“I will pour out my spirit on all people.”
It is believed that God said that through Joel around 2857 years ago, there or there about.
Joel may have been what many call on of the “minor” prophet’s but this was not a minor prophecy. There is nothing minor about it.
I have heard it taught that what God meant by that was he would pour out his spirit on a representation of all flesh. Similar to the story of Noah’s ark, taking 2 of each species, and that way all creatures would survive through the procreation of male and female. However i don’t buy that.
Not for a second.
That’s not what God said.
He didn’t say he would pour out his spirit on all kinds of flesh, or every nationality of person, or people group.
He said he would pour out his spirit on ALL people.
This is a huge, weighty, and incredibly significant declaration of God. This is a major promise so massive that some christians often dilute it or reduce to fit into their expectations of what that might look like realistically.
In reality is seems to big to comprehend.
But it’s what he said, and i believe that is what God meant.
The reason this is so huge is it reveals the very heart of God.
What he is like.
What he dreams about and longs for.
What he desires.
To pour out himself on everyone.
To be known, experienced, revealed to all.
I remember about 18 years ago, when i was fairly new to the gift of prophecy, and hearing God’s voice for myself, on one occassion’s i was sitting with a friend in a coffee shop. I began telling him what i felt like God was doing in my life, and what he was talking to me about. It was another huge promise of Jesus that revealed his heart for us today.
Jesus told his disciples that they would go on to do even greater things than they had seen him do.
I remember sitting with my friend with my heart burning as i had had this promise racing through my heart, pondering and dreaming, and asking God what that could look like. If Jesus fed 5000 miraculously with a boys small lunch, and left enough left overs for his disciples to fill a basket each at the end, could i feed 5001? 10,000?
And if we know what pentecost looked like, and the miracles and signs and wonders that happened in the Acts of the Apostles, could there not be an advance on those too?
Could we walk with God in such a way that our shadows heal people too?
I was dreaming and my heart was burning with expectation, and wonder at what was possible.
After all. Nothing is impossible to those who believe right? All things are possible.
My friend didn’t buy it.
Any of it.
At the time he believed that what Jesus meant was this.
“Shane what’s more impressive” he said
“That God could walk in here right now and pick up this coffee table that we are sitting at? Or if a baby crawls over here and lifts this table?”
I thought hard.
I could see his point, and in many ways i still do.
Obviously a baby lifting a table is more impressive to me than God lifting it, but i don’t believe that is what Jesus was trying to communicate in that moment. He wasn’t telling them that He was all powerful and they are frail under-developed babies who could also do things that were relatively impressive for infants.
He said you will do ever greater things than me.
I don’t want to take the chance of reducing the promises of God to make sense of them.
When we try to shrink them down to a manageable to comprehend them, we also shrink down our understanding of God’s heart and his nature. His promises always reveal his heart. They tell us what he is like. That’s not something i ever want to reduce down to my size so i can make sense of it.
This past season i can’t stop thinking of Joel’s words.
I can’t stop thinking of God’s heart to be fully revealed to all.
I am so full of wonder, anticipation and hope because i want it to be true.
I long to see that day, where he pours his spirit out on all people.
I long to see that moment when people realise he is really real.
And he is really really really good.
And he is pure love.
And the desire of every heart.
I think that would change every heart.
Every mind.
Every life.
Every strained relationship, every dead relationship, and every relationship in between.
I think that would change families, communities, cities, and nations.
I think that would change marriages, friendships, and relationships.
I think that would change politics, wars, the endless debates and the pointless debates.
I think that would break every fear
I think that love would drive out every ungodly fear leaving us all in genuine awe.
I think that would change the world.
May we experience the day where God pours out himself on everyone.
May our sons and daughters prophesy,
our old men dream dreams,
our young men see visions.
May God show us His wonders in the heavens and on the earth………