My Personal Pentecost — Basilea Schlink

The Promise of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit's Life-Giving Work

Pentecost a great promise. Pentecost a great promise. Yes a fire is burning in the world today and flaming the hearts of thousands of people. Churches are coming alive and drug addicts are being set free.

The gospel is being told with power and love. In these last days an ancient promise is being fulfilled. A promise that belongs to us all if we will claim it. It is the promise of Pentecost the celebration of the Holy Spirit.

Today's message by Mother Basilea is a testimony from her own experience of what a great promise this.

Pentecost holds for all mankind. Today let us praise the Holy Spirit for all.

That he does for us. Let us praise the Holy Spirit for his creative working in us as a spirit of life who makes dead hearts alive. Let us praise him for calling into being what does not yet exist. As the power from on high he fills human hearts with the fire of the love of God and makes them new men.

Who can compare with him the Holy Spirit? Who can do what he can do long ago and also.

Today? I remember a well-known minister. According to human standards his counseling and evangelism were quite successful. But one day the Spirit of God opened his eyes. The need for a revival pressed upon his conscience.

He and those to whom he had been preaching must not remain lukewarm. He waited on God in prayer for his city, for his country. After a day and almost a whole night of prayer God answered and he understood his plan.

The power from on high was to come upon him. He was to be entrusted with counseling the leading men of his country. The next morning the mayor of the city met him on the street. They began to talk about all the things that were wrong.

What should we do? the minister asked the mayor. Well for instance you could take care of people like me was his answer. The minister then told him about his experience the night before and the commission which the Spirit of God had given him.

A few minutes later he was given some office rooms and everything else he needed. Shortly after that 19 of the leading men of that city met to study the Bible. It changed their whole life. That was the beginning of a worldwide movement which was to bring leaders from all walks of life to know Jesus and to let him rule.

In their lives. Here were people who had been asleep. They had walked through their country, their surroundings, their churches with their eyes closed. Now the Holy Spirit had woken them up. He gave them his saving love.

He's at work when such miracles of transformation occur. Now people see what they could not see before in their sleep because the power from on high had come upon them. They see the misery of sin and the misery of all that are far away from God in their country, in their surroundings, in their churches.

Now they hear the death cries of those who are enslaved by sin as the cry for help and redemption. Now their hearts sympathize with them and long to help them. Their hands and feet which had been asleep now begin to move to rescue them from corruption.

People are acting in the power of the Holy Spirit. Something is happening. Great things are happening. Yes, ever since God has promised the Holy Spirit the power from on high, no one has to be impotent.

If he waits for the promise of the Father, if he counts on his promise, what is happening through us? This is the question that is posed to us today, and we cannot escape it. It is not at all out of the ordinary for 15 year olds to become fathers, for schoolgirls to become mothers.

It has almost become normal. No one gets excited about it anymore. A hellish fire of sin is burning all around us and is gaining more and more ground. But we are usually asleep and don't see what is going on around us.

Revival Through the Holy Spirit's Power

There's only one person who can make us come alive. It is the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, as Christendom in all ages has confessed. He can do it and he wants to do it. He calls into being what does not yet exist.

He makes lukewarm people fiery and great things happen through him. They happened long ago and they can still happen today when the power from on high comes down upon us. Therefore, we need to be filled anew with the Holy Spirit.

The stories in the book of Acts about the deeds of the Holy Spirit show how a stream of life flows into the church through being filled with the Holy Spirit. Divine life pours forth from them and gives birth to new life everywhere.

The events in Acts are breathtaking. Everyone is caught up in it, Jews, Gentiles, Christians. They are changed. They become new people. They are set free from bondages, vices, sicknesses, demon possession.

New social orders arise. Something really exciting happens. As people say about Paul and his fellow workers, they turn the world upside down. They are compelled by the Holy Spirit to testify, to preach, to pray, to sacrifice.

And countless numbers are saved. Mighty inroads are made into the kingdom of.

Darkness long ago and today too. An eyewitness reports about a revival that.

