From Acts 2 and the chapters that follow, the immediate responses to being filled with the Spirit are:
- Praise, loud and unrestrained praise
- Singing/declaring in a new spiritual tongue
- Prophetic declarations of God’s goodness
- Amazement, wonder, and marveling at God
- Strong and bold evangelistic preaching
- Deeper conviction of sin and unbelief, leading to repentance, leading to:
- God continually adding to their number
- Steadfast following the apostles teaching about Jesus and the kingdom of God
- Miracles, signs, wonders, healings
- Freedom to dance, leap, sing, jump, and praise with joy
- Gathering constantly to pray and worship
- Radical increase of fervent, expectant, and joy-filled prayer
- Revelation of the family of God
- Giving themselves to fellowship, and breaking of bread
- Meeting other’s needs/deep commitment to one another
- Unity and one-heartedness borne by the Spirit
- Loving/preferring others
- Constant joyful celebration
- Fearlessness concerning any persecution from the Jewish leaders
- Obedience to God
- Rightly fearing God in His holiness
- Mixture and idolatry exposed and dealt with, quickly
- Willingness to lay their lives down for the gospel
If you read through the book of Acts, ALL these responses are found in the first couple of chapters. This is the normal Christian life.
As you keep reading, notice the increasing pace of ministry, with greater reach. Because now there are more people doing the minitry, not just Jesus. The rapidly growing church were doing everything Jesus showed and taught them. And the types of miracles they were doing increased, just as Jesus had promised: “Whoever believes in Me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (Jn 14:12, NIV).
This was God’s determined purpose all along: the baptism of the Holy Spirit brought, and still brings today, an exponential multiplication of the life and ministry of Jesus everywhere the Holy Spirit is welcomed.
