On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit broke into the midst of His gathered people, and He came in such power that Luke described it as being “like a violent wind” (vs. 2). The Believers were enabled with a supernatural power to speak the Word of God so that people from at least fifteen language groups, represented at the Pentecost celebration, understood the Gospel so clearly that by the end of the day some three thousand people had come to faith in Jesus Christ.
It all began with “a noise like a violent wind.” Luke says the noise “came from heaven” (vs. 2). This event was born of God. In our language we might say this was a God-thing. This event wasn’t worked up or even expected by the Believers. They had been waiting but they didn’t know exactly what they were waiting for except the fulfillment of the promise, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you”(Acts 1:8). How this receiving would take place the Believers did not know but when it happened, they knew. They knew God was on the move and that things had changed. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit they came out of the upper room different than they were when they went into the upper room. They were changed, under the influence of God’s Holy Spirit. They would never be the same; neither would the world.
We are told that Dwight L. Moody was to have an evangelistic campaign in England. An elderly pastor protested, "Why do we need this 'Mr. Moody'? He's uneducated and inexperienced. Who does he think he is anyway? Does he think he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?" A younger, wiser pastor rose and responded, "No, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on Mr. Moody."
Perhaps this is what happened to those first Believers. God showed up in a power that filled them with the very life of God so much so that it could rightly be said that God had a monopoly of them. I don’t know if the event of Acts chapter two will ever be repeated in the exact same way but I am convinced that God can show up in a person’s life, baptize that person with the Holy Spirit, and fill that person to overflowing with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23), so that it can be said of that person, God had a monopoly on them and they wouldn’t change it for the world.
Does God have a life-transforming monopoly on my life? On yours? On the Church? Years ago, author Jamie Buckingham visited a dam on the Columbia River. He'd always thought that the water spilling over the top provided the power, not realizing that it was just froth, and that deep within, turbines and generators transformed the power of tons and tons of water to electricity--quietly, without notice, not like the flashy froth on top.
The presence of the Holy Spirit in a people takes their eyes off the froth and onto the source of the power of God. Let’s not be people of the “froth,” but people of the turbines and generators of Almighty God. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”
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