God granted a few decades ago. Within the space of a year, over a hundred thousand people accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The whole city was excited.

Wherever you went, people were talking about religious things in the houses, in the stores, in the offices, on the streets. The only theater in the city was converted into a stable. The circus was converted into a soap and candle factory.

Sunday was kept holy again. Happy people poured into the churches to praise the Lord and worship Him. The works of brotherly love began to flourish again. People opened their hearts and their doors for works of goodwill and charity and did everything possible to do good.

Even in the courts you could sense the blessings. Criminality decreased. Courts had hardly anything to do. And for years.

The jails were almost empty. What happened to make this revival come about through the well-known evangelist Finney? What made him such a powerful witness to Jesus Christ? He wrote in his autobiography that he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Let us not think that this is only meant for certain privileged people. Everyone is called by God to spread the gospel in his surroundings, in his environment, in his church, in his country. God is waiting for me and for you.

And those around us are waiting for us to bear witness to Him in the manifestation of the Holy Spirit and in His power which has been promised to each one of us. We say in the Creed, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.

Living Out the Pentecost Promise in the Present

Now we have to practice this in our lives. The power from on high which was promised to the disciples, Pentecost, filled with the glory of the Holy Spirit, should become an event of today. Let us count upon this daily, yes, hourly.

And everything that is dead and lukewarm inside of us will be changed.

Into life and fire. Yes, the power from on high the Holy Spirit is promised for the.

Last times. Joel too. Why? Because God knows that we need Him especially in these times. No one can keep his eyes closed to the fact that we're living in the beginnings of these times, the times of great darkness when Satan will reveal his power more than ever before.

In our century alone there have been more Christian martyrs than in the 19 preceding centuries. The modern brainwashing methods have dreadful potentiality for changing and breaking the personality and will of man.

That is another reason for praying for the power from on high. Today we need the Holy Spirit and his gifts more than ever before. Otherwise we will be overcome by the coming darkness and seduction, by dreadful suffering and temptation, from which none of us will be spared.

Spiritual Gifts for Faithfulness in Dark Times

We need the gift of faith so that Jesus' promise from Mark 16 can be fulfilled in our lives. If they drink any deadly thing it will not hurt them. This is what missionary Nomanson experienced in Sumatra and the mission Dr. Livingston experienced in Africa.

The poison that their opponents mixed in with their food and which killed their dogs could not do anything to them. We need the gift of faith when the earth is turned into a desert, that God will let water come forth from a rock and turn rocks into bread, that God can provide for us out of nothing.

George Muller and Eva von Tiele-Winkler experienced such provision when they received the daily bread for all those in their charge in wonderful ways through faith. We need the gift of discernment of spirits, which the New Testament talks about.

Otherwise we will fall prey to the seductive powers of our times. We need the gift of the Holy Spirit to drive out the evil spirits through faith. Jesus has promised this to us for the last times when Satan will fall upon the earth with his evil spirits harder than ever before.

Yes, we need the power from on high. We need the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to be.

Able to overcome today. But now comes the important question. How do we receive.

Asking, Cleansing, and Receiving the Holy Spirit

This power from on high? How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit? There is a.

Way which is open to everyone. What a joyful message this is for us on Pentecost. It is the way of asking and entreating. Every child can do this. Yes, Jesus tells us quite plainly to go this way. He tells us the parable of the persistent friend who keeps on knocking at the door.

For this way Jesus gives us a promise which is as solid as a rock. How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Luke 11 13. Let's start immediately. Let's take the first step on this path right now.

The power from on high shall be ours in faith if we join together now in calling upon the Holy Spirit. But first there is one important thing. The Holy Spirit is a Holy Spirit. He will not come into an uncleansed heart.

If we want to ask him to come into our lives, we must first be ready to receive him as a Spirit of truth who will place our unknown sins in the light of God's countenance. This is painful and means that we have to be ready to confess before God and man the sins which he lays his finger upon.

