Pentecost Sunday
Welcome to the Holy Spirit Untethered. My name is Amber Beals, and it is my job and my mission to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through me, to help demystify who he is, what his role is, and to deeply encourage you to seek a relationship with him. Alright. Let's get started. Hey, guys.
Amber Beels:Welcome back to the Holy Spirit Untethered podcast. My name is Amber. And today, I wanted to talk about an event that happened on Sunday. So Sunday, I don't know if a lot of you knew this, but Sunday was actually Pentecost Sunday. I didn't know that until I went on to Instagram and I saw John Bavir, my favorite.
Amber Beels:He made a post about it saying like, hey. It's Pentecost Sunday. And he was celebrating it. And I was like, I didn't even know that was a holiday, which my bad. But, you know, we're all still learning.
Amber Beels:Right? And so I wanted to talk about it today because, you know, this is the Holy Spirit Untethered podcast, and the Pentecost, it was a huge event for the Holy Spirit. And a lot of you know that I'm on a journey to get my license, my ministry license, my Foursquare license to become a pastor. And I've learned a lot since I've been studying, doing a lot of doctrinal study, and it's been really good. And there's certain things, like, I knew about Pentecost, obviously, and and the event and what took place and everything, but, there's certain things that I learned that I would love to share with you guys.
Amber Beels:So before I do so, let's go ahead and pray. So if you can and it's safe to do so, go ahead and pray with me. Alright. Dear heavenly father, I just thank you for this day. I thank you so much for this opportunity to have this podcast, Lord.
Amber Beels:I just pray, Holy Spirit, that you would speak through me, and I just pray a blessing over every single person that's listening to this podcast, Lord. I pray you would prepare our hearts today for this message and just allow your spirit to speak to us. Lord, I just pray that this would just unlock something for us to understand who you are, Holy Spirit, and how you work and just really enlighten us and allow us to partner better with you so that we can live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord. And we thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amber Beels:Alright. So Pentecost, the day of Pentecost. So I have already done an episode on the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which this is what Pentecost day is, basically. It's what happened to the disciples and the people who were in the upper room. But I want to take a step back and talk about the holiday in general because this originally was a Jewish holiday.
Amber Beels:It was called the festival of weeks or the feast of weeks, which it actually has a Jewish name. It's called Shavuot, and it's, again, the feast of weeks. And, basically, the Jewish people, they would celebrate this is in remembrance of receiving received the Torah, which if you don't know, the Torah is the five books of the the Old Testament from the Lord from Mount Sinai. And so it's celebrated. This remembrance of that, the receiving of the Torah, is celebrated fifty days after Passover.
Amber Beels:And so that is the original holiday, the Jewish holiday that they, I believe, still celebrate. So we know that the Passover was the last supper that Jesus had with his disciples. He had Passover with them. And then after that, he was arrested, and later he was crucified. So we as Christians, we celebrate Easter.
Amber Beels:Right? We celebrate Easter, and that is when Christ was risen from the dead. We have Good Friday where Christ was crucified, and then on the day, he was risen. And that is what we celebrate Easter is when he was risen. And so after that, when Jesus was risen in the New Testament, he comes back and he talks to his disciples.
Amber Beels:He's here for a little bit. I don't remember how long he was around after he was risen, but I know he visited some of the disciples before he ascended into heaven. But one of the things that he said to the disciples and some of his followers can be found in Acts. So if you ever want to learn more about the holy spirit, acts as full of full of information on the day of Pentecost, the empowerment of the holy spirit, how the disciples walked now that they were filled with the holy spirit. And it's just it's chock full of stuff about or information about the Holy Spirit.
Amber Beels:So I highly recommend Acts if you are more interested in learning about the Holy Spirit. So in Acts chapter one in verse let's see. Number four. I'm gonna read it. So it says, and being assembled together with them, this is Jesus, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you have heard from me.
Amber Beels:For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the holy spirit not many days from now. So he's talking about a promise. And the the last time that I read this, I kinda glossed over that, which is surprising to me now that I've been doing a lot of studying for my license. Like, I'm focusing on this, and it was a promise from the Lord, from the Old Testament, and I did not realize that. So the Holy Spirit being poured out on his people is a promise that he made in the Old Testament.
