When we repent, God provided us with the Holy Spirit to guide us. This devotion looks at how that promise fits in with His promise of judgment.
Nuggets
- Upon our repentance, God will give us His Spirit to live within us.
- Another progression is how God reveals Himself to us — from love to judgment.
- God promises salvation when we repent.
Devotions in The Days According to Joel series
Joel ends Chapter 2 with a description of one of God’s greatest promises. He will pour out His Spirit on us.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Promise of the Spirit
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit” (Jl. 2: 28-29 ESV)
Upon our repentance, God will give us His Spirit to live within us.
I like how the verse says “And it shall come to pass afterward …” (Jl. 2: 28 ESV). It is going to happen — not until repentance and the judgment is done — but it is going to happen.
Joel had already detailed all of the physical blessings. Unfortunately, that is what too many people are caught up in receiving.
Next, Joel turned to spiritual blessings. They are much more important than the physical blessings.
What is going to happen is the abundant pouring out of God’s Spirit. Joel was the first prophet to prophesy this, according to Bayley.
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We tend to think the Holy Spirit is only a New Testament gift, but He isn’t. Pastor Steve once said in a sermon that, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was placed on people for a specific time period. It wasn’t until the New Testament, Jesus, and Pentecost that the Holy Spirit came to dwell within us.
Excell raised the question about whether “And it shall come to pass afterward …” (Jl. 2: 28 ESV) meant after the locust attack or after Judgment Day. He contended Joel wasn’t given the answer to that question.
Smith voted that this would be accomplished at Pentecost. Parsons argued that this would be accomplished only at the end of the age. Only then will we be totally transformed to God’s character after we are changed in a twinkling of an eye (I Cor. 15: 51). Only then can He totally fill us.
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I think we would be safe to believe that God did bless those who repented during that judgment — and those that have repented in every judgment since then. We know what happened at Pentecost, and we know what will happen at the last age because of God’s promises.
Why do I think this? The presence of the Holy Spirit shows that spiritual life is present. I don’t believe Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, Samuel and all the rest didn’t have a solid spiritual life. They had to have had one.
No, it was different than after Christ came. But God would not use those to build the faith and then not reward them while they were here on earth.
Whenever and however this was accomplished, God Himself abundantly poured out through the Spirit. He will do it in His time and in His way.
But what does pouring out really mean? Borrows explained it for us. He wrote, “The effusion, or pouring out, which is here promised, is the communication of His precious influences, for spiritual life, health, comfort, strength, love, wisdom unto salvation.” We are to take what the Spirit tells us to use as our guide in life.
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To read a devotion in the Walk in the Spirit series, click on the button below.
We do have a role. As Excell said, “We must comply with the moral conditions necessary to its reception. We must give Him the praise and glory of its advent in any measure.”
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The Spirit will be given to everyone who believes in Jesus and confesses God as Sovereign Lord. God doesn’t show favorites (Rom. 2: 11). “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3: 28 ESV).
God pouring out His Spirit on us comes from His mercy and His grace.
The term flesh here might be a little different than what we normally use. Generally, we go with Paul and say flesh is our human, sinful nature.
Joel, here, is using flesh to signify mankind. Everyone — young and old, men and women — are going to be able to understand what God is telling us.
The effect is great. “… your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions” (Jl. 2: 28 ESV). These are the three ways we normally think of God revealing Himself to the Israelites.
We generally think of prophecy just for the great prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel come to mind.
In today’s vernacular we see dreams as little fantasies from our sleep that may or may not be true. Talmage thought they showed the disconnect between the soul and the body. He went on to caution our thinking most of our dreams are products of our physical distress.
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However, we know that God did — and still sometimes does — reveal Himself to us through dreams.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
We also see vision as our planning for the future. Where do we see us going?
I see that Scriptures utilize dreams and visions as revelations from God. It isn’t us deciding where we are going in our lives.
It is God taking us there.
That gives what Joel said an interesting spin. We sometimes connect dreaming with reliving the past — stirring the embers, as Phillips said. The older generation can be stereotyped to do that.
It is the younger generation that we equate with looking and planning for the future. Phillips called this fanning the flames.
