Richard Liu Secretary, Northern Asia-Pacific Division

A small group gathered in an upper room in downtown Jerusalem. They were waiting—waiting in suspense. Their Master had instructed them to wait. “I am going to send you what my Father has promised,” He had said, “but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49, NIV). So they waited.

What were they waiting for? Mark quotes Jesus as saying, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). That was their assignment. Their mission field was the whole planet! And they were waiting—for the promised power.

One whole day passed. Nothing exciting happened in that quiet company of dedicated, praying disciples. With deep earnestness and with one accord they cried aloud and pleaded with God for power from above to spread the good news of the resurrected Saviour to Jerusalem, Judea, all Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth.

There were no security checks back then. The crowd mingled with the believers. Many, no doubt, just wanted to see what was going on—didn’t want to miss anything. As the second day came and went, things remained about the same. By the third day someone in the crowd said, “Nonsense! I’m leaving!”

“We’re going too,” said another. “I’m going out to find something to eat.”

The third day, the fourth, the fifth—a whole week went by. Nothing happened. How much longer? The Master had not told them how long they should wait.

The tenth day dawned. Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the rushing of a violent, powerful wind. It filled the whole house, yet the four walls still stood, and the roof did not lift up or cave in. “Before their eyes appeared tongues like flames, which separated off and settled above the head of each one of them” (Acts 2:3, Phillips). And they immediately proclaimed Christ’s message in different languages, as the Spirit gave them power.

Emblems of Deity
Two powerful symbols of the Holy Spirit are repeatedly mentioned in the Bible: wind and fire. In Hebrew, wind and spirit are the same word.

Though wind may be invisible, mysterious, yet it is powerful—so powerful that nothing can stand before it. A recent hurricane in France blew down more than 20,000 trees; roofs were torn from buildings as though they were leaves. Even a great cathedral steeple was bent out of shape. In some areas tornadoes destroy everything in their path.

Wind is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit’s life-giving power, even to the raising of the dead. The Lord said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, now prophesy to the four winds and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: Come into these bodies and give them oxygen and start them breathing again.’ I did as I was told and prophesied to the four winds and breath came into the bodies and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly large army” (Eze. 37:9, 10, Clear Word).

Nicodemus, a theologian, once challenged Jesus: “But how can a man enter into his mother’s womb a second time and be born again? How can a man who is already old start life all over again? That’s impossible” (John 3:4, Clear Word). Jesus explained, “The wind blows where it likes, you can hear the sound of it but you have no idea where it comes from and where it goes. Nor can you tell how a man is born by the wind of the Spirit” (verse 8, Phillips).

The second Pentecostal symbol was the tongues of fire. Fire is also a frequent symbol of Deity in the Bible. Abraham saw a smoking firepot with a blazing flame (Gen. 15:17); Moses beheld a burning bush (Ex. 3:2-4). For 40 years God revealed Himself in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to the Israelites in the wilderness (Ex. 13:21). And Paul wrote, “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29).

Fire symbolizes the Holy Spirit, revealing both light and truth. Jesus promised, “He will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13, RSV). The Holy Spirit moves upon the human heart. He persuades and convinces people to surrender their wills to Christ, that they might radiate light, warmth, and love to all within reach.

Never in the Bible is the Holy Spirit pictured as being cold and indifferent to human needs. Rather, He is revealed as a divine person, as God, ever trying to reach humanity with His message of salvation. A person’s spirituality may appear lifeless as a stone. But when tongues of fire burn truth indelibly into the heart, the life is changed. The law of God is written in the heart.

Connecting to the Right Source
In 1990 I was transferred to Hong Kong. We knew the electric current there was different from that in our former home, but because of long habit, several times we forgot. We plugged into that double-powered current and burned out several of our appliances.

In God’s work we may also forget. We may plug into money-powered sources, technology, or the academic or ecclesiastical titles after someone’s name. Money, technology, and high educational degrees will not finish God’s work. Spiritual power doesn’t come from earthly sources.

“When Christ called His disciples to follow Him, He offered them no flattering prospects in this life. He gave them no promise of gain or worldly honor, nor did they make any stipulation as to what they should receive. To Matthew as he sat at the receipt of custom, the Saviour said, ‘Follow me. And he arose, and followed him’ (Matt. 9:9)” (Gospel Workers, p. 113).

Matthew did not demand, before rendering service, a salary equal to that of his former occupation. Without question or hesitation he followed Jesus. It was enough for him to be with the Saviour, to hear His words and unite with Him in His work.

When the believers gathered in that upper room at Pentecost, they were united as they had never been before. They sought God with earnestness and intensity. Jesus had assured them, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49, NIV).

