THE PROMISE IS OURS

Acts 2:39

Morning Meditations 1-10-15

Acts 2:39 says: “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

The “promise” is this verse is the promise of the Holy Spirit that came on the church on the day of Pentecost. The verb “is” is a linking verb. It is present tense. This means that the Holy Spirit as He came on Pentecost is now available in the same sense as He was on Pentecost. Now don’t confuse Him from the “manifestations” of His presence. There are many different ways the Holy Spirit manifested His presence in the Book of Acts other than tongues. The biggest mistake people make in seeking the fulness of the Holy Spirit is that they seek “signs” of His presence and not Him. There is a difference. I sought the signs many years and never received them. And I did it as sincerely as I knew how including fasting and giving up everything in knew to give up. This is just an attempt on our part to buy His presence and manifestations.

Of course, when we pray for His presence, that assumes He is not there. That is like showing someone a picture of you wife when she is standing right there. You talk to that person about your wife completely ignoring her presence. You say, “I want you to meet my wife. This is her likeness. She is a beautiful lady. I wish she were here.” I believe that the person to whom you were talking would be a little uneasy don’t you? I know my wife would be uneasy. Do you see what I am talking about? The Lord Jesus gave the Holy Spirit on Pentecost at the beginning of His intercessory ministry when He entered heaven after the resurrection. See Acts 2:33.

No one has needed to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit since then. Our text says, “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” When it says, “The promise is unto you,” He is speaking to a Jewish Church that operated in Acts until the Gentiles were brought in as recorded in Acts chapter 10. When He said, “And to your children,” He was talking about the immediate decedents of those to whom He was speaking at the time. When He said, “And to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call,” He was speaking of us and all that would be saved in the future. Pentecost was a once-for-all experience. The blessed Holy Spirit has been here ever since. For us to pray for His presence is like the illustration given above. Faith is the only thing that will allow you to fellowship with His unseen presence. God is not going to give you further evidence. Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This verse clearly says that faith is the evidence. We can require nothing more of God.

So we need to begin to rejoice that He is with us and in us. If there is no power, it could be that we are showing pictures and ignoring His presence. Can you imagine how the Holy Spirit must feel when we pray for His presence when He is right there all the time? Remember He can be grieved (Eph. 4:30). If this has been a log jam for you, then break the log jam by confessing the sins of unbelief. It is unbelief to pray for something that God says you already have! Eph. 1:13.

We certainly do need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And prayer is involved in that. It is as we pray the prayer of thanksgiving that He is in us an with us that He is free to operate in our lives. If you do this, and it is evident that He is not manifest in your life, then you must seek Him and see if there is a sin or sins that keep Him from control. When we deal with sin (1John 1:9), and it is confessed, it will be forgiven. And you can’t be more right with God than the blood of Christ makes you.

One of the main points in this meditation is to give you a quote that will help: “The Holy Spirit is not a reward for you faithfulness but God’s gift to your weakness..”

As a young preacher, I preached, and heard others preach, that if you wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit you would have to clean up your life. Now this statement, no matter how well meaning those who make it, is one that teaches that the Holy Spirit’s manifest presence is a reward for our faithfulness. If you could straighten the mess out in you life, God would have chosen that way to save you. If you seek the Holy Spirit’s fulness this way, I believe you will spend the rest of your life as a seeker and not a receiver. And all the time grieve the Holy Spirit because you are asking for His presence and He is right there.

If you are not right, you cannot correct it. You must come to God and confess whatever is wrong as a sin and get His forgiveness. At that point you are right. Because it is the blood of Christ that makes you right. You didn’t straighten your life out. God knew you couldn’t do that. That is the reason for the incarnation and the cross. Jesus died to make you right. And the way you stay right is by dealing with sin as you walk in the light (1John 1:7). The blood of Christ keeps you right. Now that you are forgiven, you have the right as a “Son of the Father” to appropriate by faith what has been given you, i.e., the Holy Spirit. He will now, not only occupy your body, but be in the place of control. The fullness of the Holy Spirit is when He fills you life and controls you like wine controls those who drink it (Eph. 5:18). Don’t seek an experience, seek Him. Fellowship with Him. Give yourself to Him. The experiences will come. One of the greatest experience is that that is described in Romans 15:13 “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”

Just remember: “The Holy Spirit is not a reward for your faithfulness by God’s gift to your weakness.” And you are never weaker than you are when you are caught in sin and you have to come before God for forgiveness. And you never face the truth in greater sincerity than when you quite making excuses and blaming someone else for the wrong and take the blame yourself. This is what it is to confess sin. It is walking in truth. “Lord, it is not the other man’s fault that I committed this sin. It is my fault and I need forgiveness.” Jesus said In John 8:32: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” This is the truth that sets men free. Jesus did not come for the righteous, He came to save sinners. And saints are still sinners who are being cleansed daily and they maintain the kind of honesty before God that will deal with sin as sinners when it arises.

May the Lord bless these words to your heart.

In Christ

Earl White