I shall pour out my Spirit on all humanity

“After this I shall pour out my Spirit on all humanity. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy; your old people shall dream dreams, and your young people see visions. Even on the slaves, men and women, shall I pour out my Spirit in those days. I shall show portents in the sky and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.” (Joel 3: 1-3)
This promise was fulfilled with great fanfare and solemnity on Pentecost Day. It continues to be fulfilled everyday as men and women express their desire to receive the Holy Spirit and pray for this gift. God promised to grant His friendly and generous Spirit “here and now” as He granted the request of Solomon for wisdom. The best thing that can happen to anybody is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Yet as much as this gift is the highest gift God can give to man, it is the easiest to obtain. I call this the divine paradox. Yet, when we look throughout sacred scripture and human experience, we find that the best things in life are often free or very affordable.
Recently I got my first Smartphone, an amazingly great technology and in my view the best of the microchip revolution. The Smartphone has many useful applications most of which are free. The number of high quality religious applications that are free surprises me. You can get a good number of various bible translations on the palm of your hand. It is God’s modus operandi to make available to men and women everywhere what they need for salvation. Nobody can say that he was unable to hear the Good News because of poverty. In this light, I can understand why the gift of the Holy Spirit is not only free but very easy to obtain. All that one need is desire and prayer in a soul that is free from unconfessed serious sin.

The Spirit in Daniel

“Daniel, renamed Balteshazzar after my own god, and in whom the spirit of the holy gods resides, then came into my presence. I told him my dream:
‘Balteshazzar, chief of magicians,’ I said, ‘I know that the spirit of the holy gods resides in you and that no mystery puts you at a loss. This is the dream I have had; tell me what it means.” (Daniel 4: 5-6)
It seems that everybody in Babylon knew that the Spirit resides in Daniel. Even King Nebuchadnezzar was aware of it. How did they know, I have often wondered?
Daniel even in exile lived like a servant of God. He said his prayers at the stipulated times and did all the devotions he was required to make. Conditions of exile could have been enough reason to skip some of his religious practices, but Daniel did not fall for such cheap bait. He was faithful. He was a worshiper of the true God in spirit and in truth. A tiger does not go about shouting his tigritude. He walks about naturally and people know. When one is filled with the Holy Spirit, people also know. They know from the demonstrations of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit in his life. Daniel was a type of Jesus.