Will there be a “Second Coming” of the Holy Spirit? That is, will He one day come in a fullness of his power that has yet to be seen? I believe that He will because the Bible points to this.

Fact is the Saviour Christ Jesus poured out his Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in an unprecedented display of power, just as Jesus had promised his apostles (Acts 2: 8). His witnesses spoke in foreign languages they had never learned and subsequently tens of thousands received “the gift of the Holy Ghost”. In the Acts period it seems each person saved was given a personal specific message inspired by the Spirit and every conversion was sealed with a miracle. As the risen Jesus promised (Mark 16:17-18) such signs would follow them that believe.

However, the sure fire miracles which routinely included healing the sick and raising the dead drew to a close after the Acts 28:28 pronouncement by the Apostle Paul that the message of salvation was now sent to the nations “and they would hear it”. Since then successive generations of believers have sought to see the miracle power of the Holy Spirit spread abroad but with little or no sustained success.

But that will not always be the case. The culmination of the present age of grace (in which the Lord still does some miracles but usually secretly) will give birth to a new era, the Day of Christ, in which the Lord through the power of his Spirit will turn the world and its people back towards Him. None will be able to evade the message of the Lord’s kingdom because, through the Spirit, it will be beamed to everybody on earth 24/7.

And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness (Isaiah 29:18).

Why will that be possible? Because in that day, the Day of Christ, cited seven times in Paul’s epistles, and elsewhere in scripture known as the “last day”, the “hereafter” and “the world to come”, Christ will take over government of the world at his appearing (Titus 2:13).

The appearing (Greek: epiphanea) is the blazing forth of his glory as king of the universe, a glory hidden until now (Colossians 3:1-4). In that day He will be revealed in glory, and we with Him. Since Christ Himself is the Spirit (Romans 8:9, 1 Peter 1:11, Galatians 4:6, Romans 8:2, Isaiah 11:2) this will be the greatest display ever of the Spirit’s glory.

Importantly, the appearing ushers in the “kingdom of heaven on earth” with Christ ruling through his Spirit and broadcast word over the world and all who live in it. The Apostle Paul charged Timothy with the supreme importance of this event:

I charge thee therefore before God and (even) the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and kingdom (2 Timothy 4:1).

Now, a beautiful sounding chorus speaks of “the Spirit without measure”.  Fact is it is only on the Saviour Jesus Christ, that the Spirit has (and is) poured out “without measure”. Not on believers as such. John 3:34 explains: “For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.”

But for us as believers saved by grace through the blood of the cross, there is a more limited expression of the Holy Spirit right now. True, it is He that has sealed us with the “promise” of redemption (Ephesians 1:13-14; it is He is given to us as the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him (i.e. Christ)”. And it is the Holy Spirit who guides and reveals the truth of his word to us.

However, the amazing miracles and constant supernatural works of the Holy Spirit in the 33-year period of the Book of Acts have largely ceased.

The good news is that they will come back much more powerfully in the Day of Christ (1 Cor. 1:8, 5:5, 1:14, Phil. 1:6. 1:10, 2:16) when the Spirit will be poured out “without measure” on all mankind in the most stunning display of his power and strength yet seen.

It is my conviction that this will be the Spirit’s “second coming”. The first, of course, occurred on the Day of Pentecost. The then outpouring of Christ’s Spirit was first on the Lord’s disciples then on those who believed on Jesus and were baptised. Later it was extended to non-Jews and the Spirit has been indwelling believers from that time until now. This then can be said to be the “first coming” of the Holy Spirit

However, according to scripture, the Spirit’s outpouring at Pentecost and the flow of miracles, signs and wonders in the Acts period were but a “foretaste” of what is to come in the Day of Christ when our Lord brings in his pre-millennial, pre-rapture, pre-tribulation, heavenly kingdom.

Hebrews 6:4-5 makes this clear, stating that it is “impossible” for those “who tasted of the heavenly gift” – i.e. the Pentecostal outpouring – to be renewed unto repentance “if they fall away”. Such erstwhile converts had “tasted the powers of the world to come”– i.e. the Day of Christ – but it was only a taste, not the “four-course meal” that God has promised to outpour in “the world to come” (Matthew 12:32) that Jesus spoke of.

That the miraculous faded out after the end of the Acts period is obvious to all willing to see it, though many today are not. As the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians even during in the Acts period:

…whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there shall be tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away. When that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away (1 Corinthians 13:8-10).

There is then much more to come when Christ intervenes, speaking from heaven, to take over government of the world. The powerful effect of his words, which will be enforced on earth by the Spirit, is foreshadowed in Zechariah 4:1-7, a prophecy not only about the building of the second temple in Zerubbabel’s time but also foretelling the advent of the pre-millennial Government of Jesus Christ in an age to come.

…this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying: Not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying Grace, grace unto it.

Read more in Part II.

John Dudley Aldworth

Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com