ASI Pacific Union 2012

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ASI Pacific Union

Louis Torres

Morning Devotional

Loving God, thank you so much for the opportunity that we have to study together.

We pray for your spirit to be the 1 to guide, in Jesus' name, amen.

When you think of the word Pentecost, What comes up into your mind?

Now, all of those answers are good answers.

But I'm going to suggest this morning that, am I on?

I'm going to suggest this morning that what Pentecost is all about is not about the things that we just mentioned, which may be coming to you as a surprise.

If you study the chapter carefully, which I assume you have, it doesn't matter how carefully you study things, we always miss something.

I've been reading the Bible through for 43 years and every time I read it, what do you suppose happens?

I see something that I have not seen before.

And so, perhaps this morning, we are thinking about reflecting.

And tomorrow I'm going to speak more about reflecting, but just to remind you, reflecting has to do with thinking about something over, correct?

It also means bouncing something off that has come to you.

But the Bible doesn't use the word reflect.

In fact, you won't find the Bible reflecting, I mean the word reflect in the entire Scriptures.

If you look in the commentary, you will never find the word reflecting.

The concepts are there, but it's a biblical term.

I'm already kind of excited in my mind with making statements that are kind of throwing you for a spin.

But Let's look at what took place in Pentecost.

There are many things we could study about chapter 2.

And most of the time when I ask the question, when you think of Pentecost, what do you think?

1 accord, tongues, the Holy Spirit being given, etc.

But I have not yet heard from an audience that which I'm going to be sharing with you this morning.

Your ability to reflect accurately comes from a accurate picture that you have.

When I was a pastor in New Mexico, part of my district besides being the King of the North, where Pastor Arno Trujillo came and helped me, part of my district was Los Alamos.

And we had a scientist there, Seventh-day Adventist wife whose husband was a scientist, a Russian scientist by the name of Turkovich.

And his expertise was developing what we now consider to be laser rays.

And he gave me the opportunity to go to his lab and actually see his process, how he was developing this thing called laser beams.

And it was interesting that in order to be able to use the laser accurately, it depends on Perfect, what did I say?

The mirrors were made of metal about this big and they each cost $25, 000.

So in order to get a perfect laser beam, you have to have perfect reflection.

In order to get perfect imagery, you have to have perfect mind.

So let's look at what the Scripture says.

First of all, we know that the disciples had been with Christ for about 40 days after the crucifixion.

The Bible says they were there for 40 days.

If you look at Acts 1, verse 3, it says, being seen of them 40 days, and speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

After 40 days, Jesus told them that they should wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Ghost would come upon them.

And verse 8, you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you.

You shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.

Jesus then left and the disciples remained for 10 more days.

It was during these 10 days that all that we mentioned of 1 accord, praying, etc.

And I should add here, and I wish I had time to share all that I have up in my carnagin this morning, but I should add that The disciples were not sitting in the upper room for 10 days.

The Bible says they were witnessing daily.

Now you may ask, how could that be when it says they were in the upper room?

They met in the upper room, prayed earnestly that God would somehow help them to reach those Jews.

They would go to the temple and witness and discover that their witness was not effective.

They got back and tried to figure out what was wrong, what was keeping us from being able to reach these people.

And they've discovered, well, we're not in harmony, etc., etc.

So, they go back to the temple and witness and nothing happens.

And they come back and pray and agonize, etc.

They go back and that's what's taking place during those 10 days.

And it was not until God saw that they had reached the point of perfect reflection that He gave them that thing called power.

But listen, Acts chapter 2 then takes us into what is happening.

And as the Holy Ghost comes upon the disciples, they begin to speak in tongues.

Somebody in the audience must have said, these guys are drunk.

Because nobody could understand what was really happening.

But Peter then got up in verse 14 of chapter 2 and standing up and said, gentlemen, listen, what's happening today is not that these guys are drunk.

What's happening is that something extraordinary is taking place.

Now, you may be surprised that Peter does not focus on the Holy Ghost in his sermon.

If you notice, it says that Peter turns their attention to prophecy.

And says what you are experiencing is what the prophet Joel said in verse 16.

And then verse 17 he begins to expound the prophecy and explains then that these things that are happening before your very eyes are the fulfillment of the prophet Joel.

And then verse 21 it says, And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

And then he begins to explain the meaning of the prophecy.

Let me say this to you, today there are a lot of things happening and if there ever a time when we need as a people to have an answer is today.

But the answer is found in Holy Writ in prophetic language.

So, while there may be people who are saying today that evangelism is dead, that the teaching of the prophetic studies like Daniel chapter 2 and all that, that's old fashioned.

On the contrary, the Bible reveals that what's going to happen today is what happened in the day of Pentecost.

And when things were not understood the disciples turned the people's minds to Bible prophecy.

Then you cannot turn your ear away from Bible prophecy.

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