“And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.” Acts 2:17 (ESV)
The promise of God’s Spirit actually dwelling inside His people was one of the most important promises of the Old Testament. This indwelling would mean that God’s people would have the power to actually follow God’s directives for living. They would also have power to be channels of God’s kingdom power on earth in order to fulfill God’s desire for people to hear from God and for healing hearts as well as bodies. Now we have this power available to us and we can “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18) and “keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25) and “by the Spirit [we] put to death the deeds of the body” (Rom. 8:13). Our part is to consciously choose to remain in the Spirit and depend on the Spirit as we pursue God and godliness. And the encouragement is that we will have the victory of living a Christlike life.
