By Brother Matthew Henson
The effects of Pentecost reach beyond the initial experience to a growing trust in the Lord for each day. When Pentecost comes in our lives, we are changed. The way we view the world around us changes. On the first Pentecost, the disciples who once were hidden for fear of the Jews, were now standing in the mass of people proclaiming the Truth of the Gospel. There was evidence of change and because of this change and the word they proclaimed, others wanted to know what they should do (Acts 2:37).
The coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives is a gift that takes us beyond our own experience to live a life in community where our worldview changes and we see our family, our community, our church, and our world in a new light.
In The Christ of Every Road: A Study in Pentecost, E. Stanley Jones writes, “At Pentecost religion penetrated to the inmost depth of personal need and then rebounded to universality. Never was religion more personal, never was it more universal and social. It met and solved the needs of humanity and showed itself capable of meeting and solving the needs of man. It gave inner freedom and a world-view” (86).
Our faith is individually experienced and corporately lived. When we decide to follow Jesus, receiving the Lord’s forgiveness and new life, it is personal. We are called to live our faith in community where we experience discipline, accountability, and encouragement. We will have times when we spend time with Jesus in our own personal prayer and Bible study. We should not neglect, though, the community where our growth is encouraged as we open the Scriptures together and “spur one another onto love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24).
Jones later writes, “Pentecost is both deep and broad, for it meets the whole of the life facts” (87). When the Holy Spirit comes in our lives, we see the world in a new way. Where once we pushed people away for being different or not thinking the way we were thinking, now we experience a willingness to open ourselves to conversation and getting to know the person. We no longer seek to find what divides us but look for the places where we can agree and work together.
A universal truth of humanity is we all have needs, whether the Christian, the Hindu, the Muslim, the Sikh, the atheist, or the person who espouses no faith at all. We all experience ebbs and flows of life where we struggle, battle, celebrate, and experience victory. When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our worldview changes and we seek to share with people how Jesus universally meets the whole of our life needs. We meet them in their need and testify to how Jesus brought us through our need to the fullness of life.
How has the Holy Spirit changed your worldview from the limitations of self to the fullness of community? How can you share the depth of God’s love to the breadth of humanity so they can experience God who meets all our needs?
Prayer: Lord, change my worldview. I no longer want to limit my walk with you in my individualism. I want to experience community as I grow in my relationship with you. Take me deep so I can share you wide. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
