¹⁴ All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. 

 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ac 1:14.

We are on the eve of the Day of Pentecost, we get a window in the verse quoted above what they were doing in the Upper Room. What we know there were 120 people and Mary was also there. No disciple or other person is named, amongst the women, but Mary. I find this really curious. Preceding this we get the list of the disciples that were present in the Upper Room. Luke is exact in the place and the people present.

When we consider what Luke writes in his Gospel concerning Mary, and the relationship with the Holy Spirit, and confirming from Matthew’s Gospel also, looking through the eyes of Joseph, confirming that what was conceived was of the Holy Spirit and was admonished to take Mary and safeguard her life, we get a window of insight into the type of visitation that Pentecost would be. Out of all the people there, Mary has a much more intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit than the rest. This is not supposition, because you have to read and understand what Mary went through to birth Jesus. Yet even in this position she is present when the Holy Spirit descends. This says something more about the descent of the Holy Spirit and somewhat enlarges what some sections of charismatic believers classically tell of these passages of Acts. They somewhat limit their view to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, which almost all denominations agree is an experience that all believers must seek for, but it is far much more than the experience. In limiting it we suppress its fruit amongst us, and we do not embrace a wider vision from God’s perspective.

So what will the Holy Spirit descent mean for Mary, being that she already had some very intimate dealings with Him, means that this visitation on the Day of Pentecost is a specific Messianic Mission CONNECTED TO PREPARE THE DAY OF THE LORD. Joel 2 tells us that these signs, will precede the Day of the Lord. So it is a demarcation in the dealings of God with the world and its people. It is prophetic for the younger, and it is visionary for men, it is dreams for the older people, who shall dream dreams of prophetic significance. These gifts will precede signs, which shall appear in nature. Once stars do not give their light, once the heavens are shaken we know the Coming Messiah, King, and Lord, is near. It means that the Pentecost visitations of the Church in various generations, will start to transition.

For Mary it is far much more intimate in the sense that she brought up Jesus from being a baby to a man. Now she will understand and have a transition in her understanding that He is now King, and Judge of all the Earth. It also means that strategically here women are included in this visitation.

The Upper Room was where Jesus celebrated the Last Supper of Passover, tying up the 1st Passover to the 2nd, in which the Lamb is sacrificed and the Blood has already been painted in both. We have established in this series that a 3rd Passover must come to transport God’s people to their Promised Land in the Celestial realms. It was here that Jesus demonstrated what was true servanthood, what was true leadership. They all saw it natural that it would be logical to wait on the Lord for the Promise, exactly where Jesus appeared to them as Resurrected Lord. So many experiences were had since they celebrated Passover there. It is here that it is understood that being in “one accord” is of vital importance. I believe that today when there are so many issues that divide and bring polarisation even between believers, that we seek to be “in one accord”, that is one focus, one vision, one love, together.

The thing that consumed those waiting days was prayer. If anything the Church needs to focus on right now is prayer, and am sure that much of what we have experienced the last 2 years was not so much worse because the Church prayed. I am also convinced that we must start to see prayer as something we must give our lives to. That we can be in that unseen place where there are no pulpits, no platforms, no worship bands, and just wait for what we pray to manifest. It is not praying about what we think are priorities, rather having a revealed agenda that God communicates to us. What sort of prayer was that in the Upper Room? It must have centered on Jesus’ words concerning the Holy Spirit, and what they were to do when He comes!

The thing we must centre on, is what those 10 days were in preparation for the Day when the Holy Spirit came and revolutionised those 120 people. They were in the Upper Room, men and women together, in one accord, given to prayer. May we see these factors as keys to a new Pentecost for our day!

Maranatha! Come Jesus, come quickly.