for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit.

I have learned over the years I leak a lot and I desperately need to be refilled over and over again by the Gift of the Father (Luke 11:9-13).

“Be filled continually with the Holy Spirit and your hearts will overflow with a joyful song to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:18-19.