Jacob called for his sons and said, "Gather around, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the future:

In days to come the mountain where the Temple stands will be the highest one of all, towering above all the hills. Many nations will come streaming to it,

I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the future. This is a vision about the future."

But the time will come when the people of Israel will once again turn to the LORD their God and to a descendant of David their king. Then they will fear the LORD and will receive his good gifts.

In days to come the mountain where the Temple stands will be the highest one of all, towering above all the hills. Many nations will come streaming to it,

but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son. He is the one through whom God created the universe, the one whom God has chosen to possess all things at the end.

Your gold and silver are covered with rust, and this rust will be a witness against you and will eat up your flesh like fire. You have piled up riches in these last days.

First of all, you must understand that in the last days some people will appear whose lives are controlled by their own lusts. They will make fun of you

The Jewish believers who had come from Joppa with Peter were amazed that God had poured out his gift of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles also.

May the king be like rain on the fields, like showers falling on the land.

Listen when I reprimand you; I will give you good advice and share my knowledge with you.

But once more God will send us his spirit. The wasteland will become fertile, and fields will produce rich crops.

Everywhere in the land righteousness and justice will be done.

"I will give water to the thirsty land and make streams flow on the dry ground. I will pour out my spirit on your children and my blessing on your descendants.

I will give them a new heart and a new mind. I will take away their stubborn heart of stone and will give them an obedient heart.

I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you.

I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you.

I will pour out my spirit on the people of Israel and never again turn away from them. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken."

"I will fill the descendants of David and the other people of Jerusalem with the spirit of mercy and the spirit of prayer. They will look at the one whom they stabbed to death, and they will mourn for him like those who mourn for an only child. They will mourn bitterly, like those who have lost their first-born son.

Jesus said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive. At that time the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not been raised to glory.

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior was revealed,

God poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Savior,

God looked at the world and saw that it was evil, for the people were all living evil lives.

because you answer prayers. People everywhere will come to you

Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it. The LORD himself has promised this."

I will make your oppressors kill each other; they will be drunk with murder and rage. Then all people will know that I am the LORD, the one who saves you and sets you free. They will know that I am Israel's powerful God."

On every New Moon Festival and every Sabbath people of every nation will come to worship me here in Jerusalem," says the LORD.

Be silent, everyone, in the presence of the LORD, for he is coming from his holy dwelling place.

The whole human race will see God's salvation!' "

For you gave him authority over all people, so that he might give eternal life to all those you gave him.

One of them, named Agabus, stood up and by the power of the Spirit predicted that a severe famine was about to come over all the earth. (It came when Claudius was emperor.)

He had four unmarried daughters who proclaimed God's message.

The Spirit gives one person the power to work miracles; to another, the gift of speaking God's message; and to yet another, the ability to tell the difference between gifts that come from the Spirit and those that do not. To one person he gives the ability to speak in strange tongues, and to another he gives the ability to explain what is said.

In the church God has put all in place: in the first place apostles, in the second place prophets, and in the third place teachers; then those who perform miracles, followed by those who are given the power to heal or to help others or to direct them or to speak in strange tongues.

This is what I mean, my friends. When you meet for worship, one person has a hymn, another a teaching, another a revelation from God, another a message in strange tongues, and still another the explanation of what is said. Everything must be of help to the church.

But if no one is there who can explain, then the one who speaks in strange tongues must be quiet and speak only to himself and to God.

But if someone sitting in the meeting receives a message from God, the one who is speaking should stop.