“The disciples felt their spiritual need and cried to the Lord for the holy unction that was to fit them for the work of soul saving. They did not ask for a blessing for themselves merely. They were weighted with the burden of the salvation of souls. They realized that the gospel was to be carried to the world, and they claimed the power that Christ had promised” (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 37).

And this group of insignificant, common people found the right power source and connected to it. They became powerful, dynamic instruments of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is like the wind plus fire. Acts 2:3 describes the experience at Pentecost: “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them” (NIV). Wind and fire are such a powerful combination that nothing can resist them.

During the 1991 Annual Council I heard about an Adventist church in northeastern China that had baptized more than 1,000 people at one time. The church didn’t have a pastor with a Ph.D.—not even an ordained minister. It had only two untrained elders and a young woman preacher in her 30s. The story was so impressive I could hardly believe it.

The following year I sent a camera crew to film their next baptism. And in 1992 they baptized more than 2,000! The next year that same church baptized more than 4,000! My only explanation is that the Holy Spirit filled those lay leaders. They made the power connection, and nothing could extinguish the tongues of fire.

Oh, how I want that same power to preach the everlasting gospel! Don’t you? The Holy Spirit is ready to empower us. Are we ready to accept the Holy Spirit’s help in preaching God’s message? It is time—yes, past time—that we seek that promised power.

What a Difference!
“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 they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:2-4).

Filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke with power. And the crowd responded: “What shall we do?”

“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission [forgiveness] of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (verse 38).

Professional preaching backed by academic accomplishments may arouse people’s minds and spur their thinking processes. But the important questions are: Did the message of salvation reach hearts? Did the Holy Spirit speak to them? Or did the message speak only to their minds? If it did not reach hearts and cause them to cry out to God, “What shall I do to be saved?” maybe it was wasted time—both for the preacher and the congregation.

Heart-searching sermons lead to mind-changing Christianity—the only kind of religion that yields lasting results and eternal life with Christ in His kingdom. Especially when the sermon is heard in one’s own mother language, God’s truth can prick the heart. When the preacher is filled with the Spirit of God and the listener gives full attention to the message, God can speak to the mind and fill the emptiness of the soul.

“Those who accepted his [Peter’s] message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (verse 41, NIV). “But many [more] who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand” (Acts 4:4, NIV). “And the Lord added to their number daily” (Acts 2:47, NIV).

God adds daily to the Seventh-day Adventist Church as well. Last year’s statistics showed that 1,977 people joined the church every 24 hours. That number should soon be more than 2,000. But statistics also show that the world population is growing at a staggering rate of 200,000 per day. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do! How can we reach the world with the message that God has commissioned us to give?

Twelve men formed the core of the first Christian church—about 120 believers in all. “How can we go to all the world and preach the the gospel to every creature?” they must have asked. But Jesus had said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18, NIV). To obtain the authority and power of heaven, they must find that strong power connection with the source.

According to Strong’s concordance the word “accord” appears 16 times in the Bible, 12 times in the book of Acts. This word described the first-century church when it was united and in complete harmony. How did it happen?

They prayed together (Acts 1:14), worshiped together, fellowshipped together, and together they praised God. They lived and worked together in one accord, in unity (Acts 2:44-47). Because they were in one accord, bound together with one another, God added new converts to the church daily (verse 47).

Those believers were not just meeting in one place—they were meeting in one accord. They loved God supremely, and they loved each other. They realized that in order for their beloved Lord to return quickly they must be connected with God’s power source.

We’re together in one place today. It was a great undertaking to find this site and do all the planning and work to make this General Conference session possible. And yet it’s far more challenging to meet together in one accord.

More than 50 years ago in China I watched two muscular lumberjacks at work. One on a stool and one on the ground, they cut a big log into boards using a huge handsaw. It took hours of hard labor to saw just one board. Years later I visited a sawmill in another country and discovered how much easier that same job had become. Power saws completed it in seconds instead of hours.

Would we be satisfied to return to nonelectric hand tools today? Of course not. We like to believe we’ve progressed. But are we like sophisticated, shiny power tools without a connection to the right power source? Could this be the reason for the delay of the outpouring of God’s Spirit? God’s servant wrote,

“If the fulfillment of the promise is not seen as it might be, it is because the promise is not appreciated as it should be. If all were willing, all would be filled with the Spirit” (ibid., p. 50).

The Pentecost church was united, a church of believers in one accord—one in heart and mind. It is time that we cry out in great intensity, with one accord, for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. When the shining power tools are connected to the right power, we too will see thousands baptized in one day, and God will add to our numbers daily. It is the church of unity and prayer that makes the power connection.