ACTS CHAPTER 2: 1 – 4

[The Original Outpouring of the Holy Spirit]

Perhaps this teaching is the most important teaching that you may ever read. This does not mean that the rest of the Word of God is not just as important. It is the subject matter of this teaching that you need to understand. This will enable you to manifest the more than abundant life to a greater extent.

And, being assembled together with them, [Jesus] commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. – Acts 1: 4

We must understand exactly what it was that came on the day of Pentecost. At the original outpouring of the Holy Ghost, we must try to understand three things. 1) What was it that came on the day of Pentecost, 2) Where it occurred and 3) Who was present to receive?

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. -- Acts 1: 9

The time of this verse is the day of the ascension, which was forty days from the resurrection when Jesus was gathered together with his apostles and gave them last-minute instructions before his departure. He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father. Pentecost was 10 days after the ascension. They were to wait for or tarry for the promise of the Father.

Now, for all of you that still believe in water baptism, Acts 1: 5 will finally teach you the rightly divided Word of God pertaining to the subject of being baptized. This is a major issue in many of the churches today because they do not read what is written.

For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with [the Greek word is en or in] the Holy Ghost [pneuma hagion] not many days hence. – Acts 1: 5

This is another teaching in itself. So many churches today are still baptizing with water even though the Word clearly says that we are to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. You can see that churches and religions are still holding onto tradition. I had to listen to someone not too long ago, who was telling me about how this young baby was dipped in water. The person telling me this was someone in my own family. They have tried to negate everything that I have learned and I do not have good relations with them. So you see that if this happens to you, it can be expected. Jesus Christ warned us in the Gospels that some of our worst enemies can be people in our own family. You have to make up your mind. Are you going to stand with God or are you going to stand with people? Yes, it is a tough decision. I will bet my eternal life on God and not organized religion. I have to keep away from my own members of my family. They have ears but they cannot hear. They have eyes but they cannot see.

The reason Jesus commanded the apostles to wait was that the gift had not yet been given. If you were instructed that next Tuesday will receive a gift from a very dear friend, then it would be necessary for you to wait until next Tuesday because the gift would not be available until then, so it was with the giving of Holy Spirit. This all ties in with a verse that I want to go over at this time.

Let all things be done decently and in order. -- I Corinthians 14: 40

This verse is so important that I cannot stress it enough. You will see this verse put into action when we discuss the original outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

We are now going to get to the specifics of our teaching which is Acts chapter 2, verses 1 – 4. Let’s go over those verses as they are stated in the King James Version.

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. – Acts 2: 1 – 4

Believe it or not, this is not a very accurate translation of these four verses. From the closest to the original Greek texts that are available today, I am going to break down each individual verse and give you a more literal translation according to usage. Keep in mind that this is the first time in the history of man that he was able to be born again of Holy Spirit. This is such a historical moment that I will try to give you some of the history of this moment. I can tell you right now that this was the great mystery which is mentioned in the book of Colossians. In the Old Testament and throughout time, many prophets of God searched for this moment in time. It was kept secret by God and referred to as a great mystery which was finally revealed to the apostle Paul. We will get into this more as this teaching progresses. But first let’s go back to the four verses in Acts chapter 2 and work on each individual verse. This will greatly help your understanding of what was truly happening and eliminates the guesswork pertaining to the rightly divided Word of God. I will go to verse one first taking each Scripture and rightly dividing it according to the closest to the original texts that are available on the earth today. The ministry that I studied with made trips to other countries such as Germany where some of the most recent and reliable texts of the Bible were present. Although this ministry no longer exists as I knew it, these teachings are taken from the extensive work of the ministry which taught me God’s Word and saved my life.

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. – Acts 2: 1

You should be asking yourself what is the word “they” referring to? It is referring to the 12 apostles. If you study Acts chapter 1, you will see that Judas had already hanged himself - committed suicide. Take a look at chapter 1 and examine verse 26. The 11 apostles had chosen Mathias as a replacement and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. 11+1 = 12

You should ask yourself where was the place that the apostles were assembled. Many churches, ministers and reverends wrongly divide this “place”. When you study God’s Word in detail, you will see that they were assembled in the Temple and not in an upper room where most religions believe and still teach. And you should also take notice that they were decent and in order. Many churches, when they operate the manifestations of the spirit, are completely out of order. They are standing up and jumping around and waving their hands. This is a counterfeit and you should always remember that. That completes our coverage of Acts 2: 1.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. – Acts 2: 2

And suddenly, out of quietness, there appeared a rushing mighty wind. Let’s stop here and take a look at this so-called rushing mighty wind. Jesus Christ had instructed his 12 Apostles as to what to do when this outpouring of the Holy Spirit had come. Now you tell me that this doesn’t make sense. He told them to breathe in and out which helps to relax a person. When I first manifested the Holy Spirit, I was told to breathe in and out heavily right before I received the Holy Spirit in manifestation and spoke in tongues. I have witnessed this type of instruction many times. This rushing mighty wind is actually referring to heavy breathing. The 12 apostles were about to take part in this historical manifestation and do what Jesus Christ instructed them to do. They were to be breathing heavily. Now let’s go to the latter part of the verse.

