What goes through your mind when you read Peter quoting Joel in Acts 2:17-21?
"'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'"
Two questions should come to mind: 1) Are these the last days? And 2) Has God poured His Spirit on all people? More specifically, has He poured out His Spirit on this generation?
Now, if you believe that God has poured out His Spirit on all peoples and believe that this generation is included in this outpouring, than you should then also believe that we are living in the last days where all peoples will have the potential to be a prophetic voice to the world for the Kingdom of God. If you spend anytime on the Internet than you know that there are so many people out there who have something to say. Whenever I go to “You Tube” I get bombarded by video after video of people speaking up and speaking out about anything and everything. Blogging is also gaining a lot of popularity. People in this generation have a lot to say (myself included).
Now, to be honest a lot of what’s out there is just people seeking to be funny or inventive or shocking, but there are those who are genuinely sharing the passions and convictions that they hold in their hearts. If I take a step back and take a broad view of what’s going on, what all this says to me is that there are so many people out there who have the potential to be a prophetic voice for this generation. They just need to be brought into the Kingdom of God by people who have faithfully taken up the mandate made famous by Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators: “To know Christ and to make Him known.” These words really summarize the two greatest priorities of the Christian life: 1) to know Christ intimately and 2) to make Him know to a world that does not yet know Him. To ground these in Scripture, we can root these in the Great Commandment (Matt 22:37-39) and the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20).
If you believe that you are a prophetic voice to the world than your focus needs to begin to change from being on yourself to towards the world around you. So this means, spending time discerning the times that we live in. Have you ever really sat down and taken a closer look at the times that we live in? Maybe it's time that you did.
Two questions should come to mind: 1) Are these the last days? And 2) Has God poured His Spirit on all people? More specifically, has He poured out His Spirit on this generation?
Now, if you believe that God has poured out His Spirit on all peoples and believe that this generation is included in this outpouring, than you should then also believe that we are living in the last days where all peoples will have the potential to be a prophetic voice to the world for the Kingdom of God. If you spend anytime on the Internet than you know that there are so many people out there who have something to say. Whenever I go to “You Tube” I get bombarded by video after video of people speaking up and speaking out about anything and everything. Blogging is also gaining a lot of popularity. People in this generation have a lot to say (myself included).
Now, to be honest a lot of what’s out there is just people seeking to be funny or inventive or shocking, but there are those who are genuinely sharing the passions and convictions that they hold in their hearts. If I take a step back and take a broad view of what’s going on, what all this says to me is that there are so many people out there who have the potential to be a prophetic voice for this generation. They just need to be brought into the Kingdom of God by people who have faithfully taken up the mandate made famous by Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators: “To know Christ and to make Him known.” These words really summarize the two greatest priorities of the Christian life: 1) to know Christ intimately and 2) to make Him know to a world that does not yet know Him. To ground these in Scripture, we can root these in the Great Commandment (Matt 22:37-39) and the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20).
If you believe that you are a prophetic voice to the world than your focus needs to begin to change from being on yourself to towards the world around you. So this means, spending time discerning the times that we live in. Have you ever really sat down and taken a closer look at the times that we live in? Maybe it's time that you did.
