Process of Agreement Part 2
“Lose the Baggage”
Hebrews 12:1 “… let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
We are learning the process of agreement. Agreement with what? God and His Word!
There are only two options that believers have on this subject of agreement; it is agreement or control!
When we are in agreement with God and His word we are in euphony (the quality of being pleasing to the ear, especially through a harmonious combination of notes or words) with His will. It is in agreement that our words, attitudes and emotions are in harmony with His purpose! When we try to control what we believe about God and His Word we become a cacophony to His purpose and plans. Cacophony: a harsh discordant mixture of sounds.
Acts 2:1-2 “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Jesus command them in Acts 1:5 to wait for the promise of the Father, so they took responsibility and did as the Lord commanded.
The Father’s goal with this meeting (Pentecost) was not to fully develop a safe and predictable environment, it was to bring a mighty rushing wind that would foster strength. They took responsibly which is the ability to respond. Will we?
5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Pentecost (feast of weeks) was a feast that God had commanded his people to observe in Leviticus 23:16.
16 Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.
The Hebrew word for feast is mo’ed which means “an appointed or fixed time.
There were three feasts that all males had to appear. Passover, (Exodus 34:18) Pentecost which also was known as the Feast of Weeks, (Exodus 34:22) and Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Ingathering. (Exodus 34:22)
Exodus 34:22-23 “You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, (Pentecost) that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering (Tabernacles) at the turn of the year. 23 Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.
Pentecost was a fixed and appointed time in which God sent His Holy Spirit to birth and empower the Church. It was a time where God created a blast that would change history; it was an [explosion] of reality!
2 And suddenly there came a [sound from heaven], as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.”
God was giving a countdown to the blast and the second of ignition was a “rushing mighty wind.”
Acts 2:2 was the great lift-off; God was now going to take them to places they had never been before!
It was an apt description of the mission of the Church. It was an explosion of reality; suddenly everything the disciples had experienced fell into place. They saw with clarity the fulfillment of prophecy; the Redeemer had come; the price was paid and the ministry of the Old Testament prophets was valid.
Nothing could no longer hold them back; they were propelled and moved by the Spirit within.
They were privileged to feel the “Breath of Life” which lifted them into agreement with the supernatural.
It was strength and vigor from another world; it was a replay of the first page of our Bible.
Genesis 2:7 “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
The original pattern of God’s partner reappeared in the Upper Room and lifted them to a place that they had never been. Why did God send the wind first? What would this “rushing mighty wind” do? It blew away their baggage! It takes wind to lose the baggage. Religious rules, performance and acceptance will not blow them away!
Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive [power] when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
This wind removed their limitations and broke through barriers that had existed for a very long time.
The “mighty wind” issues a passport from heaven; it gets rid of the state of siege that surrounds us; the attitude that says “I’m just barely holding on,” or “Its over for me, I am finished.”
2 And suddenly there came a [sound from heaven], as of a rushing mighty wind…” The source is heaven; if the wind does not come from there, it won’t change much. They waited; they didn’t need entertainment, and they didn’t need to analyze the situation. They didn’t wait long. They made an investment of ten days, and that “mighty wind” brought them into agreement with the power of God that lasted the rest of their lives. God’s wind actively embodied Himself in flesh as He had in His Son.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body. The same “quickening” in Jesus was now present in them; Jesus guaranteed it when He was on the earth with them.
John 14:12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”
The “Wind” calls us to revival not survival! This blessed tornado blew away their baggage and put the “go” into them, and they penetrated the world faster than Rome could restrain them.
Acts 28:22 “But we desire to hear from you what you think; for concerning this sect, we know that it is spoken against everywhere.