Amber Beels:And you can find it in Joel chapter two verse 28. And it says, you know, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions And also on my men servants and my maidservants, I will pour out my spirit in those days.
Amber Beels:So that is the promise that the original promise that from the Lord saying that he was gonna pour his spirit out. And Jesus, when he's talking in Acts one, he's also referencing the promise that he personally made in Luke. So if you flip over to Luke, this is chapter 24 verse 49. It says, behold, and this is Jesus talking. Behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.
Amber Beels:So what he's talking about there is receiving the Holy Spirit, which you he talks about again in Acts one. So he's talking about the the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So and this baptism of the Holy Spirit, it has a lot of different terms. So it's called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls it there.
Amber Beels:And then later on in still in chapter one of acts verse eight, it says, but you shall receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. So there, he's talking about empowerment. You shall receive power. So you may have heard it called the baptism of the holy spirit, the empowerment of the holy spirit. Later on in acts in chapter four verse 31, it says, and when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
Amber Beels:So in that term, filled with the Holy Spirit, he's going to pour his spirit out. So there's lots of different terms that are used to describe what happened on the day of Pentecost. So Jesus, he assembled all these people together, and he said, do not leave Jerusalem because you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And then after that, after he tells them not to leave, then he ascends into heaven. And so then the people, his disciples, and some of the followers were left behind.
Amber Beels:And so they were told to wait. And I don't know how many people were told to wait. I've seen scriptures say that there was, like, about 500 people and then only a 120 stayed. I know that the final count was a 120 people that were in the upper room that received the holy spirit on the day of Pentecost, But I don't know how many people were, like, actually told to wait and then didn't wait. But I do know that some people didn't wait.
Amber Beels:There were some people that were like, okay. Well, great. And then they just went back to their daily lives, which if you think about, that's kind of like a hard thing for me to wrap my head around because you just saw Jesus being crucified. You saw him raised from the dead. How did that not change your life?
Amber Beels:Like, how did that not change everything for you where if he told you to wait, you decided not to wait and just went back to your to your life? Like, after witnessing all of that, wouldn't you drop everything and do what he said? Like, you just saw a man come back from the grave, perform all these miracles. He's in his glorified body, and he's telling you to wait to receive power, and then you leave. Like, I get it.
Amber Beels:Like, it took a while for the Holy Spirit to actually come. Like, they did wait a while. So who knows? Like, on day 10, they're like, alright. I'm out.
Amber Beels:Like, it's not happening. But for the people that stayed, those are the people that really had an impact. Right? They had they were impacted and changed by Jesus, by what they witnessed. And a lot of the disciples, they all died tragic deaths because they fully believed in what they saw because they were there.
Amber Beels:And so they had no reason to lie because, honestly, all their ends, all their lives ended pretty tragically. I mean, they were martyrs for the faith, and they got no nothing from it. Right? I mean, they they died broke. And so it was like, it had to be true.
Amber Beels:It had to be true. Why else would they lie? Why why else would they continue doing this ministry unless they really truly had a heart change? Right? And it all started with Jesus and then this promise from the father of him pouring his spirit out.
Amber Beels:And so if you continue in Acts, in chapter two is when the actual baptism of the Holy Spirit happens. And it says I'm gonna read this. Chapter two verse one. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly, there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Amber Beels:Then there appeared to them divided tongues of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. And so those were the 120 people that stayed and they witnessed it. They had the mighty wind come. They saw the flames above each other's head and that's when the holy spirit fell on them and then they received the power of the holy spirit.
Amber Beels:And people reacted to this this event. Like, it was a big event. They were speaking in other tongues. They were speaking in in languages that were not their native language. Like, they went out and started speaking in other nations' tongues, and a lot people were there.
Amber Beels:A lot of Jews were there to witness this in Jerusalem because they were celebrating the the weeks of the feast of weeks, the Shavuot. And so they were there to witness this and they're like, wait. Why are they speaking in my native tongue? Like, what? I don't understand.
Amber Beels:And so this was a big sign for them, and I've talked about this in other in other episodes about the difference between tongues. There's four different kinds of tongues. There's two for public for, like, a sign, and then there's two for private. So this one was for a sign. This one was for the people who were in town that were not from Jerusalem but hearing their native tongue come from somebody who is not from their nation.
