It’s Interesting
I’ve always been amused at how some can go on and on about it being the last days but dismiss one particular thing spoken by a prophet concerning the last days.
Acts 2:17 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. 18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
How is it possible, on the one hand, to say, “We are in the last days,” and then, on the other hand, to say that the things spoken here regarding the last days no longer apply?
For instance, the matter of God pouring out His Spirit without respect for persons and Peter using it at that moment to describe the manifestation of the baptism in the Spirit the first believers experienced is now to be explained away as no longer pertinent.
How is it possible that we are more in the last days than ever before, and yet some seek to say visions, dreams, and prophesying are no longer needed, and some even say it is of the devil?
It is as if there are those who want the fear factor of a last-day prophetic word to serve their purpose in that moment they are using it while avoiding these things Peter quotes from the prophet Joel.
Why not take it all to heart and receive the fullness of what was prophetically promised by the prophet regarding the last days, as Peter and these other believers were doing?
That bold and very demonstrative outpouring of the Holy Spirit in which tongues were spoken and the praises of God were being heard in everyone’s own language was evidence of the last days!
We are now more in the last days than that generation was, so should we not expect bold and demonstrative Holy Spirit moments in our journey in Christ?
It’s interesting how, as human beings, we can pick and choose things based on our comfort level with them rather than true Holy Spirit revelation and understanding regarding them. It is often easier to receive based more on how something makes us feel a certain way at the moment and what we think others may or may not think about us than on being vulnerable enough to allow the Holy Spirit to do as He pleases.
Often, the thing that holds back the blessing the Holy Spirit desires to be to us is in our mind when we let calculations about the what-ifs get in the way. It’s interesting how often I have found that I let myself be talked out of something that could have been exciting and wonderful in the Spirit by my own mind. I wonder if you may have experienced that same phenomenon in your journey. These are the last days, and God has some exciting but strange to this world manifestations He wishes to bring into our lives. To experience them requires trust and vulnerability on our part.
