Luke, as the writer of the book of Acts, is the one who informs us that all the saints present at that prayer meeting were filled with the Holy Spirit. So how did he know that? It was not because they all began to speak the word of God boldly in that meeting, for that comment refers to the answer to their prayer, i.e. they continued to proclaim the gospel boldly throughout Jerusalem and Judea, in spite of being threatened by the authorities not to do so. So again the question is asked, how did Luke know that all the saints present at that meeting had been filled with the Holy Spirit? It was also not because the saints spoke with other tongues as they did on the day of Pentecost, because ever since Pentecost the saints had continued to speak in tongues, and would have been praying in tongues during much of the prayer meeting that night. And so, the answer as to how Luke knew that the saints were filled with the Holy Spirit lies in the other visible phenomena that we discussed in an earlier section, i.e. some would have trembled as the tangible power of God came upon them, some may have fallen under that power, some may have wept while others may have laughed. Nevertheless it would have been these types of phenomena occurring, that would have convinced Luke that the saints were being filled with the Holy Spirit once again.
Michael E.B. Maher
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