‘I
felt ablaze with a desire to go through the length and breadth of Wales
to tell of the Saviour: and had it been possible, I was willing to pay
God for doing so.’ So wrote Evan Roberts, the man at the center of the
Welsh revival of 1904–1905. He spoke about how the Spirit of God gave
him an overwhelming experience of God’s love. He was filled with
compassion and a desire to tell others about Jesus.
We
live in the age of the Spirit. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit
came on particular people at particular times for particular purposes.
We see an example of this in today’s reading in Isaiah, when the Holy
Spirit comes upon the prophet (Isaiah 61). This event was a foretaste of
the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus (Luke 4:14–18), as well as of the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all Christians, from the day of
Pentecost onwards.
In
the Old Testament passage for today, we read more about what living in
the Spirit means. The book of Proverbs anticipates what life in the
Spirit should look like. Then, in the New Testament, we see its
fulfilment: what life in the Spirit means for an individual and for the
church.
Blessings,
Roxanna