Amber Beels:It is not from their where they're from, but yet they're speaking it perfectly. And what they're speaking is they're prophesying in that language. And people were just, like, kinda being like, what is going on? They're they're super confused and they all were saying to one another that, okay, they must be drunk. Like, are why are they speaking in this tongue?
Amber Beels:And Peter, you know, he's like, no. This is they're not drunk. Like, this is super early in the morning. So, no, it's not that they're drunk, but he has a sermon that he says to them and says, this is the fulfillment of the promise in Joel, which is what I read that the whole that the Lord was gonna pour his spirit out on his people and that his sons and daughters would prophesy and see visions and speak. And he quotes Joel in his sermon and that amazed the people.
Amber Beels:And 3,000 people were added to it's it says they were added to the assembly that day. Meaning, they witnessed what happened on the day of Pentecost, and then they also received the Holy Spirit, and they devoted their lives to Christ because of what they saw, because of what they witnessed. And then they got to experience the baptism, the empowerment, the filling, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And it was an amazing event. I would have loved to see it.
Amber Beels:Like, could you imagine, like, all these people speaking in other tongues and then all the other people being like, why are they speaking my language? Like, they shouldn't know my language. They have a weird accent with it. Like and then them being turned over to Christ, like, bet that was amazing. I bet that was a crazy, crazy event to witness.
Amber Beels:And the church grew by 3,000 people that day. That is insane. Like, that is insane. And Jesus told the people before he ascended back into heaven, he told them to wait and not minister to people yet until they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is how important it was to him that they received that empowerment, that he did not want them to go make disciples yet.
Amber Beels:He did not want them to go and spread the good news until they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's how important it was because he knew that they would be able to do their purpose and their calling a lot better when they have the tools and they are partnered with the Holy Spirit to really fulfill the mission and calling that was placed on their life. And so I really wanna point that out to you that the the baptism of the Holy Spirit isn't a requirement for your salvation. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not you don't need it to be saved. You don't need it to get to heaven.
Amber Beels:You don't need to pray in the spirit. You don't need to pray in tongues or speak in tongues. Those are gifts, and you still have free will. Like, the Lord created us to have free will from the beginning. And so if we don't want those gifts, if we don't want that power or access to that power, then we don't have to have it.
Amber Beels:But it's so sad if you don't want it. Right? Like, I get it if you have some kind of spiritual trauma. I get it if you're just kinda like, well, I don't know about this. But if you're a true Christian and you believe 100% of the Bible is a 100% accurate a 100% of the time, then you should know that this gift is good, that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a good thing, and it is not it's not gonna hurt you.
Amber Beels:It's not scary. It shouldn't be scary. Now sometimes people abuse the gift where they speak in tongues out loud and it's not for the edification of the church. They use it in the wrong way. Sure.
Amber Beels:And that's what causes people to be wary of it. Right? If you don't know what it is and you just see people, like, acting crazy, then, yeah, it does feel weird and it seems weird and you're like, yeah, I'm good. I don't wanna partake in that. But if you truly understand what the Holy Spirit and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, what it means and what it does in the life of a believer, then you should truly desire it because the Lord has it for you.
Amber Beels:It's for you to help you fulfill the calling and the purpose and the mission put on your life so that you can do it more effectively. It's like pouring gasoline on a fire. Like, you can do your ministry and your calling, but don't you want the fuel behind it? Don't you want that power behind it? The power of your father, the gift that he has for you that is meant for you, that is good?
Amber Beels:He wants to be able to use you in different ways that he can't use you if you don't have this gift. And it's not, you know again, it's not a to have your name be in the in the book of life, but it is such a detriment to your calling if you don't have it because you're it's like you're going at 50% power, and it's you're trying to do it out of your own power. The Lord's still gonna give you strength, and the Lord is still gonna work with you, but how much more can you be used if you have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit? It's so much more. And I know there's some people that have questions about, well, okay, maybe that was just for them in those times.
Amber Beels:But if you look, Peter says at the end of his sermon in verse so we're in chapter two verse 38. Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off as many as the Lord our God will call. That's pretty clear to me that it's for us. It's for this day and age too.
