God's Stimulus Plan

By John Stallings


Maybe this is the most remarkable story in the entire Bible.

A rag-tag group of men & women emerge from a fog of shock, grief & fear to become the greatest agents of change & transformation the world has ever known.

These are the disciples of the preacher who was executed; Jesus of Nazareth.

Their story started in good times when they were called out of ordinary lives by an extraordinary presence-Jesus.

Jesus, this healer, this traveling teacher who spoke the word of God.

He found truth in the farmer sowing seed & in the woman baking bread. He offered hope, love & acceptance to the poor, sight to the blind & love to the leper.

He was welcomed by the crowds as He went from village to village. He was welcomed when He went to Jerusalem for the feast.

But quickly it all turned bad, ugly dark & evil. He was arrested & put on trial. This small band of people was scared. They did little to support Jesus, actually Peter denied knowing Him.

Then came the tragic day when they saw him beaten until the skin hanged in ribbons down his back & He was forced to drag a cross to the place of execution. There He died between two thieves.

Now we fast-forward about seven weeks & find this motley crew sitting in an upper room waiting. They are still lost in fear, bewilderment & longing. If ever a group of people needed their faith stimulated it was this one.

Suddenly a sound came from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind & tongues of fire sat upon each of them. They began to speak in languages they’d never learned.

Over the last forty years, I’ve heard & read hundreds of sermons preached by men who I hold in great esteem, saying that these upper room Christians were speaking in other languages in order to preach the gospel in the diverse languages of the foreigners that were visiting in Jerusalem on this feast day.

If what we wish to do is somehow brush away the “tongues aspect” of all this, that would be the best way to do it. We would explain this in such a way as to allow the miracle to be one of hearing, to get the gospel disseminated in the languages of all the foreigners who were in Jerusalem for this festive occasion. However if we look closely we’ll see that no one was converted by the “tongues speaking” mostly because these individuals weren’t preaching they were praising…..we do hear them speak the wonderful works of God.- Acts 2:11.

It wasn’t until Peter stood up & preached in Aramaic, a language they all understood, that the 3,000 were saved & brought into the church.
Also, if we’re true to the information at hand, we’d recognize several other places, such as Acts 10:44-48, & 19:1-6 where tongues were present when the Holy Spirit fell & yet there were no foreigners to preach to. At the house of Cornelius, there was no one but Italians present.

Then of course we have Paul’s infilling of the Spirit, his praying in other languages & the in -depth teachings he gave us on the subject.

Others might point to the fact that Paul had to straighten out the Corinthians in their over exuberance where tongues & the Gifts of the Spirit were concerned. There can be no doubt that there was abuse by the Corinthian Christians where the Gifts of the Spirit were concerned. Because some confusion existed here, some deduce from this that these things are better left alone & excluded from our spiritual lives. Obviously many whole denominations have done this.

However, if we use that principle, in order to be consistent, we’d need to take that same position where Holy Communion is concerned. After all, Paul went so far as to tell the church at Corinth that they were so abusing the communion table [some were showing up drunk] that many of them were getting sick & some were dying because they weren’t properly discerning the sanctity of communion.-1 Cor.11:20-30

Thankfully I haven’t heard of anyone discontinuing the Holy Communion because there was too much controversy surrounding it.

As far as these upper room Christians, the result was clear after the Pentecostal experience. The grief was gone. The fear, puzzlement & doubt have now become understanding & faith. Looking back, the resurrection of Jesus hadn’t changed them much for they still cowered in fear, but this experience infused them with a new boldness & vision that overwhelmed them & filled them all with ecstatic joy.

Then Peter rises to speak to a crowd of thousands gathered in Jerusalem. This is the same man who’d thrown a cussing fit & denied he even knew the Lord three times. He said-“I don’t know this man you’re talking about.” Mark 14:71.

There’s a story about a man who was accused of some wrongdoing & was brought before a judge. When the judge asked if he had an attorney to represent him, the man answered, “No I don’t, I can’t afford one.” The judge replied, “Well, don’t worry about that, I’ll appoint a lawyer to represent you, & I’ll choose a real good one.” “I appreciate that, judge,” answered the man. “But if you really want to appoint somebody to help me, what I need most isn’t a good lawyer, but several good witnesses!”

