Introduction
At the beginning of Acts, Jesus tells his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Father’s gift of the Holy Spirit, who will empower them to carry Jesus’ Kingdom to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:4-8). Then he ascends into heaven to take his throne with the Father. Ten days later, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit rushes over Jesus’ followers like wind, filling them with the promised power. The church has historically observed the days between Ascension and Pentecost as a time of waiting, where we pray for God’s Spirit to fill us anew so that we can continue to spread God’s Kingdom of life and flourishing to the ends of the earth.
For these 10 days, we will learn to wait with the disciples, longing for the Spirit’s renewing work and tracing a pattern in Scripture: God ascends to reign and fills people with the Holy Spirit so they can rule with him.
This pattern begins on the first page of the Bible. In Genesis 1-2, we see God ascend as King of creation and fill humanity with his Spirit.
The First Ascension
In Genesis 1, God creates a Kingdom and sits enthroned over it. In the beginning, the world is not yet a kingdom, but a dark, watery place of chaos, devoid of life (Genesis 1:2). But God, as a good and powerful King, brings light, land, and order out of chaos (Genesis 1:3-25). By God’s royal command, creation becomes God’s Kingdom, a realm where life can flourish.
As King, God also appoints co-rulers within this ordered world. The lights in the heavens govern days and seasons (Genesis 1:14-18). This is not merely astronomy but the royal language of a Kingdom set in order, a cosmos arranged for flourishing under God’s authority.
Then God makes the royal masterpiece of his world: he fashions humanity in his own image to co-rule with him (Genesis 1:26-27). In the ancient world, kings filled their kingdoms with images—statues and carvings that visually proclaimed their rule. But God makes living images: men and women commissioned to “fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). God establishes his reign by placing his image-bearers throughout his Kingdom to spread his life and order into every corner of the earth.
Once God orders his Kingdom and commissions his image-bearers, Genesis tells us that God “rested” on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2-3). Rest might sound like recovery, but in the world of Genesis, rest is often the posture of rule. To “rest” is to be enthroned, to dwell in peace over a world placed in right order. In this way, God sets apart the seventh day as holy time, the day that belongs to his settled reign (Genesis 2:3). God’s Kingdom work is complete, and God ascends into royal rest over creation.
The First “Pentecost”
If the seventh-day rest is the Bible’s first picture of God’s ascension, then Genesis 2 is the first picture of God filling humanity with his life. God forms a human from the dust and breathes life into him (Genesis 2:7). In Hebrew, the word for “breath” can also mean “wind” and “spirit.” God animates the dust by filling it with his own breath, so that it becomes a living image-bearer that shares his life. God’s Spirit then commissions this Spirit-filled, God-imaging humanity to rule God’s Kingdom with him. The humans are called to fill the world with God’s image and bring the flourishing life of their Creator’s Kingdom to the ends of the earth (Genesis 1:28).
On the first pages of Scripture, we encounter the themes that we enter into in prayer alongside Jesus’ disciples: God ascends to reign from his throne, fills his people with his Spirit, and sends them into the world to image him and extend his Kingdom.
Guided Prayer
We respond to God’s ascension and filling humans with his Spirit to share his reign by praying David’s words in Psalm 8:
O LORD our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants, you have ordained praise
Because of your enemies, silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers;
The moon and stars which you have set in place,
What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
And have crowned him with glory and honor
You made him ruler over the works of your hands, you put everything under his feet.
All flocks and herds and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air and the fish of the sea, all that swim in the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!