The Sound of Pentecost

The sound of Pentecost is being heard all over the world. The Pentecostal way is NOT a denomination, movement, or doctrine. It is the way of the Bible. Every single writer of the New Testament was baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. If it was important for the New Testament writers to receive this glorious experience, why are we fighting it so hard today? The sound of Pentecost is more than just speaking in tongues, it's a way of life for those who want to know more about Jesus, for it is the Holy Spirit who makes Jesus real in our lives. Without Him, we can do nothing.

By Chris McDonald

TEXT: Joel 2:1-32 - Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; [2] A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. 

       Every great outpouring of God's Spirit recorded in scripture was always followed by great judgment. After every great outpouring of the Holy Spirit great warnings came to God's people to prepare themselves for the coming wrath of God. We are living in such a time. We are living in the days the prophet Joel spoke about when God would pour out His Spirit upon ALL flesh.

     Joel was the Holy Ghost prophet of the Old Testament. Through him, the Lord prophesied that He would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh in the last days. Peter quoted Joel in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost to those gathered on the temple square. He pointed back to Joel's prophecies, saying "this is THAT," which the prophet Joel spoke about. Peter didn't say this "WAS" WHAT Joel was speaking about, he said THIS IS what is happening and it is still happening today! 

    Joel, whose name means Jehovah is God, was a citizen of Jerusalem and spoke often of the priests and their duties <Joel 1:9,13-14,16>. For this reason, many scholars believe he may have been a Temple prophet. He also had an ear for nature <Joel 1:4-7>, and included imagery from agriculture and the natural world in his messages. The title of the book comes from its author, the prophet Joel. The three brief chapters of this book are divided into two major sections of about equal length. In the first section <1:1--2:11> the prophet Joel introduces himself and speaks to his readers about their need to turn from their sins. The speaker in the second part of the book <2:12-3:21> is the all-powerful God, who warns His people about the approaching day of judgment and assures them of His abiding presence, in spite of their unworthiness.

         The Book of Joel is remarkable because it shows that a message from God can often come packaged in the form of a natural disaster. The truth of the book is rooted in the disastrous invasion of locusts, which Joel describes in such vivid language. This prophet teaches us that the Lord may use a natural disaster to stir in His people a renewed awareness of His will. Any traumatic event of nature-- flood, fire, storm, or earthquake-- should motivate the sensitive ear to listen again to the words of the Lord.

        Readers of Joel are always impressed with the prediction of the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit <2:28-32>. The apostle Peter used this passage to explain the exciting events of PENTECOST to his hearers <Acts 2:16-21>. Just as Joel predicted, the Holy Spirit was poured out on all these early followers of Jesus who were gathered in Jerusalem seeking God's will and praying for His divine guidance. But there is still a future dimension to Joel's prediction. The gifts of the Spirit that began to flow through the people of God on Pentecost were not exhausted on that day. They are still available to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and who anxiously await His return and the final establishment of His kingdom.

      This outpouring of the Holy Spirit has a SOUND. Joel said three times in his book, "Blow the trumpet in Zion." In other words, he was wanting to make sure his readers HEARD what was being said. That has not changed today. The Lord is preparing a body of people who will HEAR what the Spirit says to the CHURCH.

The Sound of Pentecost is a SOUND OF ALARM

Joel 2:1-2 - Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand

    The sound of Pentecost is a SOUND OF ALARM. Joel says, BLOW THE TRUMPET IN ZION, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. This speaks of preparation for the Great Tribulation period that Joel would make reference too as well as Peter.

    We are living on borrowed time! I don't care if the preacher you're listening to is telling you that the Lord is delaying His coming. The Lord is not delaying His coming! The rapture of the church could happen at any moment. One of the tell-tale signs His coming is close is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit! Do you realize that the largest number of people on Earth at this time, unprecedented in human history, is the number of people baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. No other time in the church's history have so many people been filled with the Spirit. That's a staggering statement but true. This outpouring has so shook the Catholic Church that the Pope has made more than one trip to South and Central America and even parts of Europe to put a lid on it but HE HAS NOT DONE IT! Glory! Millions of Catholics all over the world have been baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. One of my best friends in Georgia, Father Chuck Bennett is one of those tongue-talkers who still pastors his parish in Thomasville, GA. Every time I see Chuck though worshipping in other services, he has his hands raised and praising God better than some Pentecostals. Glory to God! I just smile when I see it and say, "Thank you Lord, that you're bigger than the Vatican." He's bigger than the Pope. He's bigger than organized religion. He's bigger than the Assemblies of God. Yes, the Assemblies of God. God help us in the Pentecostal movement. We're supposed to be the ones who boast so much of how we're above the other denominations and our churches are deader than a doornail because we have rejected much of what many shed blood for to protect. 