….. and it [the heavy breathing] filled all the house [Temple] where they were sitting. Again you see what position they were in and they were all sitting. They were decent and in order as the Word instructs us to be.

And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. – Acts 2: 3

This is when they began the heavy breathing. The original outpouring of the Holy Spirit was given to the 12 apostles only. You may have seen pictures of this outpouring and most of them are inaccurate. Why? Because the verse says that it appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire. The keywords are ’like as’. It does not say that they were actually fire that appeared over the apostles. It points toward a type of picture or image of cloven tongues that appear to look like fire. But they were not fire. What difference does it make, you say? Well, if you’re ever in a space capsule and there are 35 seconds left before liftoff, maybe some of the guys in Houston will say, “Ah, what the hell is the difference? Let’s lift off now instead of waiting 35 more seconds.” You’re in that capsule. Now do you think it matters? It comes down to the rightly divided Word of God as compared to the counterfeit Word of God that is being taught today in many churches and most religions. God has a reason for what He says, when He says it, what He says, why He says it, and where He says it. No one completely understands the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. But the ministry I studied with tried the very hardest of anyone else I know on this earth to rightly divide God Word. I have the ability to teach, but I am mainly teaching everything that was taught to me by this ministry. I pictured the cloven tongues as of fire as a large shaped leaf above the heads of the apostles. You can picture it anyway you like. But we do not have a complete explanation of these cloven tongues. Let’s just picture that as a marker above each one of the apostles that were to receive the Holy Ghost for the first time in history. Let’s let it go at that before we get into guesswork that will only lead to private interpretation and the wrongly dividing of the Word. Now let’s take a look at Acts 2: 4.

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost [holy spirit], and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. – Acts 2: 4

Now I am going to give you an explanation of this verse from the text. There are a number of changes or corrections that should be made. First of all there is no word for ‘the’ in the Greek language. This means that the word ‘the’ before Holy Ghost needs to be omitted. Nothing is taken away from the sense or context of the verse when we do this. The words Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit are used haphazardly throughout the New Testament. The accurate translation of the words Holy Ghost should be ‘holy’ and lower case ‘spirit’. You may be able to see why I placed this teaching in the advanced category. You must understand a principal that may be new to you. When you talk about the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, you are talking about God Almighty. When you are talking about holy spirit, you are talking about God’s gift to yourself. That is why I have changed Holy Spirit into lowercase holy spirit. When placed in the lowercase, it is always referring to the gift that God has given us. Is this understood? It is very simple. When the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit is written in the upper case, it is referring to the Holy Spirit WHICH IS GOD. This is a principal that you must try to understand when you are reading the Bible. In the context of our teaching, this is a perfect time and a perfect example to teach this to you.

When we become born again of God’s Spirit, the spirit of God in Christ in us is holy spirit – LOWERCASE. This simple point has caused no end of confusion when many churches and religions are trying to rightly divide God’s Word. The giver is Holy Spirit. His gift is holy spirit. The latter is what we have inside of us once we are born again. Now, back to the verse.

The first part of the verse says ”and they were filled with the Holy Ghost”. But you must realize that that the filling with holy spirit was the gift. We just learned how to recognize the giver and the gift. In verse four they were filled with the gift. So to properly understand and discern between the giver and the gift, we should take the words Holy Ghost and change them to holy spirit. Now you have the accurate rightly divided Word of God. If you need more time to understand this, reread the last three paragraphs. I have understood this for maybe 30 or 40 years now, so it is not difficult for me. The first time you learn something new, it may take some time to grasp that new idea or principle. Very soon, I am going to give you a literal and more accurate translation of verse four which will make much more sense to you as compared to the King James Version.

Now I want you to look at the second phrase in verse four. Let’s repeat it: “and began to speak with other tongues”. Who began to speak in other tongues? The 12 apostles did the speaking inspired by the Holy Spirit. At this point in this original outpouring, they were already born again of God’s spirit. But if you look at another teaching that I did on how to speak in tongues, you are the one that does the speaking. That you speak is your business – what you speak is God’s business. And you may remember that this is a language somewhere on this earth or a language of angels. So they receive from Holy Spirit [GOD] the ability to speak in tongues because they had the gift which was holy spirit inside them. You see that you must use your mouth and your vocal cords to speak in tongues, but what you speak is unknown to you. I go over this extensively in the teaching “Speaking in Tongues”. It may help you immensely to read this teaching after you finish this present teaching. It will help you a great deal if this teaching appears to be a bit advanced for you. Just keep it simple and understand what you can understand. It is only four verses in God’s Word, but they are immensely important.

