Prophet Joel
describes two time periods – „Lord’s day great and dreadful” and
the time of turning towards Him and restoration of everything that was
destroyed. Now, what time are we living in? Because the day of the Lord
didn’t come yet (it will come at the time of Jesus’ returning to
the earth), we are living in the times of restoration. We live
in the times when „...everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts 2.21.)
It means that everyone can turn to God and get into the season of his
own life restoration - into the season of Holy Spirit’s work in his
life (without baptism in the Holy Ghost there can not be any such
thing) and also to avoid this „great and dreadful day”. Because
everybody who belongs to Jesus Christ will be spared from these horrors
described in Joel the second chapter – the church will be taken from
the earth before it even starts.
The beginning of the era of restoration goes to the time of Pentecost in Jerusalem (Acts 2.17-21),
the end then, as it was already said, is coming of Jesus Christ.
The experience of Pentecost is unique and never happened before nor
will ever happen again. However it is clear from God’s word, that Lord
brought his disciples into the continual fullness of Holy Spirit, it’s
also clear that baptism in Holy spirit isn’t for the disciples only,
but it’s even for the gentiles (Cornelius, Acts 10.44.)
and beside this it is also obvious, that people once filled with
the Holy Spirit need to be kept „being filled with the Holy Spirit”.
Holy
Spirit throughout the history of a church acted in different ways (but
it’s still the same Spirit), which resulted in various movements
in the church. All these movements since the end of the first church
(joy, deliverance, healing) are Holy Spirit’s works that direct
the church to restore the original state. The church, though, views
these movements as eras only – the era of joy ended, what’s next?
The era of healing ended, what’s next? But that’s not right – Holy
Spirit gives something to the church for good, not for a mere enjoyment
of it in a short time period. Every movement of Holy Spirit needs to be
revived over and over again and be kept alive for the next generation.
The
Christians and the church don’t often understand, that most of
the things that God have g iven them is a heritage. The concept of
heritage itself is often misunderstood - we obtain the right to use and
enjoy the heritage, but at the same time we should use it responsibly
to increase it and pass it onto the next generation. This principle
works at all levels – personal, church, material, spiritual and so does
at the level of the Holy Spirit movements.