Receive the Holy Spirit
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Daily Reading: Ezekiel 10
And he said to the man clothed in linen, “Go in among the whirling wheels underneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” (Ezekiel 10.2)
Devotional Thought: The man clothed in linen had just returned from passing through Jerusalem and marking “the foreheads of those who sigh and groan” over sin. That mark had saved the lives of those who had received it. But now, the man clothed in linen is told to fill his hands “with burning coals from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city.
God had more in mind for those in the city. Saving from death was just the start.
Centuries later, after “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” John the Baptist told the people that there was something more coming: “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire… The chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Selected from Luke 3)
God had more in mind for those in the wilderness. Forgiveness of sins was just the start.
What good thing could be added to being saved from death in Ezekiel? What good thing could be added to escaping the wrath to come in Luke 3? Those were the rewards of those who groaned over sin, those who repented for the forgiveness of sin. But God had more in mind.
God has more in mind for us as well. God desires to give us the fire of heaven, to fill us with his Holy Spiri.
Jesus is saying to you what he said to the disciples in the upper room after he rose from the dead. “He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20.22).
Prayer: Fill me now. Fill me now. Jesus come and fill me now. Fill me with thy Holy Spirit. Come, oh come, and fill me now! Amen. (Elwood Stokes)
Psalm of the Day: Psalm 27.7-10
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek my face. ”My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek. ”
9 Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.