The outpouring of God's Holy Spirit in AD 31 represented a pivotal event in biblical prophecy and church history, marking the initial fulfillment of Joel's prophecy (Joel 2:28-32) where God's Spirit (at one time reserved only for a select few) was now poured out on all believers, regardless of age, gender, or social class. This event which began the church age merely set the stage for greater future spiritual empowerment. The function of the Holy Spirit equips individuals for service, not by overriding their free will, but instead enabling them to perform with wisdom, courage, and humility. Both Saul and David illustrate not only the gift but the sobering responsibility of Spirit-led leadership. Saul's fall and David's rise reveal how obedience and humility must be coupled to enable Spirit-led leadership. Within God's church, leadership is not determined by hierarchy or dominance, but by servanthood, emulating Christ's example of a servant and a shepherd. Individuals like Diotrephes, who desired pre-eminence, clashed with the apostle Paul's qualifications for church leaders (Titus 1:5-9; 1 Timothy 3:1-13)—integrity, self-control, and faithful leadership, traits representing the aspiration standards for all God's chosen saints, members of God's royal priesthood, empowered to bring light to a hopelessly darkened world.

Richard Ritenbaugh, citing Mark Twain's aphorism, "The art of prophecy is difficult, especially with respect to the future," points out that there are too many variables for any human to predict accurately. We can be thankful that God's prognostications and prophecies are totally trustworthy, many of which have already come to pass. God is a forecaster extraordinaire. Prophecy is the ability to forecast an event in advance. Many predictions are quite probable with regard to general predictions, but the more qualifiers and variables we add, the less probability the prophecy will work out. Some futurists, like H. G. Wells, have been successful in their prognostications, although many turned out to be duds. We should gaze forward, anticipating what God will reveal to us, becoming "nostalgic about the future," and not wistfully looking back, lingering or dallying, as did Lot and his family. By looking back, Lot's wife was boldly repudiating the will of God. Once we have made the commitment to follow God, to recount the cost would be suicidal. God has to come first before anyone else from the time of commitment and beyond. Looking back leads to "plowing a crooked furrow." Paul assured us that pressing forward to knowing Christ makes every other goal rubbish. In putting all into the goal of following and knowing Christ, we are not alone; we have a big cloud of witnesses who have provided us an example to follow something we cannot immediately see, except through the lens of faith.