    Many are learning that there is more to Christianity than a 30-minute dead singing service, followed by a 30-minute dead preaching service, followed by a dead five-minute appeal to souls. Brother, when the Holy Spirit is allowed to move in a church, you won't have to plead with people to come, they will be running! My God don't you feel that. 

    The Baptists are fighting this experience as well but thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of their members are being gloriously baptized in the Holy Spirit. Just a few months back I was told by the Christian Education director of a huge Baptist church in the city me and Lisa live of a comment made by Bailey Smith the Southern Baptist Convention's leading evangelist. Our friend said to me Bailey looked at him last fall and said, "The Southern Baptist Convention will not exist in five years if we don't change. We are losing too many of our members to churches who believe in the gifts of the Spirit. Our dead churches can't compete with an atmosphere that is breathing life into people. We have got to change."  Of course Bailey Smith also went on the say that not too long back the SBC had to make a decision on their missions director who had visited a Pentecostal meeting and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. When he came back to headquarters he told them he'd resign if they had a problem with it. They just looked at him in shock and said, "We can't let you resign, you're the best missions director we've ever had." So the SBC's missions director is a tongue-talking spirit-filled Baptist. GLORY! I'm laughing so hard right now as I'm writing this tears are in my eyes. Folks, this is just the tip of the ice berg. These are the days we are living in.

    My lovely wife Lisa, raised Southern Baptist ALL HER LIFE, had not even heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit until last year when we got married. Right after we got married, I spent an entire night going through the Bible with her showing her the scriptures and experiences of New Testament saints. She just looked at me and said, "I've never heard anything like this." But that began a process of her pursuing this glorious experience. Spending months in study and allowing the Lord to deal with her heart, she received this glorious experience at a victory group of the new church we are attending. I probably shouldn't say this but before Lisa and I got married, some of her friends from the Baptist church came to her to try and reason with her she shouldn't marry me because of my Pentecostal experience and beliefs. One lady's quote was basically, "we can handle everything about him, except he speaks in tongues and is Pentecostal." Well, I'm GUILTY as charged! And now, SO IS LISA!! There was a time in my life I didn't cherish this experience as much as I should have and I regret that. But today, glory to God, I'm glad the Lord saved me. I'm glad the Lord filled me with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. I'm glad there is more to this Christian walk than just what a preacher or church says about it. Jesus is REAL. The Holy Spirit is REAL. The gifts of the SPIRIT are REAL. The baptism in the HOLY GHOST is REAL. Glory to God. I'm having a hard time writing this right now because of the glory of God that's filling this room (I'm writing this in Tawas City, MI on my laptop) God is real in Michigan just like He is in Tennessee. Glory to God.

    I said all of that to say this. These things that are happening are a SOUND OF ALARM that we are nearing the coming of Jesus. These things are telling us that the rapture is soon to take place. As I wrote in our last journal, "The Feast of Pentecost," we are living in the DAY OF PENTECOST waiting on the FEAST OF TRUMPETS. The Feast of Trumpets was the Jewish Feast that represented in type the rapture of the church. This is harvest season. This is the time the church should be warning a world that has forgotten God that judgment is coming! We don't have to slam our fists on pulpits or wear "The end is near" cardboard on our clothes walking up and down a street. Folks, the Holy Spirit is moving throughout the earth in such a way right now that it is hard to comprehend. I'm very guilty sometimes of thinking, "wow, the church is doing very little." The honest answer to that is YES, THE CHURCH IS DOING VERY LITTLE. What is being accomplished is being accomplished THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST! Without the HOLY GHOST we will see very little accomplished TRULY for God. Oh, we may get the numbers through our gimmicks, programs and services, but friend, numbers never made Jesus clap His hands. Jesus was always interested in that ONE SOUL who really had an encounter with Him and was changed. Certain elements of the Church has lost that and the urgency of the hour in which we live.

