Experience The Spirit In Conflict Series

Series: Experiencing the Spirit.

We have been all seeking and even desiring to experience the Spirit more in our daily lives. I have been stressing the importance of growing spiritually over the past few weeks. We discovered that many Christians desire to grow spiritually but fail to follow through with spiritual growth. We have more resources available to us in this country than ever before and yet our countries Christian population seems to be very immature. We have a society filled with Christians who don’t know their Bibles or how to apply biblical concepts to their lives.

My first message highlighted the importance of growing spiritually and emphasized the studding of God’s Word the Holy Bible. This is the base or beginning point for spiritual growth. The Bible is the primary source which helps us mature in our spiritual walks.

My second message emphasized how we need to experience the Spirit at work. We need to pray at work, we need to see and recognize the God moments at work. We need to understand that the Spirit is with us at work and He does not stay in the parking lot when we go into work.

My third message was on the importance of experiencing the Spirit in and through worship. I highlighted how David did this in his life and how he so loved the Lord that he set up the Tabernacle of David. In this place there was 24-7 worship and prayer before the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark represented the presence of God. Worship is a venue where we can connect with the Holy Spirit and experience the Spirit.

My forth message stressed how to experiencing the Spirit through wisdom. We looked at Proverbs 8 and discovered that Jesus is wisdom personified and all wisdom comes through a relationship with Him. Wisdom is given to us by God and therefore we must listen to His wisdom which comes from above. The reason many are spiritually immature is because to many Christians listen to wisdom from below which is of this world. Wisdom comes from God and God alone. In James chapter 1 we are told if we lack wisdom call on God because He does give us wisdom to deal with the situations of Life.

T.S. - Today we are going to explore how we can experience the Spirit through the firestorms of life.

Sermon: Experiencing the Spirit through conflict.

Introduction: Story

My Story: The Day of the fire storm!

I was at Boy Scout Camp when I discovered the terrible damage a fire storm could do to my life. It was a lazy afternoon very hot and dry. John and I were sent back to camp to start dinner for the guys. When I got back to camp I discovered that the camp fire looked as if it had gone out. So I decided to rebuild the fire to get it ready for our meal. So I gathered fire wood and placed it on the coals and tried to get it to burn. It would not start so I decided to pour some Kerosene on the wood figuring it would help get the fire started sooner so that John and I could start dinner sooner for the troop. So I poured the Kerosene on the wood and all of a sudden the fire ignited. It then traveled up the liquid and into the can I was holding in my hand. Within seconds the can exploded in my hand sending burning Kerosene streaming in every direction and most of the burning fuel landed on my lower right leg and it burst into flames.

It was so surreal I looked down as the heat started piercing through to my leg and I began screaming. I was 12 years old and my leg was burning out of control. I screamed for help and thru myself to the ground. I began to roll and roll and the more I rolled the more the ground burst into flames around me. I rolled into a tent and it caught on fire. I was screaming because of the pain and crying out for help. I started thinking this is it I am going to burn to death and right at that moment another Boy Scout came to my rescue. John had a blanket in his hand and he grabbed me and wrapped it around my leg to put out the fire. Once he put out my leg he then proceeded to put out the tent and the burning ground around us.

I laid there in shock and disbelief with horrible pain throbbing up my leg. John held me and asked me to hang in there because he was going to get me help. He ran like the wind for about a mile to the first aid head quarters in the park. I laid there all alone on the ground thinking, “Why did I do that!” then the thought crept in, “Is this it!” It seemed as if I laid there forever starring up into the blue sky.