{"id":283,"date":"2013-03-23T21:07:47","date_gmt":"2013-03-23T21:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ntmu.net\/?p=283"},"modified":"2013-05-17T11:51:30","modified_gmt":"2013-05-17T11:51:30","slug":"the-dove-has-landed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ntmu.net\/?p=283","title":{"rendered":"The Dove Has Landed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dove.h2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At different times throughout history a clamor has gone up among believers for the Holy Spirit to come down. With great exercise of heart, fervent prayer and confession of sin, individuals and groups looked to God for a new fulfillment of 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 and Isaiah 64:1\u2026 and asked for a new Pentecost.<\/p>\n

What happened in a run down building on Azusa Street, Los Angeles, California, one century ago, seemed to be the answer to prayer \u2013 a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit\u2026<\/p>\n

However, as in all things spiritual, it is imperative that the Biblical perspectives and the Biblical context are not lost from sight!<\/p>\n

Who is He?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Holy Spirit is, of course, part of the Trinity, the third person \u2013 the Father being the first person and the Son being the second. In the case of the Son most cults cast doubt on the fact that He is God, whereas, in the case of the Holy Spirit, many like to deny or doubt the fact that He is a person. He may be dubbed \u2018the power of God\u2019, or the \u2018divine influence\u2019 or \u2018God\u2019s active force\u2019, or something to that effect. But the serious Bible reader will soon be completely reassured about the Holy Spirit\u2019s “personality”, finding that He \u2018knows\u2019, \u2018hears\u2019, \u2018speaks\u2019, teaches\u2019, \u2018testifies\u2019, \u2018reminds\u2019, \u2018helps\u2019, etc.<\/p>\n

In Genesis we are told that the Holy Spirit was involved in the work of Creation; in the New Testament we find him involved in the work of Redemption. Our Lord calls him the “Comforter” or “Counselor”. Chapters like John 16 and Romans 8 give us much wonderful information about him. In a word, his mission is to manifest and glorify the Lord Jesus. As He was “poured out” on the believers in Jerusalem, on the Jewish feast day of Pentecost, and the Lord Jesus was glorified, the “ekklesia”, the church of the redeemed, was \u2018born\u2019.<\/p>\n

That is how the Lord himself had said it would be: “\u2018If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.\u2019 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (Jn. 7:37-39).<\/p>\n

Two comings<\/strong><\/p>\n

But did you realize that the New Testament describes another, previous, coming of the Holy Spirit? This \u2018first coming\u2019 is found in the Gospels – the second one, of course, is in Acts of the Apostles. When He came on the Day of Pentecost there were wondrous signs of wind and fire, but at the Holy Spirit\u2019s \u2018first coming\u2019 nothing so awesome happened.<\/p>\n

It occurs when Jesus comes up out of the river, just having been baptized by John the Baptist: “the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him” (Lk. 3:22). It was a truly unique moment, and all four Gospels give the story right at the beginning of their accounts. All three persons of the Trinity are in evidence – the Holy Spirit descends on the Son, and from the open heavens sounds the voice of the Father: “You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased.”<\/p>\n

Even at this early stage it is immediately evident that the Holy Spirit does not call attention to himself. John the Baptist exclaims: “I did not know him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, \u2018Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.\u2019 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God” (Jn. 1:33-34). His mission was, and is, to call attention to Christ, to manifest him, to draw people to him (Jn. 16:13-15).<\/p>\n

Even in John\u2019s very words the three persons of the Trinity are present. And the Holy Spirit is mentioned specifically as the One who makes it possible to \u2018recognize\u2019 the Son. Furthermore as the One who was going to be the \u2018element\u2019 with whom, or in whom, the Son would be baptizing.<\/p>\n

The Wind and the Fire<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the day of Pentecost there was \u2018wind and fire\u2019, but when the Spirit came the first time, these phenomena were absent. He came as a \u2018dove\u2019 at the Lord\u2019s baptism.<\/p>\n