        Some Parts of the Church No Longer Believe in the Rapture

    While I'm not arguing over the time of the rapture, I want to say this. There are some churches who have stopped preaching on the second coming of Jesus because they believe the Lord Jesus is not coming. Some preach there is not going to be a rapture of the church. Neighbor, the DEVIL IS A LIAR! Jesus is coming. The sound of Pentecost is a sound of alarm. BLOW THE TRUMPET IN ZION, sound an alarm, let the inhabitants of the earth TREMBLE! The day of the Lord is at hand. We don't have much longer to go. We don't have much time. The harvest fields are WHITE unto harvest NOW! We are living in that time. TODAY IS THE DAY OF SALVATION. While it is today, HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT IS SAYING TO THE CHURCH. Jesus is coming. Get ready for the rapture! Get ready for the rapture! Get ready for the rapture! Get ready for the rapture! Get ready for the rapture! Now is the time to get the unconfessed sin out of your life Now is the time to make things right with that person you've wronged or been wronged by. Now is the time to start serving God.

    You can't repair your prayer life in eternity. You can't repair your Bible Study habits in eternity. You can't start giving to the Lord's work in eternity. You can't start being kind, forgiving and loving your fellow man and the Lord with all your heart in eternity. You can't stop crucifying your flesh and overcoming sin and the devil in eternity. You are one breath away from eternity. And the church is very close to the sound of the trumpet when the dead in Christ shall rise first and then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them in the air. These are the days we are living in. It's time to get things right NOW and be busy about in the Lord's harvest fields.

The Sound of Pentecost is a SOUND OF A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY, WEEPING and REPENTANCE

    
Joel 2:15-7 - Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: [16] Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. [17] Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? 

    The church needs to repent. The Pentecostal world needs to repent. We have gotten off track with the gospel message the last two decades. The Holy Ghost has been made a mockery of in most churches and He's been put in places where He will not abide. You cannot mix the pure message of the gospel with worldly ambition and pride and that is what we have done. PRIDE is applauded in most Pentecostal and Charismatic circles. And the sound of Pentecost is not a sound of us tooting our own horns - it's a call to sanctify a fast and call a solemn assembly. It's a sound to assemble the elders, gather the children and let the priests and MINISTERS of the Lord to WEEP for the condition of our people. 

    Folks, I'm not trying to sound critical of our efforts but most of what you hear behind MOST pulpits, not all, but MOST, is a pep rally for the people to get behind their CHURCH. Listen, THERE IS NO SALVATION IN THE CHURCH! There is no salvation except through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our feel good gospel messages may attract crowds, but the end of that is DEATH. The pure truth, spoken in love, will attract people, but it won't damn their souls to hell. The message of the 21rst Century is so self-centered that everything we preach today is centered on what Jesus can do FOR US instead of our call to take up the cross and DIE FOR HIM. 

    As a tremendously anointed Spirit-filled writer once wrote, "Pain is good; it shows you where there is a problem. Do not try to reduce the pain until you find the problem. God's truth often brings pain as it highlights a problem we have, but HIS TRUTH will always show us the way to freedom too."

    We preach a gospel that promotes relationships that fulfill US instead of us giving ourselves up to others. There are two things the early church attained but was lost very quickly by the Church - the MESSAGE and the MINISTRY. We must recover both in this hour if we are to see the great harvest God has purposed for this generation. 

        The Message and the Ministry

    There are two types of gospel today. One gospel is a "feel good" gospel that requires absolutely nothing out of the listener while promising the listener eternal life without a death. It's a gospel that has sent the church down the road to hell.

