‘But now from way up here. It’s crystal clear. That now I’m in a whole new world with you.‘
These are words from the soundtrack of the Disney film, Aladdin; and reflecting on what was happening to the followers of Jesus, post Easter, and what we are all experiencing at present feels that we have also entered ‘a whole new world’!
Since His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His followers in different places and on numerous occasions. However, their world was very different to the one they were familiar with before the events of that first Easter! And what’s more, after the coming of the promised Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, their worlds were about to change yet again!
READ: – Acts 2:1-41 – The Holy Spirit Comes
I think it’s safe to say that we are all experiencing a very different world to what we are used to. The global pandemic of Coronavirus has changed, and will, in the future, change our normal patterns of life. We hear phrases like ‘a new normal’, indicating that what we knew as ‘normal’ is likely to be very different in the future! Everyday experiences like shopping, travelling on public transport, and visiting friends and relatives has changed so much and we now need to try and come to terms with doing many things differently.
Just like the Church birthed on the Day of Pentecost, we are faced with new challenges and new opportunities both individually and as a community. The way we ‘did Church’ will change; again, presenting new challenges and new opportunities. We, like many other Churches, have become familiar with coming together ‘on line’.
As our thoughts turn to Pentecost and while our lives continue to change, one thing is an absolute certainty, the same Holy Spirit that was ‘outpoured’ on the Day of Pentecost is just as powerful now as He was then!
Maybe that same Holy Spirit wants to take us into new areas of ministry as it did for the 12 Apostles of Jesus. The Good News of the Gospel that was preached then is unchanged, yet 2000+ years on, through the work of the Holy Spirit, that same ‘Good News’ is still changing lives today across the world but using different methods. Let us be open to the moving of the Holy Spirit even though he moves in a different way to what we expect or think!
And may we, individually and collectively, as the Apostle Paul encourages, seek each day to be ‘continually being filled with God’s Spirit’. If we so, then our lives will enter into ‘a whole new world’!
Closing Prayer: (The words of 2 Hymns):
Lord, as I open up my life again to the Holy Spirit; I pray that you would:-
‘Breath on me, breath of God. Fill me with life anew.
That I may love what Thou dost love; and do what Thou wouldst do’……
And for our Church, Lord:
‘O Breath of Love, come breathe within us,
Renewing thought and will and heart;
Come, Love of Christ, afresh to win us,Revive Thy Church in every
part’……………..