Good witnesses is what God was in search of to catapult His message of hope to the ends of the earth & when this group was filled with the Spirit, that’s just what they became. This is precisely what Peter was doing when he stood up to speak at Pentecost. He was boldly bearing witness to the truth of God.

Now we see this former Christ-denier preaching openly & boldly about the crucified & resurrected Savior. He says, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.”

What a difference the power of the Holy Spirit made in the life of Peter. Peter was an impulsive character who said & did whatever came to mind without first considering the consequences.

It was Peter who cut off the ear of a servant, who temperamentally insisted that Jesus wash not only his feet but his hands & head as well. It was Peter who rebuked Jesus when he predicted His death. It was Peter who first went to the Gentiles with the Gospel. [Acts10] It was Peter who stopped running away & went to prison for his faith in Christ.

What happened to this man? What turned him from a weakling to a witness? The answer is simple & right there in scripture for us to see. Between his denial of Christ & this sermon- slightly less than two months later, he’d been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Peter had been among the 120 who waited in the upper room for ten days & witnessed the great audio-visual phenomenon on the day of Pentecost.

Peter, along with the other disciples had just finished three & a half years of intensive daily training by Jesus Himself. They’d been with Him 24/7. They were given “on the job training” & were debriefed afterwards. Jesus had taught them the Word of God & modeled godly behavior & effective ministry. Surely no men on earth ever had better training. By today’s standards, they had the accumulated knowledge of a person with a double PHD.

Yet to these men Jesus said, “Don’t go out yet to minister. Stay in Jerusalem. You’re not fully ready for New Testament ministry. There is still something you lack;
….you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you: and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and to the ends of the earth.—Acts 1:8


To paraphrase here, Jesus was promising to send heavenly stimulus-heavenly empowerment-power poured out from on high. It’s amazing to think that even though these disciples saw the great miracles Christ performed, even though they saw the dead raised & the lame walk, & the blinded eyes opened, & even though He showed Himself alive to them with many infallible proofs, it still wasn’t going to be enough to keep them from returning to their regular jobs they occupied before they met Jesus.

Nothing these people had seen or experienced up to then was going to kindle the kind of fire under them needed to get the gospel out of that little obscure area of the world. And Jesus knew that fact, which is why He insisted that they tarry in Jerusalem until they were filled with power from on high.

Then came Pentecost. Once this group had acutely felt the absence of Jesus, but now they again knew His presence. Not His physical presence but in the Spirit. And not only did they know His presence, they experienced a unity of heart & mind & purpose that would transform them into flaming world changers.

Once Jesus was with them teaching them the great truths of the Christian life, now He is creating that life within them by the action of the Spirit.

What we have here are amazing historical facts. In spite of that, the story of these people changing the way they did, if we were reading the account anywhere but in the Bible, it would strain credibility.

Think about this; the change that was accomplished in this group in that upper room in Jerusalem was so profound that it radiated out of them until it transformed the society, culture, & spirituality of the whole world.

Some in this group were slack-jawed cowards, liars & deserters, who used to fight over who’d be the greatest in the kingdom. Now they were selfless & would gladly lay their lives down for Christ. They wouldn’t be satisfied to be keepers of the aquarium, but rather wanted to be fishers of men.

The most exciting aspect of all this is that this same experience, this same power from on high, this same transformational energy is still with us every bit as much as it was this small group 2,000 years ago. It is a gift & is ours for the asking. We can’t earn it or seize it, we have to make room for the person of the Holy Spirit & receive Him with open hearts.

As a matter of fact Peter stressed this fact in his sermon;

For the promise is unto you, and to your children, & to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Acts 2:39

Let’s go back & look at Peter’s words about the prophet Joel. Joel 2:28-31 contains direct promises from God.

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons & your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.

And also upon the servants & upon the handmaidens in those days will I pout out my spirit.
This is the way God stimulates His people; He pours out His spirit on them & they’re never the same.

The definition of stimulus is;--Something that incites to action & quickens. Motive, provocation causing a response.”

