All Flesh

When God said He would pour out His spirit upon all flesh, and we see it happen on Pentecost in the book of Acts, what happened? Who received the Holy Spirit? How do we know?

Well, those in the upper room received the Holy Spirit. They not only had those tongues of fire over their heads, but they spoke in tongues, so that the foreigners outside heard them glorifying God in their own languages.

This was not all flesh or all men, but just those believers who were gathered together that day. And then some three thousand souls were added to the church that day.

One would assume that those souls also received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, since that was the way it happened, from the testimony of the rest of the book of Acts.

So, all flesh would seem to indicate not the whole world, but just those who believed.

To those who received Him, He gave them the power to be sons of God. All are not sons. Only those who receive Him. Paul says as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. He also says because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called the sons of God: the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Clearly, all flesh are not the sons of God.

In the Old Testament, the spirit of God only came to someone for a reason, and then it left. When Jesus came, He had the spirit without limit. It was a new thing. After this, on Pentecost, God poured out His spirit on all (manner of) flesh. Men and women, and perhaps young people.

Again, a new thing. A Peter declared it was the fulfillment of prophecy.

People, everyone in the world does not have the spirit of God in them. Only those who believe. I know many teach that everyone has the spirit. But it is not so. It is really new age thinking.

Furthermore, Paul says if someone does not have the spirt of Christ, he not His. If the spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you, he shall make your mortal body alive. The key word is “if”. Now, the the spirit of Christ is the same as the Holy Spirit and the spirit of God. These just are different ways to express it.

Therefore, it follows that if you don’t believe, you don’t have the Holy Spirit. All flesh does not mean all people, but many people. People who believe.

To say that all people on the planet have Christ, or the spirit of Christ, in them, is not what the scripture teaches. It is more new age thinking that has crept into the church.