But, even if no one heard the \u2018wind\u2019, or saw the \u2018fire\u2019, they were present in what John the Baptist prophesied: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and He will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor, and gather his wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Mt. 3:11-12).<\/p>\n

Contrasting his own water baptism with the happenings at Pentecost, John describes that new \u2018baptism\u2019 as a wind and fire baptism. The word \u2018wind\u2019 is not mentioned in the English of these verses, but it must be born in mind that the Greek for spirit (pneuma) is also translated as \u2018wind\u2019, breath\u2019, and \u2018air\u2019. His listeners heard him speak about another baptism that would not be in water but in \u2018holy wind and fire\u2019. A little later Jesus himself spoke to Nicodemus about that \u2018wind\u2019 (Jn. 3:8).<\/p>\n

From the above words we discover that John was a master of dramatic illustration. Every Jew knew how a farmer, after the harvest when the wheat had been threshed, would \u2018throw it all to the wind\u2019, and how the wind would carry off the chaff, while the heavier grain would fall to the ground in a heap. The \u2018winnowing fan\u2019 is what the farmer used for this job. Neither was it a secret that later the chaff, piled up at some distance, would be set on fire. John\u2019s listeners could see it all happening before their minds\u2019 eyes. John was putting them on notice about that special day of Pentecost.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A forgotten aspect?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you ever looked at Pentecost in that way, i.e. in the way in which we are told to look at it? Heard any sermons about the \u2018holy wind\u2019 (the Holy Spirit) that radically separates the \u2018chaff\u2019 from the \u2018wheat\u2019; and about the \u2018fire\u2019 that burns up the \u2018chaff\u2019? That \u2018holy wind and fire\u2019 were the burden of John\u2019s solemn prophecy. He spoke about the divine Baptizer and his sovereign work, baptizing in those elements, when Pentecost would arrive. John may not have realized how near or how far in the future this would be \u2013 but we now know that it happened less than four years later.<\/p>\n

In John 7 we have another prophecy about Pentecost, the one uttered by Jesus about the \u2018living water\u2019 – the Holy Spirit being \u2018poured out\u2019. That prophecy did not cancel out John\u2019s earlier prophecy. Both prophecies were wonderfully fulfilled! What was said about \u2018the holy wind and fire\u2019 was just as true and valid as the Savior\u2019s words about the \u2018living water\u2019. It may be religiously correct or convenient to omit the \u2018wind and fire\u2019 aspect of Pentecost in our day and age. However, to attempt to do so would be to hinder and stunt God\u2019s work of Pentecost \u2013 both in individual lives and in congregations.<\/p>\n

John the Baptist teaches us that the Holy Spirit\u2019s mission is to separate the chaff from the wheat in the believers\u2019 lives, and then to destroy it! It is a remarkable prophecy in Matthew 3 and Luke 3 \u2013 one that is still being fulfilled today, because Pentecost is still with us today.<\/p>\n

Tongues of Fire<\/strong><\/p>\n

The “rushing mighty wind” and the “tongues of fire” were, undoubtedly, given as a powerful reminder to the 120 of the reality of John the Baptist\u2019s prophecy. It all happened just as John had said in regards to the \u2018threshing floor\u2019: the separation of grain and chaff – achieved by the \u2018holy wind\u2019 (into which they were now being baptized), and the burning up of the useless chaff.<\/p>\n

But what do the \u2018tongues of fire\u2019 tell us in particular? As you observe a fire, where is it those \u2018tongues\u2019 appear? Invariably you will see them at the top of the fire. In other words, the Pentecost tongues of fire on the 120 were evidence of a fire that was (invisibly) raging further down, in these men and women\u2019s hearts!<\/p>\n