    The other gospel is the message Paul, Peter and the apostles preached. It's the message we must recover. It's theme is laced throughout the New Testament but we have been so busy counting our numbers and applauding PRIDE in our midst, we have lost this. Except for a few small places in the world there there are great persecutions and difficulties, you can hardly recognize either the message or the ministry that is being preached today. The church is not but a phantom of what the early church was which walked in power and literally shook the empire of Rome and the world for Jesus. When they served, being in ministry was the greatest sacrifice that one could make, and this reflected the message of the greatest sacrifice every made - the CROSS. The cross is the power of God, and it is the center of all that we are called to live by. Without the message of the cross, which is the foundation of Pentecost, there will be very LITTLE power to transform minds, hearts and lives of people. Therefore, we have difficulty seeing much difference between the disciples, believers OR THE HEATHEN. And we also have a difficulty watching Christian television and seeing much different than the spirit we see in secular television. This is not the ministry or message we were entrusted with through centuries of bloodshed, toil and tears. WE MUST RETURN TO THE CROSS.

        I can remember sitting in a local church every week hearing nothing but how many were attending, the money in the building fund, all the activities going on in the church and how much this church was family friendly, etc. I told Lisa one day, I said, "You know, Id love to go to church and JUST HEAR A MESSAGE ABOUT JESUS." Folks, our ministry and message must center on what the LORD JESUS has accomplished. It's almost like we are so busy doing our own thing and we use His name almost like a good luck charm to ward off evil spirits. We never praise HIM. We don't preach HIM. We don't extol HIM.

        I saw the leading Christian network's programming the other night. As I started clicking channels I wound up glancing at one of the leading rock music video channels that millions of our teenagers watch everyday which glorified sex, drugs and immoral living. The Christian network didn't promote those things but it was promoting itself. The music network made stars out of the rock and roll bands - the Christian network are making stars out of preachers. Every one on the platform was telling what their ministry was doing and everyone was clapping and just praising their efforts. It was a display of PRIDE and the church applauds PRIDE. We have lost our discernment.

        I belonged to a church in Lexington, KY which basically centered itself around the preacher and the worship team there. The preacher told us the day we all met for a new member's class that there was no board in place and he was the final authority there. His statement was "if you don't like it here, you will leave, we wont." (Yes, I know that was a red flag but it's a long story:) Well at the time he said this the church was running about 800 and in the process of building a quarter of a million dollar facility. Every Sunday he preached, he was always asking who was loyal to him and the church. In addition, he spent most of his efforts building a praise and worship choir team that he hoped would go to Nashville and record a worship tape. Everything the church did was centered around the group. He always praised the music team and the church itself as being on the "cutting edge" of worship. 

        Now this sounds like normal church hat every Sunday to the normal church goer. God forbid had anyone challenged this pastor on the fact that the church was NOT ON THE CUTTING EDGE and HE WAS NOT THE FINAL AUTHORITY. A few did and there were tremendous blow ups. It got to the point he began telling couples whether they should stay together or not. He became the Holy Spirit for people. And when anyone questioned his authority he basically made them leave. There was a banner that said, "HURTING PEOPLE WELCOMED HERE." It was a catch phrase for the church's outreach. The truth is that hurting people were not welcomed there. Hurting people were welcomed as long as they did not disagree with him. 

    Now at this time folks I was backslidden. But even backslidden I KNEW this was not right. At the time, nothing I would have said would have mattered. I left the church in the summer of that year and never returned. I'm not speaking these things to judge the church, the pastor or the people. 

    Less than a year later, the church busted into pieces. The multi-million dollar facility had to be sold, the pastor and his wife split and divorced, and the church went from 800 to less than 100 in a matter of months.  What went wrong? I'll tell you. The church became the source of salvation for the people and PRIDE was never addressed in the pulpit or in the pew. JESUS was forgotten about. We sang songs to Him but He was not being exalted. What was being done was being done in the name of a man and in the name of a worship team. When that happens, you are headed for destruction! The revelation of Jesus comes in the form of a LAMB. That lamb went silently to the slaughter. The church today brags about her ability to war against the enemy. Listen friend, the church HAS NO ABILITY WAR against the enemy EXCEPT THE POWER OF THE CROSS and the HOLY SPIRIT!!!!! It was at the CROSS that the powers of darkness were broken. It was at the CROSS that alcoholism was defeated. It was AT THE CROSS that the power of drugs, illicit sex, pornography and lust were destroyed.

    These demonic powers are not broken by us playing spiritual warfare games like a group of children. Spiritual warfare is NOT cowboys and Indians. It is not a game. The sound of Pentecost is not the sound of the church applauding and praising itself on its own accomplishments. It's a sound of weeping, fasting and supplication, crying out to God to SPARE US FROM OUR CONDITION. It's repentance! 

