This year on Pentecost Sunday, May 20, Christians are looking back to celebrate the outpouring of the Spirit and eagerly anticipating a new outpouring for a new Pentecost.
Many trace the modern outpouring of the Holy Spirit to a prayer initiative begun in the Catholic Church 120 years ago by Pope Leo XIII. He established a nine day period prior to Pentecost, called a Novena, for the Church to pray for a new Pentecost just as the first century Church gathered for nine days prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. His prayer still resonates today:
“Renew, your wonders in this our day, as by a new Pentecost. Grant to Your Church that, being of one mind and steadfast in prayer, it may advance the reign of our Divine Savior, the reign of truth and justice, the reign of love and peace. Amen.”
The Pope’s prayer was answered within a few years in the Protestant Church, as the Spirit fell in Topeka Kansas in 1900 and at Azuza Street in 1906. Hundreds, then thousands, then millions experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit which John the Baptist spoke of after he saw the Spirit descend on Jesus at His baptism (John 1;32,33). While many thought that speaking in tongues was the defining feature of the movement, William Seymour of Azuza Street saw a much larger picture:
“Baptism in the Holy Ghost and fire means to be flooded with the Love of God and Power for service”
We Charismatics tend to focus on the upper room experience of Pentecost, where they spoke in tongues as evidence of the infilling with the power of the Holy Spirit. But when they went out into the streets the other miracle of Pentecost was the ability to be heard and understood by the people. It took both the power of the Holy Spirit and the ability to be heard and understood to give birth to the Church at Pentecost. Now, after centuries of division, the Church needs a new Pentecost of hearing and understanding to come together to reach the world as Jesus prayed in John 17:23.
“We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues” –Acts 2:11
There are diverse tongues within the Church: Charismatic tongues, Catholic Tongues, Eastern Orthodox tongues, Evangelical tongues, Messianic tongues, Protestant tongues, and many others. We must learn to hear and understand each other so we can come into the unity of Jesus prayed for. Then, by showing love for each other, will the world be able to hear and understand the message that God so loved the world that He sent His son.
Join us as we pray for a new Pentecost of Hearing and Understanding to bring unity to the Body of Christ and revival to the nation.