Praying in TonguesSýnishorn

Day 2: The Second Work of Grace

In the last plan, you learned about the first work of God’s grace — salvation. For the disciples of Jesus, salvation took place the day Jesus appeared to them in the upper room and breathed into them the Holy Spirit. The apostle John captured this event in his gospel writings.

To recap, we saw that the word “breathed” in Greek literally means to breathe into or to inflate, just like one would breathe air into a balloon and fill it. The word “receive” in Greek is the word labete, which was Jesus’ command to the disciples to take right now and actively receive His Spirit. That is what the disciples did, and they were instantly born again, making them the first individuals in history to experience the new birth in Christ.

When someone receives their salvation, they immediately have peace with God — peace is the fruit of salvation.

Sadly, while many Christians have experienced the peace of God, they live powerless lives. This is because many don’t understand that there is a second work of God’s grace or the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is power, which is why Jesus instructed His disciples to wait for the promise of the Father to come upon them before trying to carry out His ministry on earth (see Luke 24:49).

To be clear, when Jesus spoke these words to His disciples in Luke 24:49, they were already saved and therefore, already had His peace. But that was not all they needed. Jesus was telling them, “There’s even more! You need the promise of my Father; you need to be endued with power from on high.”

In other words, He was saying, “Before you go out into the world, you need to be fully clothed in God’s power.” The word “power” is a Greek translation of the word dunamis, which describes explosive, superhuman power with enormous energy that produces phenomenal, extraordinary, and unparalleled results. It is the very word used to denote the force of an entire advancing army, as well as the word for a force of nature.

This supernatural empowerment that Jesus instructed the disciples to wait for would transform them into spiritual forces of nature — it could really shake things up and blow an enemy opposition away. It was a power so vital for them that Jesus commanded them to wait for it twice — both in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4,5.

The events that are recorded in Acts 2 were unprecedented! For the first time ever — in the history of mankind — the Holy Spirit of God came to Earth and took up permanent residence inside every believing person. This was the event prophesied by the prophet Joel more than 800 years earlier — from the Day of Pentecost to the present day, the baptism in the Holy Spirit continues to be the second work of grace that God desires every believer to experience.

As you study the book of Acts, you will see a repeating pattern: people began to experience the first work of grace and became saved, then they were water baptized, and then they experienced the second work of grace, or became baptized in the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues. This pattern can be seen throughout the history of the Early Church and is still seen today!

In all these examples, we find that there are two distinct, different works of grace, both of which are essential and fundamental to every believer:

1. Salvation or the new birth in Christ.
2. Baptism in the Holy Spirit which is signified by speaking in tongues.

You may be thinking, Why tongues? Great question! Come back for our next devotion to discover the answer!

Questions to Consider:

1. The Greek word dunamis describes explosive, superhuman power with enormous energy that produces phenomenal, extraordinary, and unparalleled results. Who do you know that exhibits this kind of spiritual power in their life? In what ways is this visible? Can you see any examples of this power in your own life?