    I'm not judging what happened at that this church in Kentucky because when I pastored I was guilty of  the same thing. I only talked about what I was doing, not Christ. Everything I did - witness, preach, sing, sacrifice, was born out of a motivation to get noticed and be seen. I even wanted victory without suffering loss and that's NOT the way of Jesus. Even my preaching was more centered on MY KNOWLEDGE of the scriptures instead of my personal relationship with Jesus. I was preaching about a Jesus I basically did not know. I had talked about Him, I had sang about Him, but I had truly never embraced HIM with my whole being. I was always worried about the perception I gave to the people. I tried to hide my ignorance of the true ways of God with knowledge and it didn't work. A barren soul is never hid by a mind full of knowledge. That only brings death. I put standards so high on others that I could not live by them myself. That only brings judgment and delusion. It's the same thing that has gotten the church today off into the ditch we find ourselves in. Sadly, we don't want to admit we're there. The image we promote to the world is that we are building buildings for God and promoting our activities that has even Hollywood shaking its head. Folks, GOD DON'T NEED HOLLYWOOD OR FIFTH AVENUE STYLE WAYS TO PROMOTE OR ADVANCE HIS CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME?? 

Joel 2:17c - ....and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?    

        The 21rst Century message we are feeding people though is not any different. We tell them, "Come to Jesus and He will fix your family, your money situation and your bad marriage." We do not tell them, when you get saved, "YOU ARE GIVING UP YOUR LIFE!"  We no longer preach repentance.

        Not only do sinners need to repent, but the church needs to repent of not only what it does, but what we are. We must denounce our own efforts, our pride, our arrogance and our established traditions and deplore our condition so much we literally WEEP and MOAN and BEG God to deliver us from ourselves. That's the SOUND OF PENTECOST! That's the sound of the Pentecostal way. That's why the early church had so much power. They recognized that unless they lost their lives, they would not GAIN with JESUS!

Matt 16:25-26 - For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

    When we make our churches the source of people's salvation and healing, then we wind up in delusion. We wind up thinking "we" can do it without Christ. We become like Laodicea. He just becomes another "part" of our machinery just like the pews, the building, the programs. Folks, what I'm saying is from the heart of God. I'm not copying this out of a book. I'm writing with a burning heart and tears in my eyes. Let them say, SPARE THY PEOPLE, O Lord!" Give not thine heritage to REPROACH, that the heathen should RULE OVER THEM.

        The heathen is ruling over the church. No I don't mean that the leadership of our churches are heathen, but the SPIRIT OF THE WORLD controls what we do, what we say, how we act and how we minister. We don't need to hire a marketing director or a promotional person to advance our church. When the HOLY GHOST is in control, we won't have the space to keep what the Lord gives us. HE GIVES THE INCREASE and He will add to the church those who need to be SAVED. If we will repent of not just what we are doing, but who we are, we will see the Lord bring us back to the place of power that the generations before us knew and embraced:

Joel 2:18-20 THEN will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people. [19] Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen: [20] But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savor shall come up, because he hath done great things. 

    It's when we hear the sound of Pentecost and began to weep and mourn over our condition that the Lord will remove off of us the enemy. The reproach of divorce is terrible. Sadly, more people in the church are getting divorced than in the world. Why? Because we not preaching the cross. We are not preaching dying to self. We are not preaching a self-LESS gospel, we are preaching a selfish gospel. When we do this we will always end up in reproach.

The Sound of Pentecost is a SOUND OF REJOICING

Joel 2:21-27 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. [22] Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. [23] Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. [24] And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. [25] And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. [26] And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. [27] And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 

        The Pentecostal way is a sound of REJOICING! I'm not advocating unbridled emotionalism or displays of the flesh. What I am saying is that when you are truly filled with the Holy Ghost you're demeanor will show it. Some people who profess to be Spirit-filled look like warmed over death in church. The true ministry of the Holy Ghost will produce JOY! It's not joy based upon our circumstances but upon the fact "the Lord will do great things." It's a joy knowing that even though we have failed at times that the Lord has given us the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for us the rain, the FORMER RAIN, and the LATTER RAIN, in the first month." When that happens, the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. He will restore to us the years that the locust, cankerworm and caterpillar, palmerworm hath eaten, a type of what sin does to the believer. HE WILL RESTORE what the church has lost if we will just put our dependence back on HIM, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

    Look at the sound of this:

• We shall eat in plenty

• We shall be satisfied

• We shall praise the name of the Lord our God

• We shall never be ashamed

• We shall know that the Lord is in the MIDST of us and there is none else. 

