“Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.” Acts 2:3
Although I’ve attended many baptisms of the Holy Spirit, I’ve never seen tongues of fire. I’ve witnessed a lot of crying, babbling in all sorts of tongues, and fainting. One time, a long time ago, an American evangelical visited our prayer meeting, and he just went around with his arm outstretched, his palm towards someone’s forehead, and even without touching, people would fall left, right, and center, without care for where they would fall. My sister and I followed him around, fixing women’s skirts as they fell on the cement floor. The Holy Spirit is powerful indeed, but it is what happens after the baptism that is more important.
The Holy Spirit gives us many gifts. We need to discover them and use them to be an effective and victorious Christian. Although God can give us wisdom and guidance, sometimes we willfully make the wrong choices and decisions. A paper thin cut on our skin when exposed to bad blood is life threatening. The same is true with our soul. When we allow bad images on the internet or TV to invade our imagination, or we go around with people we think are cool but influence us in ways we know to be against God’s ways, we inflict damage on our eternal soul.
Let us keep the flame burning bright. Let us not let our lamps go out. Let us be careful of what we see, what we hear, who we go with, where we go, and what we do. Life is too short to squander on what is foolish and of no value.
Beautiful.
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