Acts 2: 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
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The disciples were gathered, but hiding behind closed doors. They had been waiting for ten days in Jerusalem, as they were promised to receive the gift of the Lord, which is the Holy Spirit. When it arrived, as the Scripture said, flames of fire appeared over their heads. Enlightenment. Literally and spiritually too. Transformation of the heart.
Disciples, who became desperate and depressed after the death of the master on the cross, and were left without the physical guidance of Jesus since his ascension, these same disciples, by the touch of the Spirit, opened the doors, not hiding anymore the Gospel of the Christ. They prayed for faith and they received it in the Spirit. This event was the Pentecost. Three thousand people joined them in Jerusalem in the hours they opened the doors and left their fear and anxiety, doubts and apathy behind. Although persecution also grew, but they did not run anymore, as they told authorities that they have to obey Jesus rather than the men who crucified him.
The first Christian groups shared everything within the congregation: food, money, land and resources, thus, there were neither beggars nor needy among them, neither slaveholders nor slaves, neither landlords nor peasants. They gave thanks together to the Lord saying that only to GOD belong the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.
In the last 2000 years Christian scholars wrote tremendous amounts of tractates, essays, Bible interpretations, commentaries and other books, filling up personal bookshelves, religious and public libraries throughout the world and throughout centuries and millennia.
These works were written by renowned scholars and together with them, we mostly and seriously think that the case of the Holy Spirit is so complex that it is barely perceivable for the simple mortal being.
However almost nothing should be more simple than the touch of the Holy Spirit, because as God is One and the Lord is One, so the Holy Spirit is One. All manifestations are one under different names and within different roles and tasks of the same divine one. However, there are some phenomenal characteristics where the Holy Spirit can be caught red-handed, like in its gifts to humans: the gifts of prophecy, speaking of tongues, healing of the sick, judging the souls, attaining wisdom, etc. When we contemplate these gifts, one of the major phenomena is that the giver of the gifts is One.
In order to be reborn to the similarity of the One Spirit, we all have to become, one by one, a holy wisely one-minded person, which means that we have to focus on the oneness of God, and we have to focus on the Kingdom of God whose sole importance must overcome everything on Earth.
The requirement of being holy wisely one-minded sounds very simple, though it is one of the most difficult task in our lives as the Apostle Paul wrote that "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. "
Good and bad dwell in the divided human soul in the same time and they are fighting each other all the time for the rule of the human soul. In order to get rid of the bad we have to become one minded.
That is why the Great Commandment says that "Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. "
God demands our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole strength and nothing less. According to the Spirit Math, just like the candle shines in the darkness and overcomes it, the light of the One Spirit must destroy the darkness in the soul, eradicating fully the bad inclinations. It is like combing the coiling wicked snakes from someone’s hair.
In that way the one-minded soul serves God and only God, as Jesus declared himself:
“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."
Nonetheless, some people imagine that they can become their own God, and they want to serve themselves only, their own ego, as Wolfgang Goethe wrote in the 19th century that:
“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”
However, the opposite is written in the Gospel: "For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Gospel of Luke 14:)
A human without God is less than nothing, because the status of being without God is not neutral, it is a wicked and evil, an ungodly condition.
The Paradise is not lost, just the path to its Gate is hidden. The Path had been revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and we have to simply obey the divine road signs aka the holy commandments in order to return to the Paradise, which is the Kingdom of God.
It is obvious and clear that our relationship with God must be based on humility, as God is so much higher than humans, that it is unimaginable for a man to exalt himself over God.
Still the temptation of becoming gods lured the first people to death, and it is still deadly today, when man claims ultimate power over life and death, bringing wars, oppression, slavery and contaminated blankets on each other. What humility means is that we have to fully submit ourselves to God obeying his commandments, aiming the common good and the well-being of all humans and all creatures.
We must acknowledge in our laws, that we are fully equal to each other, equally responsible for each other and for the future generations. The sin against the Holy Spirit obviously has these two major sources, first, when someone thinks that he is God's equal, so he can do what he wants regardless what are God's commandments, and secondly, when someone forces his will upon others, claiming ruling rights or superiority over the subjects or the assumed inferiors.
If at least one is humble out of two, or at least ten people are humble out of the many, then forgiveness, reconciliation, wisdom, truth, justice and hope will be present on Earth.
Innumerable tragedies and the general misery of mankind are the result of the lack of humility. Some people think that praying is futile. It is quite the opposite. Our God hears our prayers, moreover our tears and cries, and he answers with justice and mercy.
In our gatherings we keep praying for the well-being of the community, confessing and witnessing, asking for and giving forgiveness and saying thanks to the Almighty One all the time. May the grace of the Lord be with us all, as we praise his name by the Holy Spirit, according to the all-reaching call and the irresistible will of God. AMEN
