The Procession of the Holy Spirit

“This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear” (vv3233).

This is exactly as it happened in sequence, in the great outworking of God’s plan. We must view the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as taking place in the context of the Godhead - between Father, Son and Spirit. In His teaching about the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room Jesus had said to the disciples, I will send the Parakletos to you” and then He described the Holy Spirit as “proceeding from the Father.” He described this procedure/procession,

“But the Comforter/Advocate/Parakletos, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, HE will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (Jn.14:26). “But when the Comforter/Advocate/Parakletos comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, HE will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with ME from the beginning” (Jn.15:26-27).

The immediate outcome of this procession of the Spirit from Father to Son and from Him to 120 disciples was that as a united group of 120 disciples they were simultaneously filled with the Holy Spirit, or to use Jesus’ expression, they were each one baptized in the Holy Spirit and also baptized into the body of Christ (1Cor.12:13).

The experience and the manifestations that accompanied the coming of the Holy Spirit were as authentic as those actions which had taken place in the Godhead between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.