        Listen neighbor. There are going to be times in our life that we will not be happy. Happiness and joy are similar but they are not the same. Happiness is the barometer of our condition during circumstances. JOY is the barometer of our condition DESPITE our circumstances. You can be happy and not have joy, but you can have joy but not be happy all the time. Life is brutal at times and has a way of testing the resolve of even the most faithful. But when you have the Holy Ghost inside you, "GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU, THAN HE WHO IS IN THE WORLD!!!" That's joy. It's a joy that Las Vegas cannot give. It's a joy that Hollywood cannot give. It's a joy that rolling a lucky seven won't give. It's a joy and a high drugs and alcohol won't give, not illicit sex. It's something that is making life worth living. RELIGION HINDERS THIS THE MOST!

    Our churches should be atmospheres vibrating with the joy of the Lord. It is our STRENGTH.  We're not happy because 1,000 came to Sunday school. Who cares if 1,000 came to our church if only 10 of those 1,000 are really truly where they need to be with the Lord??? Numbers are deceiving and they don't tell the true condition of a church. The Catholic Church has millions of people in its membership but it contains doctrines that are damning many of those millions to hell without mercy.

    We are full of joy because we are seeing people getting saved, filled with the Holy Ghost and healed. We're joyful because our Lord Jesus has conquered every foe and He has finished every test for us. We don't need to scramble and fight, He has already fought for us! We must merely enter into HIS REST and receive what He has for us daily. That's joy! That's what the Holy Spirit has come for - to SHOW THE CHURCH HER WAY BACK TO THE CROSS OF JESUS where we die and let the life of the glorious Christ live through us. Praise Jesus.

I Will Pour Out My Spirit Upon All Flesh

Joel 2:28-31 -  And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: [29] And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. [30] And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. [31] The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. [32] And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. 

    Joel finishes this chapter by quoting the Lord in saying, "I will pour out my SPIRIT upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in THOSE DAYS will I pour out my spirit." This is referring to the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the Great Tribulation when the Lord will once again turn His attention to redeeming Israel as a nation back to Himself. 144,000 Jews will be converted immediately (NO, the 144,000 are NOT THE JEHOVAH WITNESS) and go throughout the earth proclaiming the gospel after the rapture of the church. As a result of this great outpouring, millions will come to know Jesus during that time. That prophecy is already taking place and it will grow in intensity the closer we get to the coming of the Lord. The Lord said through Joel that He would shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire, pillars of smoke. Many Bible scholars feel these pillars of smoke refer to the tremendous warfare that will be accompanied by nuclear war during the Great Tribulation period. The sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood before that GREAT AND TERRIBLE DAY OF THE LORD - the battle of Armageddon. 

        Peter quoted this on the Day of Pentecost telling the hearers THEN and us NOW that the day the Holy Ghost fell was the beginning of Joel's prophecy. Where do we stand in God's prophetic timetable some 2,000 years later?

        Neighbor, it's getting late. It's time to make a decision on whether you want to continue living like you're living or give your life and heart to Jesus Christ. Time is not guaranteed for any of us. We don't need to preach the rapture as a tool for getting ready. We could all drop dead tomorrow of a heart attack. That how brief life is. But the rapture is close! There is not much harvest time left. The sun is going down. It's getting close to midnight.

        The last thing Joel says in this chapter and the last thing Peter said in his sermon on Pentecost is the key to your eternal soul, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, the same shall be SAVED. Neighbor, it's time to call on Him today. You are not promised of tomorrow and your life is but a vapor. Backslider, don't play around with eternity. It's time to get things right with the Lord. He's still here. He's not gone anywhere. You don't know the depths of how He's aching in His heart to see you come home. He's interceding for you at ALL TIMES. That's the sound of Pentecost. Hear it today and be blessed!

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