The Lodestar

The restoration that the Lord has ordered through the prophet Joel does not end with agricultural fertility but goes further to the spiritual flourishing of the people.

This prediction of the outpouring of the Spirit is far ahead of its time. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was given only to individuals. But here, Joel prophesies about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on all genders, classes, and ages—young and old, men and women, and slaves and masters.

The people will not be passive recipients but will act as the Spirit guides them—receiving visions and prophesying. In Joel’s time, only a few chosen, established prophets could do these works inspired by the Spirit. But Joel foresees a period when God will favour to empower all his people.

Apostle Peter declared that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the 120 gathered in the Upper Room fulfils Joel’s prophecy: “But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16).

As the disciples prayed together, the monopoly that some imagined they had on the Holy Spirit was broken. The work of the Kingdom in the end-time requires many people empowered by the Holy Spirit, not just a few.

The Holy Spirit is at work in each believer who has accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour because Christ dwells in our hearts through his Spirit: “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Rom 8:9).

We live in the age of the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy, where the Holy Spirit is given to all those who believe. We must respond by doing what the Spirit demands from us. The Christian life is a life by the Spirit and in step with the Spirit: “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal 5:25).

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