Pouring something out is more than a slight trickle. It means God is going to open the floodgates of heaven unto the human heart. I could preach for hours but I couldn’t pour out God’s Spirit on you. This isn’t the result of church membership or the organized aspects of church life. This is God doing what only God can do.

THE HOLY SPIRIT DOESN’T DISCRIMINATE

He doesn’t discriminate on the basis of sex: your sons & daughters will prophesy.

He doesn’t discriminate on the basis of age: your old men will dream dreams; your young men will see visions.

He doesn’t discriminate on the basis of social class; even on my servants…I will pour out my Spirit.

God isn’t a “high-roller.” He doesn’t pick His friends from the better part of town. He’ll hang out with anyone who’ll hang out with Him. Our God doesn’t play favorites. He’ll pour out His spirit on the poorest of the poor.

God never pours our His power for the sake of entertaining us or to cause certain manifestations. Those things may happen but they are beside the point. There’s no pork in God’s projects. God poured out His spirit so that we would be bold witnesses for Him, starting where we are & going to the ends of the earth.

LET ME TRY TO EXPLAIN WHAT THIS EXPERIENCE OF HOLY SPIRIT FULLNESS WILL DO FOR YOU.

Imagine a child walking along holding his fathers hand. The child is happy & secure in the knowledge that his father loves him. While he believes his father loves him, there’s no unusual urge to talk about it or sing about it. It’s a fact & it’s a pleasant fact.

Then all at once the father startles the child by reaching down & sweeping him up into his arms & hugging him tightly & kissing him on the neck & whispering, “I love you so much!” And then holding the stunned child back so he can look into his face & say with all his heart, “I’m so glad you’re mine.” Then the father hugs the child once more with great warmth & affection, then he puts the child down & they continue their walk.

This is what happens when a person is baptized with the Holy Spirit. A pleasant & happy walk with God is swept up into an unspeakable new level of joy & love & assurance & reality that leaves the Christian so utterly certain of the immediate reality of Jesus that he is overflowing in praise & more free & bold in witness than he ever imagined he could be.

The child is simply stunned. He doesn’t know whether to cry or shout or fall down or run, he is so happy. The fuses of love get such an overload they almost blow out. The subconscious doubts that pop up from time to time are gone. And in their place is utter assurance so that you know that God is real & that Jesus lives & that you are loved & that to be saved is the greatest thing in the world. And as you walk on down the street you can hardly contain yourself & you want to cry out, “My father loves me! My father loves me! O, what a father I Have! What a father! What a father!”

I think this partially explains what happened in that upper room in Jerusalem. They were so filled with the fullness of God & the depth of the love of Christ that they were no longer advocates who could speak like a lawyer about the resurrected Christ. They were now so under the influence of this power, this experience in the Spirit of the risen Christ that they spoke with unwavering assurance that all doubt is gone. This would be the power that would take Christ’s gospel to the end of the earth.

So I ask you this; is the promise of this power for us, in our day, or was it revoked after the Apostles died? I could answer that in a personal way because it’s been, & is my personal experience. But in a broader sense, if this power was given to enable individuals to take the gospel to the end of the earth, surely God hasn’t withdrawn the power because the work isn’t done yet.

In other words, if the promise was given to fulfill the Great Commission, the promise is still valid until the Great Commission is complete & the gospel has been planted among all the unreached people of the world.

If you’re living a faithful, honest, obedient, loving, persevering Christian life today & have never experienced the Holy Spirit baptism, please don’t minimize that in any way or think that I’m minimizing it.

But I ask you, do you ever feel the need of more power in your life or do you feel that power is unnecessary? Do you ever feel the need of a “heavenly stimulus” that will make your service to God more pungent & effective? What do you think it would be like for you if our Father swept you up in His arms, as the Father did his young son?

These heavenly stimulus visitations of the spirit like the day of Pentecost, these extraordinary, miraculous outpourings of God’s Spirit have taken the work of the kingdom forward in Quantum leaps, accomplishing overnight what people had been waiting for years to see.

I pray the Lord will give as all a double-portion of His power from on high. In these days when man’s stimulus plans are in full swing, God grant that we all might yearn more & more to be swept up into our Father’s arms & baptized with such love that the world might know assuredly that the power of God is a reality.

Blessings,

John