Amber Beels:And there's a verse, I forget what verse it is, but it talks about how the gifts will go away when that which is perfect is we see that which is perfect face to face. And some people say that that which is perfect is referring to scripture, but I don't think it is. It's referring to Jesus. If we'll see him face to face when he comes back, and he's not here. He's not here yet.
Amber Beels:He's coming. Jesus is coming. Don't get me wrong, but he's not here yet. And so these gifts are for us for today, for our children. This is the promise for us to be able to to prophesy and see visions and have dreams and be used in a way that the Lord can use us to build his kingdom, to edify his church.
Amber Beels:And edify just means build up. It just means to build up the church in a way that helps them, and it gives them the wisdom that they need to be able to fulfill the calling that they have on their lives. Right? I mean, the whole purpose the whole purpose is for us to fulfill our calling, to build up his kingdom, to spread the gospel, to spread the good news, and get as many people onboard with Jesus because he is so good to us because he has an amazing gift for us and we need it. We fall short.
Amber Beels:We fall short every day, but he fills the gap for us. He was the perfect sacrifice. He was the perfect atonement, and he still is today. And all we have to do is accept his gift and allow the Holy Spirit to come inside us, which when you accept Jesus in your heart, you're accepting the Holy Spirit into your heart. He is the spirit of Jesus.
Amber Beels:And when you do that, he replaces your heart of stone with a heart of flesh and he puts his spirit within you and that's the Holy Spirit. He's within you. He's there to partner with you. He's there to do life with you. He's there to help you and transform you to be more like Jesus and to give you those gifts and to give you the wisdom to be able to pursue your calling and to bless others.
Amber Beels:The gifts of the spirit and the fruit of the spirit are not for us. And I know I talked about that in the when I mentioned the fruit of the spirit. It's like a tree. A tree's fruit is not for the tree. It's for others.
Amber Beels:Right? And so the same thing with the gifts of the spirit, those are not for us. It's not about the gifts. And I recently was convicted about, you know, desiring specific gifts that the Holy Spirit has. And the Lord was like, it's not about the gifts, Amber.
Amber Beels:It's about me being able to use you. And even me being adverse to some gifts, like, no. I don't want that gift. And the Lord's like, it's not about the gifts, Amber. It's about me being able to use you.
Amber Beels:Are you surrendered enough to allow me to use you in ways that I see fit? And that convicted me. It totally convicted me of, like, you're right. It's not about the gifts. It's not about me being empowered with the gift of healing or the gift of faith, extreme faith, like, whatever it is.
Amber Beels:It's about making sure that I am pursuing the Lord, I am seeking the Lord, and I'm allowing myself to be a vessel for him to use to build his kingdom, to bless others, to edify the church, and to do the things he's called me to do in this life. Because he gives everyone a calling and I wanna make sure that I fulfill my calling and that I don't miss it. Because what we do in this life affects how we live eternity. This life is so short in comparison to eternity. It feels like a long time because this is what we're experiencing right now.
Amber Beels:But in the grand scheme of things, this life is so short. What you do now affects eternity. What you do right now in 2025 affects eternity. So what are you gonna do? Are you gonna do things that satisfy your flesh in the moment?
Amber Beels:Are you gonna do things that are an investment for eternity? Because that is where you're gonna spend most of your life is an eternity. This again is such a blip in our lives. Yeah. You can live in you know, if you live to a 120, it's a long life.
Amber Beels:But in the grand scheme of things, eternity is longer because eternity doesn't end. Right? So it's still a short life. So whatever you do in this life, make sure that it is in alignment with what the Lord has for you. Make sure that you're pursuing him, that you're loving him because he loved us because he deserves it.
Amber Beels:He deserves all the glory. And whatever gift he gives you, that is for his glory, not for yours. It's not for you to be like, oh, look at me. I have this gift. No.
Amber Beels:It's for his glory. Look at the gift that the Holy Spirit gave me so that I could bless this person. I am so honored to be able to be used by the Lord. And that is the heart posture that we should have is seeking the Lord and allowing him to use us in whatever way we see fit. Even if it's something that we don't want, he can change our wants.
Amber Beels:He can change how we feel about a certain situation, how we feel about spiritual warfare, whatever it is that used to be my thing where I was super scared about spiritual warfare. I wanted nothing to do with it. And the Lord made it so that I wasn't afraid anymore. He showed me. It took a long time.