These were men and women who, in the Holy Spirit\u2019s hands, were going to be further prepared, thoroughly prepared, for the service of their Lord and King, for the functioning as members of his body. As far as we know, none of them retreated. None of them said that such radical treatment and training was just a bit too much of a good thing..; that things were getting out of hand..; that all they had bargained for was to be honourable pew-warmers – the John 6:66 syndrome. Unless, of course, Ananias and Sapphira of chapter 5 were already among them. This married couple had drunk from the \u2018living water\u2019, but when it came to it, they shrank from the fierce \u2018wind and fire\u2019.<\/p>\n

And isn\u2019t that what through the centuries, and very much in our own day and age, has always cut across the Lord\u2019s wonderful purposes with our lives \u2013 that sad lack of commitment to HIM – come wind, come fire?<\/p>\n

The Lamb<\/strong><\/p>\n

In John 1 when the Holy Spirit came for the first time, descending upon Jesus as a dove, we find some important details. In verses 29 and 35 John speaks about the Lamb of God, and right there, sandwiched in between, we find the story of the \u2018dove\u2019 which descended on the Lamb.<\/p>\n

The significance of the expression “the Lamb of God” was clear enough to the Jews. They were fully familiar with the requirement of sacrificing a lamb for atonement. They knew this had been done right from the time that Abel sacrificed in Genesis 4; they remembered that later Abraham had done so on Mount Moriah, and that, later still, on the night of redemption from Egypt, the blood of a lamb was shed in every Israelite family, providing instant salvation.<\/p>\n

The announcement of the Lamb of God now walking among them, after long centuries of waiting for him, should have rung, not a bell.., rather a thousand bells, in many hearts and minds, even if the full implications \u2013 their Messiah having to be “led as a lamb to the slaughter” (Is. 53:7) – might not be hitting home just yet.<\/p>\n

The Dove<\/strong><\/p>\n

The question naturally arises, \u2018If they were aware of the significance of the lamb, what did they make of the dove?\u2019 Was that dove special to them for some Scriptural reason? It is true that David, Solomon and others sang about the \u2018dove\u2019 in their writings, but there was another more powerful connection. When the dove descended and \u2018remained\u2019 on Jesus, minds would instantly turn to Genesis 8, only four chapters after Abel\u2019s lamb. It is the first time a dove is mentioned \u2013 i.e. five times in all. Even most Gentiles nowadays, without realizing it, honor Noah\u2019s dove as the most popular and worldwide symbol of peace.<\/p>\n

The ark, with eight human beings on board and numerous animals, had, after many months of drifting, come to rest near the top of the Ararat mountain range. The unimaginable magnitude of the flood\u2019s worldwide upheaval was slowly coming to its conclusion. Some more time passed and Noah could make out the tops of the mountains around the ark. Finally, as the waters receded even more, Noah opened a window to let out both a raven and a dove. It was an important test for him \u2013 he needed to know what was going on in the outside world.<\/p>\n

The raven, an omnivore, never came back, not even for its mate. It had found plenty to eat, presumably stuff that was floating around. The dove did come back and pretty soon. Why? It “found no resting place for the sole of its foot”!<\/p>\n

The Sole of its Foot<\/strong><\/p>\n

A week passed and Noah opened the window once more for the dove. That evening it came back with a “freshly picked olive leaf” in its beak. Noah thus realized that things were progressing. The dove had been able to briefly land on an olive branch and pick that leaf for him. Another week and the dove flew again. This third time it did not return \u2013 in other words, it had at last found a resting place for the sole of its foot.<\/p>\n

How could John the Baptist and the other Jews present, who knew their Scriptures, not remember the dove from the ark when they saw this other \u2018dove\u2019 descending upon the Lord Jesus? John\u2019s words seem to clearly indicate that he realized what God was doing. He had been told: “Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, this is He\u2026!” A dove is very easily frightened away \u2013 it will not easily remain. But this dove remained, i.e. on the Son of Man, on the Father\u2019s Beloved, it had found the permanent \u2018resting place for the sole of its foot\u2019. John exclaimed: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon him!” The dove had landed!<\/p>\n

