ONE MIND, ONE HEART AND ONE BODY

Jeremiah 5:21 is credited as being the origin of the age-old adage “There is none so blind as he who will not see”.  After the Holy Spirit was bestowed on believers in Acts 2, the Jews had a problem understanding that God loves us all, whether Jew or Gentile and that all were meant to be a part of His kingdom.  

1 Corinthians 12:13 (NIV) “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—we were all given one Spirit to drink.”

In Acts 2, in the most significant moment in human history, God’s Spirit comes to indwell all believers and at that moment, everything changed!  God came to permanently live in believers.  Acts 2 tells us that seven weeks after the resurrection, the sound of a mighty rushing wind burst into the Upper Room where the believers gathered.  Flames of fire seemed to be coming out of the top of their heads.  When they went into the streets, they found themselves able to communicate in the languages of the people who were in Jerusalem from all over the world known at that time to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Pentecost.  

We don’t have to have an experience just like those in the Upper Room in order to be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.  The fact that our experience is different should not diminish our expectation that the Holy Spirit will work in our lives.  People tend to try to limit the Holy Spirit through the paradigm that God has to work in a certain way.  However, God can accomplish His purposes in whatever way He desires.  We may not speak in different tongues or have flames coming from our heads but that’s not necessary in order for God to work His purpose through us.

The important thing is that the Spirit works in the life of every believer, regardless of race, nationality or ethnicity.  Understanding this alignment of interests, engaged by the Holy Spirit, is the primary catalyst of the joy, peace and love in a multiethnic body of Christ like Mosaic.