Experience and the Upper room

Experience and the Upper room.

The gauge to divine experience and the now of God, when nothing remotely close comes from heaven and stops at our door and we wonder why?

What are the vast differences?

The timing of history and the planting of the first Jesus followers assembly and a witness to the Jewish nation about a God who was changing the parameters of their box and burning the books of man made laws and the slavery it was putting His people into.

So of course there was a necessity of a shaking and tongues of fire and the first display of heavenly power since Jesus had now removed Himself from the stage and reappears in the other personality of the God head... Holy Spirit Himself is dropped onto a group of misfits and a mishmash of nobodies. Who by the way were in complete unison waiting for the next 50 days. There was a definitive statement to be made by God that He was going to do things His way... as Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except by me", through Holy Spirit, who would draw all men unto Him and point them to the truth.

They would have power to be His witnesses, and they were going to need it!

The next few centuries would prove that.

But still the continuation of refusal of the Jews to welcome this Messiah and His timing would become and still is their stumbling block to this day.

The next step was for a bona fide hard nosed young Jewish scholar to meet with an unusual experience one day as he was going about his business killing the followers of Jesus. Saul meets Jesus head on in a heavenly vision and is remarkably changed forever and suddenly the hardhearted Jews are passed over and God now turns His heart and grace on to the Gentile nations. Saul's name is changed to Paul, because once you have encountered Jesus there is no returning to the old you.

This was all foretold in old testament prophecy as God's grace is poured out upon all mankind.

The next incidents of power from on high touching the lives of Gentiles is seen and the experience is almost as strong as the first encounter. They too would need this power in their lives to assist them in seeing more of the world impacted by the gospel of Good News.

Paul himself taking this Good News to many nations and experiencing the personality of Holy Spirit in his life and through demonstrations of that power into the lives of others. Healing, deliverance, dead raised and so forth. This was all necessary for the gospel to impact their lives.

We are looking back on 2000 years of Christ's impartation of Holy Spirit. Throughout the centuries the Christian Church has experienced a diversity of architectural, structural, doctrinal differences, shapes, sounds, dressed up and dressed down. Everything imaginable has been built around, beside, over, and on top of the foundation carefully laid by Christ. He remains the cornerstone that cannot be shaken and everything that is attached to Him and His name will be shaken and tried by fire to see what will remain.

We consider the experiences of our faithful forerunners and we seemingly expect a similar rendition of the first symphony and that all the notes should align themselves to the order of our day. We played the tune but you did not dance?

I am reminded that these experiences were a surprise to those who found themselves in the midst of them at the time.

I do not believe that we need a carbon copy of something that was not designed for us and for the particular circumstances we are presently in. We need a NOW experience of God for the NOW we are in.

We are not building the Christian faith as they were. We are living it, if we are presently walking in and being led by Holy Spirit. The question is what are we doing with all that we do have in this present moment?

i have to ask myself; would an upper room experience really change anything about me? i have a relationship with God, i love Jesus and the word and i'm open to being led by the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit.

Do i need supernatural experiences? You betcha!!! i long for them always.

Do i receive them? i have had some powerful and awesome moments of His presence touching me, blessing me, loving on me, speaking to me, directing me, healing me, chastening me and times of Him asking me to be still.

If i look within myself for something from inside of me to empower me, that is other than Holy Spirit generated i will become disappointed and disillusioned. But if i remain steadfast in my faith and my security in Jesus work on the cross and Holy Spirit's careful direction for my life, i will feel the wind of His presence blowing, i will feel the shaking of all the things within me that are not part of Him, and i will experience the tongues of fire burning deep within my heart and the continued renewing process burning through my mind. In this i am content that He can empower me to meet the now for my life and i will have the boldness to continue being His witness in my world of influence.

So what does our world need most of all from us?

Our devotion of love to and for one another is the most powerful resource we have at our disposal and our willingness to soar like an eagle with prayer and intercession into the heart of God. Humbly standing in the gap for another and being the bridge of life for them to cross over.

Some men find God, some men know God, but Moses KNEW the WAYS of God and was called a friend. One of the greatest intercessors next to Jesus.

That is my goal, and to experience daily a waiting on Holy Spirit in my upper room.