Olive Leaves and Olives<\/strong><\/p>\n

The olive tree with its olives that are such a marvelous source of oil for food, healing, light and even anointing, is a picture of “new creation” (e.g. Ps. 52:8; 128:3). After the universal devastation of the \u2018first\u2019 creation, Noah\u2019s dove was looking for a \u2018new\u2019 creation. It kept on going to and fro, but there was nothing\u2026 – only stuff that is good enough for ravens. Then during the second flight it found something \u2013 not much use really, but it was a powerful sign of hope and new life: the “freshly picked olive leaf”!<\/p>\n

God\u2019s \u2018dove\u2019 may be compared to God\u2019s eyes \u2013 like his eyes, the dove goes “to and fro throughout the whole earth” to look for “those whose heart is loyal to him” (2 Chr. 16:9; Zech. 4:10).<\/p>\n

As Genesis 9 deals with the immediate aftermath of the Flood, so chapter 10 gives us a summary of all Noah\u2019s descendants. Then, in Genesis 11 the tower-of-Babel-obstinacy-and-rebellion occur and things look bleak indeed – real \u2018raven stuff\u2019. But God\u2019s \u2018dove\u2019 was flying and hovering and searching. And right there where the remains of the tower must still have been standing, in this same chapter 11, the \u2018dove\u2019 finds an \u2018olive leaf\u2019 \u2013 Abram and Sarai in Ur of the Chaldeans!<\/p>\n

From their Bible biography, and that of their descendants, we must conclude, that at the most there were some \u2018olive leaves\u2019 gleaned by the \u2018dove\u2019 – no remaining place was found for the dove\u2019s feet, and no remaining fruit. When later Jesus speaks of Israel, i.e. of all Abraham\u2019s descendants through Isaac and Jacob, He calls them frankly: “an evil (and wicked, and faithless) and adulterous (and perverse, and sinful) generation”, as recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke. And, of course, that is what they were – neither better nor worse than any other nation (Dt. 7:6-8). Even so, in spite of all that, something was \u2018sprouting\u2019! Right through the Old Testament, and into the Gospels, from Abraham to the thief on the cross, we discover that the Holy Spirit did find some real evidence of life \u2013 some lovely \u2018fresh olive leaves\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Anointed One<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is no accident that \u2018olive oil\u2019 is forever associated with the Messiah (i.e. the Christ) \u2013 the name means “Anointed One”. In the Old Testament prophets, priests and kings were anointed with olive oil. Christ, our Prophet, Priest and King, is the Anointed One of God. No wonder then that on him the \u2018Dove\u2019 should alight AND “remain”, as John was told He would, and as John saw it happening before his eyes. He is the “olive tree” with abundance of fruit, not just leaves.<\/p>\n

A lot is made these days of all kinds of \u2018anointings\u2019, but the New Testament is silent on the subject. What do we find? We find that all those who belong to the Anointed One \u2013 Christians belonging to the Christ \u2013 are \u2018anointed in Christ\u2019, and because of Christ (2 Cor. 1:20-22; 1 Jn. 2:20, 27). If I have truly believed in God\u2019s Anointed One, then I have been received into him. If I am in the Anointed One, then his “anointing” is on me \u2013 continuously. There is no merit of mine in this, of prayer and fasting, of laying-on of hands, or whatever. It is the grace of God that has received me into the Anointed One – I have become a Christ-one, a Christian. “If anyone is in Christ (in the Anointed One), he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).<\/p>\n

Pentecost<\/strong><\/p>\n

Time to return to where we started. One hundred and twenty disciples had a mighty experience \u2013 it had to do with living water, with holy wind and with devouring fire. Foreign languages suddenly were the vehicle through which all these followers of the Messiah testified of “the wonderful works of God”, “as the Spirit gave them utterance”.<\/p>\n

