Joel 2:28

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.

"And it shall come to pass afterward ..." The specific fulfillment of this passage occurred on the day of Pentecost, upon which occasion the apostle Peter referred to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the twelve apostles as "this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel" (Acts 2:17f). To be sure, as Harley said, "Only the apostles received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on that occasion";[38] but the infusion of the Holy Spirit that became available to mankind on that day was a much more extensive thing than his miraculous demonstration upon the Twelve. Peter on that same occasion promised that all who would repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, "shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit"; and this also is included in the prophecy. It is in this extended sense that it is "upon all flesh." Furthermore, there were many isolated examples as seen in the virgin daughters of Philip (Acts 21:9) in which "sons and daughters" alike received great measures of the Holy Spirit. It was Moses who first expressed the hope that God's Spirit would be upon all the people, saying, "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them" (Numbers 11:29). The fulfillment of this desire is seen in the truth that every Christian is endowed with an "earnest" of the Holy Spirit.