WHEN CHRIST following His resurrection from among the dead spoke to His disciples about the parting that would occur, due to His imminent ascension, He ordered them not to leave Jerusalem till they had received the power from above, that Jesus Christ would send them the Holy Spirit from the Father.1

The disciples therefore immediately gathered together with Mary, Jesus’ mother, in the attic in Jerusalem and stayed to pray together waiting for the Holy Spirit to descend.

All of a sudden the Holy Spirit came down from Heaven in the form of tongues of fire, and immediately the disciples began serving in the name of Christ.2 It was the beginning of Christian service in the world. Christ’s insistence with the disciples that they should not depart from Jerusalem to serve except after they became filled with the Holy Spirit, and the power had descended on them from heaven is the mystery of service throughout the ages. The work of the Holy Spirit is to take from Christ the power, counsel, knowledge, and wisdom teaching it to those it descends upon. This means that Christ Himself through His disciples was the organizer of serving3. The Bible had previously avowed that Jesus Christ is a treasure of wisdom and knowledge4. Anyhow He is “the Word” in all its scope that is heavenly divine in greatest wisdom and knowledge. The disciples were consequently transported from being mere followers of Christ to being ministers of the Divine Word through the grace of the Holy Spirit in complete fullness. Thus as the Apostle Paul says the disciples were lead by the Holy Spirit in everything they said and did. Christ therefore supervised service and those serving from above.

The Spirit that had descended on the disciples is not the spirit of old times that chided and punished and was frightening, especially to those who antagonized God. But the Spirit that descended on the disciples was adherent to Christ, taking from Christ, giving them understanding, knowledge, information and wisdom from God5. For that reason the Spirit that descended on the disciples was considered the spirit of adoption. It was always ready to witness for the disciples that they were the sons of God, not only so but cry out in their hearts when they went forwards to God saying “Abba, Father.” In

 

1 Lk 24:49; Acts 1:6, 8.

2 Acts 2

3 Cf John 16:13, 14.

4 Cf Col 2:3.

5 Cf John 16:14.

6 1Tim 3:15.

 

this way they entered the company of God as members of His household enjoying the fatherhood of God.

The phrase “Abba of the Father” is an Aramaic expression mentioned in the language of children when they called their father by saying: “Abba” in a kind of familiarity and joyful childhood with God.

The Holy Spirit thus entered service with Christ, and the Father; the rebirth of a new era for the Church so as to live in the fullness of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, ministering through the cross of redemption and the righteousness of God that Jesus Christ received and gave as a holy trust to the disciples, for the righteousness of God to spread throughout the whole Church as a supply of Divine power to stimulate piety and virtue in the Church of God, considered in the early ages “the pillar and ground of the truth”6.

Prayer

To You, Spirit of God, is my life, my faith, my hope, and my love.

For I am a person who moved from bondage to the world, to the freedom of the children of God.

I need guidance in accordance to Christ’s advice to His disciples, so that I may walk with You.

I do not know where I am going in this world that has become narrow.

You will lead me to Christ, my life; He who redeemed me to own my life,

And will make me know the affection of the Father and His patience, that He may endure my ignorance.

If You teach me I will learn, and if You don’t where will I go?

You are a light to my way. Your hand leads me. So make me know my final aim.

8 July, 2005

 

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Prayer of St Macarius the Great

O Lord, Who in Thine abundant goodness and Thy great compassion hast granted me, Thy servant, to go through the time of the night that is past without attack from any op-posing evil: Do Thou Thyself, O Master, Creator of all things, vouchsafe me by Thy true light and with an enlightened heart to do Thy will, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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