The Vision of the Tabernacle |
In the Holy of Holies |
Christ resurrected on the day of the Passover and ascended to the heavens forty days later. In Acts 2 we read that after Christ’s ascension, one hundred and twenty of His disciples prayed until the Holy Spirit descended upon them. This took place on the day of Pentecost, which was celebrated in the Old Testament fifty day after the Passover (Lev. 23:15-21; Deut. 16:9-12). So the disciples prayed together for ten days. Was it necessary to spend so much time in prayer in order for the Holy Spirit to come? On one hand, the outpouring of the Spirit was promised by the Lord; on the other hand, the disciples needed to pray in order to join themselves to the Lord. In those ten days, every one of them was emptying themselves of their past, their feelings and their preferences. It may have been that Peter prayed, “Lord, send the Holy Spirit; fulfill Your promise,” because the Lord had said to Him, “Peter, you denied Me three times. Have you fully repented yet?” As he was enlightened by the divine light, Peter may have realized that he needed to deal with the sins he had committed as well as his heart. He may have prayed, “Lord, forgive me. Not only because I denied You, but for being so self confident. I thought I was so strong that I would never deny You. I never thought I was so weak and cowardly. Lord, wash me with Your blood.”
Situations such as these must have occurred in all the disciples. Every one of them must have repented of their sins, their religious past and their fear of the Jews and Romans. Those ten days were surely a time of being emptied and purified. We need to have the same experience. If we want our prayer to be effective before God, in order to please Him, we need to confess our sins, even those that are hidden from men; those that only we, God and Satan know about. Then God will hear our prayers and we will be able to cooperate with Him by praying.
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