Many centuries earlier, at the tower of Babel, in the great city of mighty Nimrod, utter confusion had set in when suddenly the immense multitude started to speak in different languages – when they found they couldn\u2019t understand each other anymore. It was God\u2019s way of dispersing them. On that day the different races were born. Wherever they went, “over the face of all the earth”, each group took with them, not only a new and authentic language \u2013 each group also had an account, a tradition, of recent happenings. There were those who went on the \u2018long march\u2019 east, already speaking the ancient Chinese as they left the plains of Shinar. They may have been the first ones ever to start writing down their words. Even today that ancient Chinese (not the modern variety), fragments of which have come down to our days, testifies in its pictorially written language of the universal flood, of the ark, of the eight people on board, and of much more.<\/p>\n

Now, on the day of Pentecost, we get the other part of the story. In some 17 different languages, perhaps many more, the thousands of folks from all around the Mediterranean Sea, totally spellbound, receive the wonderful Gospel of life in Christ, in hearts where death reigned supreme; of hope and joy, where hopelessness and despair were unavoidable; and of order where Babel\u2019s confusion held sway.<\/p>\n

Paul, going back to what God had said in Isaiah, gives the reason behind the “foreign languages” (1 Cor. 14:21-22): they are “a sign, not to those who believe but to (the) unbelievers (of Israel)”. This, of course, is very clear on the day of Pentecost, but in the same light we find that it also holds true in Acts 10 (+11) and 19.<\/p>\n

Mirror Image<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Babel\u2019 occurred because, unlike Noah\u2019s dove, God\u2019s dove could not find a resting place for the sole of its feet. Dispersion, a multitude of foreign languages, innumerable wars and untold suffering all followed.<\/p>\n

Pentecost occurred because the \u2018dove\u2019 had found its \u2018resting place\u2019 \u2013 God\u2019s Son, the Anointed One, had come to give his life for the world and to rise from the grave victoriously as the “new man”.<\/p>\n

At Pentecost, and from that moment onwards, every single true believer in Christ finds in him his new identity and eternal life, and, in contrast to the Babel dispersion, true and wonderful unity in Christ. Races, cultures, social levels, languages, even gender, which are obviously not dissolved in this present dispensation, are, nevertheless, truly and totally superseded in Christ (Gal. 3:26-28). It is the wind and the fire of Pentecost which blow away and burn up all the chaff of differences, inequalities, divisions, etc., etc. – that is when the individual believer allows the Holy Spirit to do so!<\/p>\n

The tragedy of the Corinthian Christians, who made so much of supernatural phenomena, is that they were reluctant, very reluctant, to give their wholehearted “yes” to the “wind and fire” of Pentecost\u2026 With their proverbial “envy, strife, and divisions”, don\u2019t they, in reality, remind us more of \u2018Babel\u2019 than of \u2018Pentecost\u2019..?<\/p>\n

Fruit of the Spirit<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"dove.h1\"<\/a>The Holy Spirit provides all the gifts necessary for the building of his church on earth. The gifts are very important, but after Paul has made that very clear, he goes on to show the Corinthians “a more excellent way”. He was talking of the fruit of the Spirit which is: “love” (1 Cor. 13). To the Galatian Christians, who were producing plenty of \u2018leaves\u2019, but no \u2018fruit\u2019 to speak of, he says: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-26).<\/p>\n

That is the perfect fruit \u2013 produced by the Holy Spirit and looked for by the Holy Spirit. The \u2018dove\u2019 found it in the Son of Man. There was no “chaff” in his life to be blown away and burned.<\/p>\n

As we surrender to Christ, and allow the Holy Spirit to do his radical work, the fruit will appear – in our daily lives! That is what the Holy Spirit came for, not only to manifest Christ to us, but to manifest Christ in us and through us!<\/p>\n

Yes! The Spirit has come!! And He has been here for nearly 2000 years. The Dove has landed! And in Christ, we are partakers of the Person and the Work and the Fruit of the Holy Spirit! Pentecost is living experience today!<\/p>\n

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