Joel: (Yahweh is God)
Moved with pity and
compassion, God promises to rid the land of the locust army he sent against the
unrepentant people. He promises to restore everything, and to send a great
outpouring of his Spirit, (not only on priests and prophets, but on ordinary people,) regardless of gender,
age or class.
We have experienced
locust months and years when our lives seem decimated, when the seeds we have
planted die in the swarm of life’s cares and calamities. God ploughs the fields
of our minds and hearts in preparation for the outpouring of his Spirit, for a new
and lasting harvest.
Only through authentic
repentance will we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are prone to depend
on people and things. Acutely we sense our loss of relationship with God at
times of distress and disaster. An inner metanoia
“a turning of the mind and heart” must take place for restoration. The Parable
of the Prodigal Son reminds us that crisis can bring true self-awareness of our
brokenness.
“Sometimes when you
have spent a long time rejecting the gifts of the Spirit and come to believe in
them, you feel as if you are being born again. You feel as if you have a whole
new Bible. By this I mean that the Gospels and Acts come alive for you in a way
they never have before. Things you had relegated to the first century now
become a possibility for today’s church.”
(Surprised by the
Power of the Holy Spirit, Jack Deere)
“Most powerful Holy
Spirit come down upon us and subdue us. From heaven where the ordinary is made glorious, and glory
seems but ordinary, bathe us with the
brilliance of your light like dew.”
(Celtic Daily Prayer)
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