Amber Beels:I'm not gonna lie. It took a while, but I'm not scared of it anymore because I know God is bigger. I know that I have the authority to be bold and that nothing can harm me because I have the God of the universe on my side, and I have the Holy Spirit, and I've been empowered by the Holy Spirit. So not only do I have the authority, but I have the power behind me to be able to do what it is I need to do in the spiritual realm and in this realm. Doesn't matter.
Amber Beels:I am equipped and I am called and I am bold and I am fearless because of him. Not because of me, not because of who I am or what I've done because I don't deserve any of this, but because of who he is and what he has done for me. And I know that the Holy Spirit is there because I feel him. And so I wanna encourage you that if you haven't experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit or have had that empowerment, then you can just ask for it. It doesn't have to be a crazy ritual.
Amber Beels:It doesn't have to be where you see the tongues above your head. You can just ask for it and say, holy spirit, I wanna feel your power. Please give me the power of your spirit and then expect it. And if you don't feel like you got it, then there might be something that's preventing you, like unforgiveness or something in your life that he wants you to resolve before he's gonna give that to you. And all you have to do is ask.
Amber Beels:Ask him, Lord, if there's anything that is standing in the way between me and your gift, please reveal that to me so that I can rectify that and I can live in the fullness that you have for me in the empowerment of your spirit, and I'll give it to you. And it's an amazing, amazing experience. Everybody has different different experiences with how they got baptized in the Holy Spirit, whether somebody laid hands on them or they started praying in tongues right away or maybe it came a little later, it's you'll know. You'll know when you have it. And a lot of the times, it can be hard to yield to the spirit, to be able to pray in the spirit.
Amber Beels:And I've I've done a couple episodes on this, praying in the spirit. And you just have to learn how to yield. Yield to the river of the holy spirit. Allow him to use your vocal cords. And it's a weird thing because it's not really natural for us to be able to just give over our vocal cords to something else, but it becomes normal with practice.
Amber Beels:And, again, I have an episode on that, so go that out. I don't remember what episode number that is, but I'll put it in the show notes what episode number where I talk about praying in the spirit and speaking in tongues and and all of that so you can get familiar with that. But yeah. So I just wanted to talk about that today in in remembrance of Pentecost Sunday. That was this past Sunday.
Amber Beels:So as I'm recording this episode, it is the tenth June 10 right now. So that was June 8 is Pentecost Sunday. So put that in your calendar. I'm gonna put it in mind just to remind me, like, this is Pentecost Sunday so that I can, you know, remember that day and know that that's the day that the Holy Spirit came down and and empowered the people of the church, right, the early church, and that should be celebrated. So June 8, the Pentecost Sunday.
Amber Beels:So, yeah, I I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I really wanted to do that this week and talk about that. And, hey, I know that this episode goes out on Thursday, which is June 12. And June 12 is the day that I have my interview or my pastor class test slash interview. So if you are listening to this episode on June 12, the day it comes out before 4PM Pacific Standard Time, then say a prayer for me.
Amber Beels:Okay? Because at 4PM Pacific Standard Time on June 12, I'm taking my test. I'm having my interview. It's two and a half hours long, and, you know, I've been studying like crazy for it, learning all the doctrines. And it's been such an amazing experience to dive into the word in a study kind of way.
Amber Beels:Like, I do read the word every day, but this has been like a different kind of study. And it's been really, really cool to use that muscle again because, you know, it's been a minute since I've been in school. But to use that study muscle and memorizing scripture and being able to defend my faith and feeling more confident about it now because I've done all this studying. Studying. So it's been really an amazing experience.
Amber Beels:And so yeah. If, again, if you listen to this before or on June 12 before 4PM Pacific Standard Time, please say a little prayer for me. That would I would truly truly appreciate it. And, of course, I will let you guys know next week if I passed. So I should find out, right after the interview.
Amber Beels:So hopefully, I won't get a not yet because nobody gets a no. They just either get, yes, we're gonna recommend you or no, not yet. So I just pray that I don't get a not yet. So alright, guys. I hope you have a great week.
Amber Beels:I hope this message blesses you, and I will see you guys next week.