Every year in the weeks preceding Pentecost we experience a time of inward cleansing in our sisterhood. How could it be different? For only when the Holy Spirit comes into our life as a Spirit of truth can we also receive his power and his gifts.

Then we can ask him for everything that we are missing. Probably all of us need the fire of love. So let's pray for that.

First by singing. Or when we are spiritually tired and lazy we can ask him. The Holy Spirit rejoices at such requests. He wants to make us rich, strong,.

Fiery, full of joy and free from fear. He wants to give us an abundance of his gifts. Gifts that can turn the whole world upside down and make hell tremble. We are to become people filled with power from on high whose hearts are the Holy Spirit can cleanse and sanctify through repentance.

This was the legacy Jesus gave his disciples before he ascended into heaven. This is also God's holy will for our lives. Yes, the Holy Spirit can perform miracles of transformation. He makes the fearful strong.

He gives strength to the discouraged. The poor become rich. Praise be to the Holy Spirit. In closing, Mother Basileus shares with us. You and I are to be equipped with power from on high. The Holy Spirit wants to make us fiery, powerful witnesses and those who move God's hand through prayer.

A Personal Prayer for the Holy Spirit's Gifts and Guidance

The great deeds of God are to happen in our midst. When the cries of God is dead are raised, our life should testify to the opposite. God is alive. Today let us pray to him in faith. O Holy Spirit, I entreat you to grant me your gifts in power.

You are the creative spirit. You call into being what does not yet exist in me. You give power from on high to those who ask for it. So I thank you, for you will give me what I am missing. The spirit of repentance, the spirit of faith, fire and seal for Jesus and his kingdom.

I will not let you go until you make my life new to your glory. I scarcely know where to begin to praise the Holy Spirit, especially when I think of all the stones in the mosaic of my everyday life which he arranges so wisely.

I need his help especially because when we are responsible for leading others, we are completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit. And when we have a leading position and a great deal of work to do, we cannot manage it all without help from the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a paraclete. That is, he is called to be at our side. And I always find him there. Every morning I ask him to guide me. Then it seems as though someone is standing next to me, speaking to me, although I do not hear any voices.

Now do this. Leave this for later. Put this work off. Now go there. In the evening all the work is done with the greatest of ease, although it had looked impossible in the morning. Then my heart is full of thanks to the Holy Spirit, whom we can count on in every small or large situation.

What would our days look like without him? They would be filled with worries, and we would constantly do the wrong thing. We would do what is not in the will of God and would neglect to do what he finds important and urgent.

Everything would be confusion amid race and in vain. Then we get annoyed and there would be no blessing on our work. What a blessing it is that we can believe in the Holy Spirit and let him guide us in everything.

Gratitude for the Spirit's Faithful Leading

With this thanksgiving in my heart, I once wrote this song for the Holy Spirit during days of quiet meditation. I want to read you a few verses before our sister sings it. Holy Ghost, guiding me, highest praise is due to thee.

For thy faithful leading, guiding me from stage to stage, hearing every prayer for aid, every plea for guidance. Holy Ghost, helping me, highest praise is due to thee. For thy watchful guiding. When my way led through dark night, then thy counsel brought me light, all my way illumined.

And now my favorite verse. Holy Ghost, God and Lord, mayst thou be by all adored. For thy guiding, loving, what without thee would I be? So I think thee fervently from my heart forever. This line, what without thee would I be, describes my whole life.

I am filled with eternal gratitude to the Holy Spirit. What without thee would I be? So I thank thee fervently from my heart forever.

May the Holy Spirit rejoice today when he sees that we are opening our hearts wide for him. There is no prayer that's more precious to him than this one. There's no prayer that he would like to answer more than this one.

Invitation to Come, Holy Spirit

Come Holy Spirit, come into my life as the power from on high. Today's meditation was written by, and in part spoken by, Mother Basilea Schlink of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, Darmstadt Eberstadt, West Germany.

Choral selections were sung by the Sisterhood Choir. Please stop now, turn the cassette over at this point, and begin playing side two. Thank you.