Pentecostal Sermons and Bible Studies by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.

A 'Perfect Day' in the Life of a Pentecostal

by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.

Summary:  Spiritual power, bold witness, and gifts of the Holy Spirit are among the God-given enablements that may occur in a "perfect day" in the life of a biblical, Acts 2 Pentecostal.


Acts 1:8; 2:1,4
  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.... [2:1] When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.... [2:4] All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

•• This was the first of many days in their lives as biblical, Acts 2 Pentecostals”. What can we expect from God during a day in the life of a Pentecostal?

•• Pentecost brings a boldness to speak (vs. 14) — Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd... Remember, Peter's courage had failed him, and he had denied Jesus three times only weeks earlier!

•• Are you timid about speaking out for the Lord? Consider what Pentecost does for you — Acts 4:31  After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

•• A day in the life of a Pentecostal may include opportunities, stirred by the Spirit, to speak out boldly for the Lord.

Acts 1:8  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

•• A day in the life of a Pentecostal may not necessarily be one of just “witnessing”, but of powerfully BEING a witness for Jesus Christ.

•• Philip the deacon (Acts 6:3,5) was a man “full of the Spirit”. In Acts 8 Philip went down to a city in Samaria, where this Spirit-filled man boldly preached Jesus with the strong, confirming evidence of healings and the casting out of demons. And many came to the Lord.

•• A day in the life of a Pentecostal may be one where you share the word with power, and someone(s) gets saved ... where you see paralytics and cripples healed ... where you see demon-possessed people delivered and saved. Ministry in the power of the Holy Ghost brings results!

Acts 2:4  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

•• Spirit-filled, Pentecostal Christians may find the “Spirit enabling” them supernaturally to speak things they could not know in the natural.
• I saw a dramatic illustration of Spirit-enabled speaking in a Sunday church service many years ago. A young man stepped down from the choir to the pulpit microphone and said, “Someone came here needing to be saved today. And you know who you are, because you drank two beers before coming to church this morning.” In response, a startled man in the front row (a man unknown to the speaker from the choir) immediately raised his hand and was led to a counseling room where the elders prayed with him to receive Jesus Christ as Savior.

Acts 2:13-14, KJV  Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said...

•• A day in the life of a Pentecostal may include mockery of some of these things we believe.
• The Pentecostal response is, like Peter’s, a confident defense biblically of what we believe. The wrong response is: “Well, that just shows you’re ignorant!”

Acts 8:26-29  Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road — the desert road — that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” [27] So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, [28] and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. [29] The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

•• A day in the life of a Pentecostal may include precise, specific leading by the Holy Spirit.

•• Philip was a biblical Pentecostal, a man “full of the Spirit” (Acts 6:3,5). He had been preaching with great effectiveness in a city in Samaria (Acts 8:5-8), and his preaching was confirmed with healings and the casting out of demons. But right in the midst of that great spiritual revival, he heard the voice of an angel (vs. 26), telling him to go south to a specific desert road. Then the Holy Spirit told Philip (vs. 29) to go stand near a specific chariot that was passing by. Philip did so, and an opportunity arose for Philip to lead the Ethiopian queen’s treasurer to salvation and water baptism (vss. 35-38). All this happened because this Spirit-filled man heard the voice of the Spirit giving him precise, detailed leading.

Acts 19:6  When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

•• The baptism with the Holy Spirit opens the door to the various spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit.
• Here, the Ephesians were filled with the Holy Spirit and immediately began to prophesy.
•• 1 Thessalonians 1:5  ...our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. Spirit-filled Paul did not just preach the gospel with words. He also was used in spiritual gifts to confirm those words with power.
• Paul raised the dead boy Eutychus to life (Acts 20:9-10).

• Right in the middle of his preaching at Lystra, Paul cried out to a lame man, “Stand up on your feet!” And the lame man was instantly healed.

• Paul discerned the demon and cast it out from a young lady whose deceiving spoken testimony could have led Paul to conclude mistakenly that she was a believer (Acts 16:16-18).
•• A day in the life of a Pentecostal — in your life! — may be a day in which God supernaturally uses you in some spiritual gift for the blessing of others.

Ephesians 5:18-19  ...be filled with the Spirit. [19] Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.

•• A day in the life of a Pentecostal is one in which your heart often prompts you to worship, to singing, to making music in your heart to the Lord.

•• I was a somewhat reserved person in this regard before I received the biblical baptism with the Holy Spirit. Afterwards, I found it easy, even desirable, to sing out and to speak out in worship to the Lord.

1 Corinthians 14:26  What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.

•• A church-service day in the life of a Pentecostal is different from that of many other believers. In many churches there is good worship and good preaching. But God has specified three, not two, foundational ministries for a New Testament church service:
1) Worship“a hymn”

2) Preaching/teaching“a word of instruction”

3) AND GIFTS of the HOLY SPIRIT“a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation”
•• Pentecostals experience spiritual worship, anointed preaching, and the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

1 John 2:27  As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit — just as it has taught you, remain in him.

•• A day in the life of a Pentecostal includes supernatural, Holy-Spirit illumination of the Word of God directly to you as you read and study the Scriptures.

•• Do we profit from the ministry of God-called teachers? Certainly! (Ephesians 4:11-13) But each individual who has received the Holy Spirit baptism, the anointing, should also expect in your personal times in the Word to be taught directly by the Holy Spirit.

Summary — A "perfect day" in the life of a Pentecostal may include:

• A Spirit-prompted, bold speaking forth for the Lord.

• The God-given ability to be powerful witnesses.

• A Spirit-prompted ability to speak precise words of knowledge or words of wisdom for the blessing of others.

• Help from the Holy Spirit to give a biblical reply to those who mock what you believe.

• Precise, detailed leading in specific ways, as with Philip and the chariot.

• A breaking forth in various gifts of the Spirit as a consequence of your baptism with the Holy Spirit.

• A heart filled with a desire to sing and worship.

Church services where there is (1) worship, (2) Word, and (3) spiritual gifts.

• Supernatural illumination of God’s Word to you personally, as well as during the preached and taught Word in church.

These things can be part of a day in the life of a Pentecostal — a day full of life, of inner joy, of supernatural guidance, and of spiritual power. Don’t settle for less!

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©2008, James H. Feeney.
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Pentecostal Sermons and Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.