A Final and Great Outpouring of the Power of the Holy Spirit

It is interesting that being filled with the Holy Spirit is often characterized by manifestations that make people think those who are filled with the Holy Spirit are drunk. That is also why Paul says, “Do not get drunk on wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.” There is a comparison between becoming intoxicated with alcohol and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

There are times, there are occasions when God can baptize us with the Spirit in such a way that our brain sort of short-circuits and we begin to speak incoherently or move incoherently, and it might seem that we are drunk because we are saturated with that new wine of the Holy Spirit.

“And Peter stands up”—Acts chapter 2, verse 14—with the other disciples, “and raised his voice and spoke to them, saying:” because some were mocking them because they seemed to be drunk. How interesting. What was there about the lives of those disciples filled with the Holy Spirit that made people think they were drunk? Were they moving in a strange way? Were they speaking loudly? Were some of them going from one side to the other, as a drunk person does?

The point is that Peter says to that crowd: Hey, these people you see here acting in this strange way are not drunk; rather, this is the fulfillment of what the Lord said through the prophet Joel. So the apostle Peter goes back to the prophetic Scriptures and quotes the Book of Joel, a very interesting passage. It is Joel chapter 2, I think—yes, chapter 2 of Joel—where Joel prophesies that in the last days the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon multitudes. That connection the apostle Peter makes is very interesting.

It says in verse 17:2: “And in the last days I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” Peter is connecting what is happening at that moment on the Day of Pentecost with Joel’s prophecy, and he is telling them: That is what God said.

How interesting that the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is already set forth in the Old Testament. It is the unity of the Word of God that we have seen as we studied the life of Saul and how the Holy Spirit moved in the Old Testament.

So Peter is saying that the same thing is happening now. It is the fulfillment of various prophecies that referred to the Messiah who was to come, His spiritual ministry, and this is the sign that Jesus truly is the Messiah whom God had prophesied would come to Jerusalem. Peter then proceeds with a series of apologetic statements in chapter 2 to prove that what is happening validates Jesus’ ministry as the Messiah, as God’s anointed one.

I cannot resist making an interesting comment. This passage from Joel is one of those prophetic passages that has two fulfillments. One is the fulfillment that the apostle Peter suggests takes place on the Day of Pentecost. But, as happens with some Old Testament prophecies, those prophecies have two fulfillments, and that is something very mysterious about prophetic speech. For we see Joel speaking that prophecy—that God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh and that the sons and daughters will prophesy, and so on—but in this text from Joel the prophet is speaking about a time that is yet to come, often called the time of the Lord in the Bible, which has to do with the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at what Joel 2, verse 30, says. It says: “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth”—speaking of this prophecy about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days—“I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and dreadful day of the LORD comes; and everyone who calls upon the Name of the LORD shall be saved, for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be salvation, as the LORD has said, and among the remnant whom He shall have called.”

Evidently this prophecy, in its original meaning and application, refers to a future time in the last days, those days of which, as you can clearly read, the prophet Joel speaks. Those days have not yet come.

Nevertheless, Peter, guided by the Holy Spirit, understands that Joel is referring precisely to the first manifestation and expression of the Power, to the first Pentecost, so to speak, which is the Day of Pentecost recorded in Acts chapter 2. But evidently the fullest fulfillment of that prophecy will take place in the last days, because the moon turning to blood, the sun withholding its light, “and the great and dreadful day of the LORD”—all of that refers to the events suggested in the Book of Revelation in connection with the Lord’s final Coming, where Jerusalem will also play a very important role in those last days, the time of Armageddon and the Coming of Jesus Christ and all that.

What this clearly suggests is that, before the final Coming of Jesus, there will be one last great outpouring of the Power of the Holy Spirit such as there has never been before. And I do not believe it necessarily refers, let us say, to the Pentecostal movement that took place on Azusa Street at the beginning of the twentieth century. I think, and to me it is clear, that Joel is referring to a time before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ when there will be a great, powerful manifestation. That latter rain of which James also speaks, in fact—the early rain and the latter rain. The Lord says to ask Him, and He will give the early and latter rain. We could say that the early rain is that rain of the first fruits in Acts chapter 2; the latter rain will be one last great and powerful worldwide manifestation of the Power of the Holy Spirit in the last days, when the Church will receive extraordinary Power.

I believe that in the last days there will be a great outpouring of the Power of God and of the Holy Spirit, and that we, the Church of Jesus Christ, will be endowed with supernatural power in an unprecedented way to proclaim the Gospel, for one last great harvest before the final, the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Joel, whom Peter interprets in Pentecostal terms, still has one last turn of the screw to come.

Just as, for example, the Lord also said that before the Messiah comes, Elijah must come, and the Lord said: Well, Elijah is John the Baptist, if you are willing to believe it. And certainly John displayed many aspects of Elijah’s ministry and anointing; but it is also clear that the prophecy recorded concerning Elijah in the Book of Zechariah, the last chapter of the Old Testament, that prophecy of the coming of the prophet Elijah, still has to be fulfilled a second time before the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Second Coming—another of those prophecies that, in a sense, also has to be fulfilled twice, and we could support this in other ways.

But how complex our God is, and I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ should be awaiting one last Pentecostal manifestation of the Power of God, one last great baptism in the Holy Spirit before the Coming of the Lord. I long to see that latter rain that is to come in the last days. May the Lord bless you, my brothers and sisters, and we will speak in the next presentation about more elements of a life filled with the Holy Spirit.