CHAPTER 1

The Holy Spirit has a limited time to operate as He has been operating with mankind.  "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven ..." Ecclesiastes 3:1

            Jesus had a time ministry which became fulfilled in His earthly life after which He returned to the Father, even so the Holy Spirit came to fulfill a ministry for an appointed time.  He is now carrying out His earthy ministry and will in due time complete it and ascend to heaven again.

            We need to come to a place where we can comprehend this Present Age Ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Otherwise we will become complacent, taking for granted His presence.  When this is done we have no urgency to spend quality time with Him.  God, the Holy Spirit, desires to have quality time with all His creation.

                  The Time Of The Holy Spirit

            The Holy Spirit's work was inaugurated on the day of Pentecost.  It is now going on and it will continue until the Lord Jesus returns from heaven.  Then a new order will be ushered in and another dispensational ministry will succeed.

            Man's redemption is accomplished in "Three Stages:"

            1.         The First Age - God The Father;

            2.         The Second Age - God The Son;

            3.         The Third Age - God The Holy Spirit.

            At Pentecost the last of the these stages or Ages began.  The third age of the manifestation of God for the restoration of man will not cease until the restitution of all things.  The Son of man shall come again in the clouds of heaven, in like manner as His disciples saw Him go into heaven (Acts 1:11).

            The new period will be "The Age To Come" whose powers they have already tasted, who have been made "partakers" of the Holy Ghost.

                  The Advent of the Holy Spirit

            John said "...for the Holy Ghost was not yet..." (John 7:39).  John was speaking of "... the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive."

            Though the Holy Spirit was seen to descend on Jesus like a dove at His baptism; though He was the Divine Agent in creation; the illumination of the prophets, seers and patriarchs, John said "... He was not yet given ..."

            St. Augustine called the Day of Pentecost the "dies natalis" the birthday or bringing forth of the Holy Ghost. 

Even as Jesus existed before Bethlehem, even so, the Holy Spirit existed before pentecost.  In Genesis Chapter One we see "the Spirit of God (the holy Spirit) moved upon the face of the waters (Gen 1:2).  We see the Holy Spirit as the "Divine Energy" of God putting power to the Word of God to "Become" what God has said.

            From Pentecost until now the Holy Spirit has residence on the earth and the "Sons/Daughters of God" are His abode. "If any man love me he will keep my Words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him."  (John 14:23).

            This promise was fulfilled at Pentecost and Father and Son hold residence in man through the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of God is the successor of the Son of God in His official Ministry on Earth.  Until Jesus' earthly work for His church was finished, the Holy Spirit's work on earth could not commence.  Jesus stated in John 15:7, he had to go away otherwise the comforter ( Holy Spirit) could not come.  The two ministers could not exist simultaneously.

                  The Work Of The Holy Spirit

            The work of the Holy Spirit is to communicate Jesus Christ to us in His completeness.  Jesus' Redemptive work was not completed when He died, was buried, rose from the grave or even ascended.  Not until He sat down in His Father's Throne was He ready to communicate to His church.  "And when the Day of Pentecost was fully come."  Then the True Wave Sheaf (Christ) was presented in the Temple above.  Christ, the First Fruits, now stands before God the Father accepted on our behalf; SEVEN SABBATHS FROM THE RESURRECTION HAVE BEEN COUNTED AND PENTECOST (fifty) has come, "... in the fullness of time ..."

            Then "suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty rushing wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave the utterance." (Acts 2:2-4).

As the manger of Bethlehem cradled the Son of God, so did the Upper Room cradle the Spirit of God.  Boldly, the previously weak, important and powerless Apostles confronted the rulers after their Pentecost, saying "we are witnesses of these things, and so also is the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey Him" (Acts 5:32).

Evidence Of Jesus' New Life

            As the sound of the Golden Bells upon the High Priests' garments within the Holiest gave evidence that he was alive, so the sound of the Holy Ghost proceeding from heaven, and heard in the upper chamber and throughout Jerusalem, was an incontestable witness that our Great High Priest, Jesus, was still living for us in the presence of God the Father.

            This one event proves that Jesus has done what all the others who said they were the Christ had not done.  Jesus had been accepted by the Father and was able to keep his promise of sending the Comforter to work with all who call upon the name of Jesus for salvation.