Different Perspectives, One Heart

About 7 weeks after Jesus’ death and resurrection at Passover, Jews had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the harvest festival of Pentecost. Acts 2 says that the Jesus followers were together in one place and ‘all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.’ When the Jews from distant lands heard them, they exclaimed, ‘we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!’ The curse of the Tower of Babel was reversed and those who had been scattered across the world and divided by languages were united by the power of the Spirit. In the western church, Pentecost is celebrated this Sunday as the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church.

What would it have been like to witness Pentecost? Did multilingual people hear the exact same or totally different ‘wonders of God’ in different languages? Or did God reveal distinct but complementing perspectives of his heart through different people?

In a similar way, we believe God has been uniting us by his Holy Spirit, sharing his one heart with us through multiple people with different perspectives. For example, since 2020 we’ve received a number of prophetic words about the theme of rushing water, and on 14th May we received two new words from people who knew nothing of this history. All these words are different, but complement one another so that together we have more clarity about God’s heart for us.

For years, most of the prophetic words we’ve received as a church have been about what God will do and what is coming, but we’re sensing a significant shift. We believe that we must step into the blessing he has for us now - the waiting has ended and we cannot be bystanders. We believe God wants to give us a ‘new heart and new Spirit’ as his unified people, so this Sunday we’re going to review some of the more recent prophetic words and listen together for the ways he wants us to respond. Let’s pray and ask God how he wants us to step into his blessing. It’s important that we share what we're sensing from God - even if it feels incomplete - as God may communicate complementary words through other people. May we witness the wonders of God from different perspectives!