Pentecost is the culmination of everything that went before it. It is Pentecost that inaugurated the perpetual presence of Jesus in our world – through us and our fellow- disciples in the Christian faith. Whereas Christmas celebrates the God-become-human happening, Pentecost initiates the event whereby humanity becomes a vehicle and channel, the very temple of God.

It appears that it was the ascension of Jesus, His return to His Father, which made Pentecost possible. “It is to your advantage that I go away,” said Jesus to His disciples. “If I do not go away, the Counselor [the Holy Spirit] will not come to you...” The disciples understood nothing of this at the time. Now they learned through actual experience what Jesus was prophesying. While Jesus was with His disciples, the divine, supernatural power so necessary to the salvation of humankind was continued within the visible Jesus. After Jesus performed His mission and returned to the Father, the same divine, supernatural power responsible for Jesus’ resurrection and essential to the building of God’s kingdom upon earth was to return to inhabit and empower His disciples.

Pentecost has happened. The same divine Spirit that ministered in the creation of the world, producing cosmos out of chaos, that had ministered through the visible Jesus, has now returned to indwell and pour Himself out through the lives of all those who would in faith and obedience lend themselves to His infilling and outflowing.

We are the contemporary evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our world. May the Spirit work in and through us daily.