Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Acts 19:2
That is not what the pollster asks or the newspaper prints. The public is quizzed about church attendance, prayer and giving habits. “Do you believe in God?” Predictably, this “yes” response is the most robust of all and lots of people sleep the better for it. Pity the Christian pollster who tosses at night, haunted by the mocking “so what” of James 2:19, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” What if he posed a slightly altered question the next time around? “Do you believe in the same God the demons believe in?”
Happily, no one shuddered when Paul asked his provocative question. Upon his arrival in Ephesus, he went looking for some disciples and found something amiss in their conversation. They knew about and had received John’s baptism but had never even heard of the Holy Spirit. John’s baptism was one of repentance, rather than one based on Christ’s full atonement. It was provisional, stressing man’s sinfulness in order to point them to the Gospel. The Apostle baptized the disciples in the name of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit came on them. These twelve “spoke with tongues and prophesied,” just as the disciples did at Pentecost and the Gentiles did in Caesarea (Acts 2:4,11; 10:46).
As our Sin Substitute, Jesus began His public ministry by asking John to baptize Him in the river Jordan. John protested, but was told of the need “to fulfill all righteousness.” As Jesus came up out of the water, heaven opened up and the “Spirit of God” descended on Him in the form of a dove. His Father spoke, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Then He was led into the wilderness by the Spirit “to be tempted by the devil.” Satan began his conversation with the sly ice breaker, “If you are the Son of God….” Our “horn of salvation” was about to lock horns with the devil.
Provocative as it may sound, the Satan of Christ’s wilderness encounter resembled a gentleman more than a horned goat-deity of pagan mythology. He was sympathetic to His physical needs and quoted Scripture calmly. He knew whose son Jesus was and if his crafty “if ” betrayed his inward malice, outwardly the reasonable persona prevailed. How did the Horn of our Salvation send Satan packing? By filling his ear with biting truth from the wealth of the cornucopia – “the horn of plenty” – of God’s Word! “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says…” (Revelation 2:7).
Comment: After John the Baptist’s birth, his father regained his speech, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David” (Luke 1:68-69). After David had been delivered from all his enemies, he wrote Psalm 18 and linked the “horn of salvation” with strength, fortress, rock, refuge, shield and stronghold. I suggest our Christian pollster arm himself with the many corroborating Bible texts and then go ask people, “Would you be surprised to hear that the Holy Spirit imparts horns to our faith that makes demons really tremble?” (The above devotion is from SONGS IN THE NIGHT for September 19.)
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