Day 4 - Acts 2:14-21

Anointed for Mission
It’s sometimes tempting to see baptism in the Holy Spirit primarily as a source of increased personal blessing. As we heard on Sunday, and as is clear from yesterdays and today’s readings, God filled the early disciples with the Spirit to empower them to be witnesses, as Jesus promised in Acts 1:8.

Do you have a picture in your mind when you think of being filled with the Spirit? One image which really captures the dynamic nature of being filled is that of a sailing boat. As the sails catch the wind, so the boat is propelled forwards. And the sails need to be continually filled, or the boat comes to a standstill. That’s how it is with us and the Spirit – we need to keep on being filled, to move forwards.

We must not ignore the missional impact of the outpouring of the Spirit – it is not just something that benefits us on an individual level, it is to propel us to witness to the transforming work of Jesus. Think about how Peter was at the end of the Gospels: we read of him denying His Lord and being challenged by Jesus about the genuineness of his love. But here, after being filled with the Spirit, he boldly stands up and seizes the opportunity to address the crowd with an explanation of what God is doing.

Prayer Points

1. Pray for yourself, that God will fill you with power to speak for Him as the first disciples did.

2. And pray for us as a church, that the gospel will radiate increasingly out from us.

3. Pray for the lost in our city to feel the impact of the Holy Spirits outpouring.

[notes based on King's Church Catford "40 days" devotional notes]