[Darris McNeely] If there's one event in the plan of God that gives you and I the key to dealing with the challenges of our lives, making a successful life for ourselves and our families it's probably the day of Pentecost. The meaning of that day with the giving of God's Holy Spirit and power to the disciples of Jesus Christ. In the book of Luke chapter 24, the days that were leading up to that very powerful day of Pentecost, Christ was resurrected, He appeared to His disciples, and he began to instruct them out of His word. He began to show how the scriptures all pointed, many of them to His own life, to His life, His death, His resurrection, and the aspects surrounding that. 

In Luke chapter 24, a lot of this is brought out. He walked with some disciples who were on their way to the village of the Emmaus. They were talking about God and Christ came up alongside of them and they began to talk with God. In time, they found out that they were actually talking with the resurrected Jesus Christ. But they were talking about God and the things of God, and they were conversing with God, which is an important key for you and I to understand regarding that relationship towards success and toward power. That we must have that contact with God. Christ brought them into remembrance of many of those things. Christ also showed through that example of the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus that we have to invite Him into our life just as they had to invite Him into their home. And when they did, that they had their eyes open to to the Scriptures, and to the role that Christ was now going to play in their own lives. We have to invite Christ into our life. That is a key to opening the meaning of scriptures for us in our life. 

But Jesus said in verse 49, at that time as He was with the disciples, He told them to wait. He said, "I will send the promise of My Father upon you but tarry," which means to wait, "in the city of Jerusalem until you are imbued with power from on high." And, He was pointing ahead to actually the day of Pentecost, one of the festivals of God. When we turn over to the book of Acts chapter 1, we find that in the last days of Jesus among His disciples before His final ascension, in the time leading up again, to the day of Pentecost, He repeats this promise that He will give them power. In Acts 1:7, He tells them, "Look, don't worry about my return and trying to figure all that out, the Father knows when that is going to happen." But in verse 8, He said to his disciples, and He's talking to us, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."

Putting all the pieces of the story, talking to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, appearing to the disciples in the room after again all of His resurrection, instructing them, revealing himself and His word. There are two critical factors here for us to understand in terms of this power, and what we need. First of all, it is a correct understanding of the Word of God. In that understanding there's power, there is power of truth, there is power of conviction. Secondly, there is the Spirit of God, the very presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ, the spirit of both in us and that's what Pentecost points us to. Because in chapter 2 of Acts, when they were gathered on the day of Pentecost, God poured that out to them, flames of fire appeared, wind came rushing through. The gift of the Holy Spirit was now available to those who would repent and in faith accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. The very power of God, they promised would be there from the Father in doing us, living within us, not only making us able to witness for the Word of God, but also to have the power to succeed, the power to deal with life, the power to overcome and to have a relationship with God. That's the power of the Spirit of God. That's the meaning, part of the deep meaning of the festival of Pentecost. You should look into that, you should look at what your scriptures tell you about the key to having that relationship with God and leading to a successful life. It is having that power live within us, the very power of God through His Holy Spirit.

That's BT Daily, join us next time.