Father, we look to You to bless our approach to Your altars; for again Your sufferings, Your sacrifice, Your love is made real as the most efficient factor in our lives as You bring us unto Yourself. We approach Your altars with faith. Amen.
In I Corinthians 16:8, 9 Paul says, But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost; for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. The early Church knew that the day of Pentecost was a significant day: the second chapter of Acts tells us that on the day of Pentecost the Spirit of the Lord fell. All of the one hundred and twenty were baptized with the Holy Spirit and entered into the Church period. There is no indication in the New Testament that they really knew the significance of the Feast. There is no verse of Scripture that says the Feast of Pentecost had real spiritual significance in the fulfillment of the Church.
Some people have the idea that the Scriptures contain everything, but there are many things that are veiled; the Scriptures are both a revelation and a veiling. They are a revelation of God’s will and everything that is given to us, but they are also a concealment. God conceals: He told us what Moses did, but He didn’t tell us how he did it. How can you explain why Elisha came and lay across the body of the little boy who died, and finally the child sneezed seven times (II Kings 4:32–35). We know it happened, but we don’t know why. Psalms 103:7 says, He made known his ways unto Moses, His doings unto the children of Israel. The marvelous thing in the great outpouring of the Spirit in this day is revelation: that God is showing us His ways even more than His acts.
Do you realize how many of the things that God does have been explained in this walk? Do you find that in it you have begun to understand more about the ways of the Lord? You read about His moving, you were filled with the Holy Spirit; you have opened up to many things, but all from a clear revelation; you understand some of the ways that the Lord is moving. That’s what God is doing today.
While Paul said, “I’ll tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great door and effectual is opened to me of the Lord,” he knew that adversaries went along with it. Why did Paul tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost? He doesn’t say. Did he, with his apostolic revelation, know that Pentecost was speaking of the great ingathering harvest in the earth? Did he think that the day would have a special spiritual significance and the Spirit of the Lord would be poured out? Or was it just because it was something on the calendar, so he wanted to make haste to go to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Pentecost? What was his meaning?
It doesn’t say, but in this day things are becoming more clear in our understanding; for the great door and effectual is opened unto us of the Lord, too. We seem to linger until those moments, those set days, that the Spirit of the Lord meets us. You might say that every Sunday morning we anticipate a meeting with God, because we know that it’s one of those set times. We tarry and we linger until that service comes because we know that God has set a great door and effectual before us, and we’re going to enter into it: we wait for those seasons, the times refreshing.
As we come unto the Communion Altar and take the body and blood of Jesus Christ, stop and think of what God is doing. Draw His strength, draw His life. It is just as real and as fresh for you today, as it was for those who knelt at the foot of the cross and saw Him die; for those that were at the open tomb when He made Himself manifested as He did to the women, and said, “It is I, be not afraid,” His death, His resurrection, His strength are just as real for you today; and they become real and working, just for you, in your appropriation of His body and His blood. You know that if there had been no one else in the world of any generation that had accepted Christ, He still would have come and He would have given His life for you personally, so great was the Father’s love for you.
It is the day of victory, a day of rejoicing; it is not a time of heaviness and of mourning. Let not thy soul be downcast within thee, for the Lord is thy strength and He is thy helper. Sing unto the Lord the songs of praise and adore Him together.
The Lord is to be magnified in the midst of His people. He is to be glorified in the congregation of the righteous. He is to be adored by them who have been redeemed out of the hand of the enemy. He is thy redeemer; He is thy strength, thy high tower; He is thy refuge. Rejoice in the eternal one! Let thy soul magnify the Lord.