Now let’s study the last phrase of Acts 2: 4:

…… “as the Spirit gave them utterance”. Again, you must move your mouth and operate your vocal cords when you speak in tongues. But, as I already said what you speak is God’s business. There are 12 benefits to speaking in tongues. But how do you speak in a foreign language that you do not understand? It is because the Spirit or God Almighty gives you the words to speak. Your understanding is bypassed and you will not understand the words you speak. But it is an actual well-developed language. Let me give you an example that should blow your mind. If speaking in tongues is speaking a language somewhere on earth or secondly, it is a language of angels, then it is possible that someone may speak in tongues in a believers meeting and another person could possibly understand what they’re saying. I had a coordinator who experienced this in a fellowship. The one person was speaking in tongues not knowing what he was saying. But there was another person in the fellowship that could understand every word that was said.

There was a great miracle that took place on the day of Pentecost that is truly astounding. We will get to this miracle as soon as I finish verse four. Here is a literal translation of verse four that should help you to understand the correct meaning of this verse.

And they [the 12 apostles] were all filled [pletho - filled to overflowing] with holy spirit [the gift – lower case] and began to speak [they did the speaking] with other tongues [of men or of angels] as the Spirit [God – upper case] gave them utterance. – Acts 2: 4 literal translation according to usage.

What I would like you to do is to read the four verses as they are in the King James Version. Then study this teaching in detail and substitute my literal translations for each verse. This will help you to totally understand the most important day in history. I plan to conclude this teaching by going over three mind blowing situations that are related to these four verses. First, I am going to go over the miracle of Pentecost that took place while the apostles were speaking in tongues. Secondly, I will show you what the great mystery was from the book of Colossians. From Colossians, we will talk about the great mystery that was given to Paul to proclaim to the church of God. Before this great mystery was revealed to Paul, it was the greatest secret that God had ever kept from man. This day of Pentecost was a great mystery to all of the Old Testament prophets who searched diligently for this point in time. That point is what was to take place between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his return. That gap was held secret until the day of Pentecost.

And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. – Acts 2: 5

The miracle that was about to take place was the first time in history that this situation existed. I’d like you to sit and think about this for a while.

Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. – Acts 2: 6

Did you understand what just happened? The apostles were speaking in tongues as we have seen in verse four. This took place at the temple in Jerusalem where there were devout men out of every nation under heaven. The language the apostles were speaking was unknown to them, but the people who were present also in the temple understood the speaking in tongues as it was their own native language. I have only known of this happening in a singular instance a few times in my life. I have never myself witnessed this happening. This would be described as if you were speaking in tongues in a believers meeting. A person at that fellowship understood the language you were speaking!!

And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these [the 12 apostles] which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? -- Acts 2: 7, 8

Verses 9 and 10 gives a long list of the different races that were present and verse 11 sums up the effects of this great miracle.

Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. -- Acts 2: 11

The second point that I want to go over is a Scripture that is in the church epistle of Colossians. We’ll take it up where Paul was talking about his ministry in chapter 1: 25.

Whereof I am [was] made a minister, according to the dispensation [administration] of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God; -- Colossians 1: 25

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: -- Colossians 1: 26

Can you imagine this? The spirit of the true God was in Christ when he was on the face of the earth. When we become born again of God’s spirit, we now also have that same spirit that was in Christ in us. It is God in Christ in us. This revelation is so fantastic that if the devil himself knew that God was going to accomplish this, he would never have crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. Because now, everyone that is born again of God’s Spirit has Christ in them. That is why the devil tries so hard to stop people from knowing the rightly divided Word of God. It is great that we have Christ in us but we must also be in Christ. The distinction here is that if we are to manifest that great power that we have within us, we must renew our minds to God’s Word. The renewed mind is the key to power. We can be born again of God spirit as so many people are, but they do not study God’s Word. So they have great potential power within them, but it never becomes kinetic – it never manifest itself in this life. That is why it is so important to study God’s Word. That is why I sit here for what seems like forever teaching you God’s Word. You must understand that the Word of God will never move unless we move it. I won’t get into it right now, but we have the ministry of reconciliation for God. It has been committed unto us and unless we use it, nothing will happen. After being born again, we are body, soul, and spirit. We are threefold human beings. Those who are not born again have only body and soul which means they can only function by the five senses. We can function so much greater because we have a spiritual connection with God. God lives within us and we manifest this power when we renew our minds – when we study and apply God’s Word.

In conclusion of this extremely important teaching, I would like to show you where that Scripture is that shows how the prophets of old searched diligently for the mystery. They couldn’t find it. God wasn’t about to tell anybody. The revelation of the great mystery given to us by the apostle Paul resulted in a different administration called the Age of Grace in which we now live. That is the age and time period which nobody could figure out. The prophets knew about a great period of time or grace (divine favor) that would come unto us, but they couldn’t find out when that time was.

In conclusion, I would like you to work this teaching until you understand it completely. This teaching shows you the importance of rightly dividing the Word of God. Do not trust that a man who is teaching you on a television or even in a church is speaking the truth. Because they never really studied it, but only went along with tradition. Here is that last Scripture that I promised you.

Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: -- I Peter 1: 10

These were the Old Testament prophets who saw a period of time between “the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow” [see verse 11]. They searched diligently but their efforts proved fruitless as that period was known only to God Himself.

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