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Looking at it another way, we sometimes equate dreaming about what we want to happen with daydreaming. It can give it a it’s-not-going-to-happen quality.
Vision, on the other hand, is something that we work toward. We map it all out and strive to make it come into being.
Workman made a great observation. He wrote, “The most certain verdict of history is this: when a nation once loses its dreams and visions, its end has come.”
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That is what Joel was talking about and to whom he was talking — the nation of Israel. While that is true for each of us, that is also true for the nation.
Here it also includes servants. It isn’t just the rich and famous who are going to be offered salvation. It is everyone, regardless of status.
Okay, I have to process what Borrows said. So, here goes Elaine-speak.
God promises us that He will always be with us. Sometimes, that may be hard for us to understand, but it is a necessary part of Who He is. God’s accomplishing this promise shows His character.
But it also shows God’s power. That power is shown in His presence with us because it shows why the Church exists. Because that power exists, the existence of the Church is ensured — even if it just a remnant.
I once heard the saying, “If you are just standing still, you’re going backwards.” I can see that.
Oh, yes. We love to take a break — especially after some horrendous trial or judgment. But while we are standing still, everything around us is still moving.
Satan is still working to throw us off track. We don’t get any breaks from his attacks.
We have to constantly be in prayer and seeking Him.
Promise of Judgment
“And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes” (Jl. 2: 30-31 ESV)
Another progression is how God reveals Himself to us — from love to judgment.
When God created us, He showed us much love. He protected for and provided us.
However, mankind chose to disobey God. That brought on judgment.
But that brought God’s mercy. God could have given us all an immediate death penalty, our sin was that great.
Sin does bring a death penalty. To combat that God designed the Plan of Salvation.
God’s mercy has postponed that sentencing. Instead of giving us the punishment then that we deserve, He gives us the opportunity to make amends with Him.
God will give us judgments along the way, until Judgment Day occurs.
The judgment described in Joel sounds much like what will occur on Judgment Day.
Promise of Salvation
“And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls” (Jl. 2: 32 ESV)
God promises salvation when we repent.
To me, this is a good summary statement of all Joel had been talking about.
- Salvation is for everyone.
- Salvation is only through God’s Plan of Salvation.
- Those who accept salvation will be given mercy on the day of the Lord.
Spurgeon gave a good description of the elements of salvation.
- “To believe in God as He reveals Himself in Scripture.
- “To call upon His name in prayer.
- “To confess that name.”
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Only believing in God is not enough. We have to communicate with Him and start a relationship. To do that, we have to confess in His Name.
Making the Connections #1
We had the discussion about whether Joel’s prophecy was for the locust attack, Pentecost, or Judgment Day. Let’s look at this the way Phillips did.
Joel had a vision of what was going to happen in the future. God revealed to Him that He would pour out His Holy Spirit.
What Joel was doing was giving them an example of what a vision was.
Let’s face it. Most of us would be saying, “God, who am I that You are giving me this vision?” Remember, we don’t really know who Joel was, just who his dad was.
True. Joel said nothing about the Spirit only being poured onto those who accepted Jesus as the Savior. Here is nothing about restoring our relationships with God.
We would see that as a major omission.
Phillips thought Joel was just focusing on the revelations of the dreams and visions and the power given by God so that we could recognize them.
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Making the Connections #2
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes after repentance and restoration. That makes it a progression.
That fits in with the progression of sanctification. As we navigate the Sanctification Road, we progress as we grow.
How Do We Apply This?
- Get rid of everything — the unholiness, ignorance, and disobedience — that is keeping God from pouring out His Spirit in us.
- Actively pursue reviving our relationships with God by reading His Word, witnessing, and prayer.
- Take the gift of the Holy Spirit and serve God as He calls.
- Dream of serving God in how He calls us.
- Dream of encouraging people to transform to follow God’s laws and commandments.
- Dream of growing Christ-like character.
Believe in God’s revelations. - Establish communication with Him through prayer.
Confess that He is Sovereign God and Jesus is Savior and Redeemer.
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Father God. You are Sovereign God. We believe You are Who You say You are. We believe Jesus is our Savior. We believe You give us the Holy Spirit when we repent. Amen.
What do you think?
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