Light The Fire Again

Light The Fire Again

Preparing for Spiritual Breakthrough

Acts 1:13ff

This is a church on fire

This is a Holy Spirit place

It is our burning desire to lift up Jesus name

Let fire burn in every heart

To light the way defeat the dark

Let the flame of love burn higher

This is a church - This is a church on fire

It is the model church. It is a place a vital and vibrant worship. We hear about them immersing themselves in teaching and learning Biblical truth. We see them engaging in breaking of bread and prayer, vital worship. There is fellowship, masks are coming off with no more relational pretending, and in that environment of honesty and vulnerability deep community is being born as members encourage and support one another. The wealthier members own responsibility and care for the poor, people sharing their property and possessions, a spirit of unity and love, eating in one another's home. Members are spontaneously finding ways that they can pour ministry into the lives of other members of the church, and people that they rub shoulders with on a daily basis. And as all of that is happening God is providing members of the church are involved in daily sharing their faith, so that friends, family and associates were making regular decisions for Christ. On no less than two occasions, the church has had a crowd of thousands making a first time commitment to follow Christ.

Would you like to be involved in a church like that? Does your heart cry out to have God move within this church in the same sort of way as He has the church I just spoke about? Who wouldn't desire a taste of that kind of worship, discipleship, ministry and outreach?

And what about you personally? Do you have a desire for God to do something remarkable in your life … to stoke within you a life changing spiritual fire? Would it bring a spine tingling thrill to your life to see God work through you like he works through members of the church I just mentioned?

However, maybe you sit there wondering, “Why hasn't God worked that miracle yet? Why hasn't he moved in my life in the same kind of dynamic ways?”

We read about that church in Acts 2, and we stand in awe at what was going on in that early church. We read of the breathtakingly beautiful dynamics going on in the early church. Have you ever wondered what it was that ignited the first century church in Jerusalem? What was it that transformed a semi-defeated Bible study group meeting in an upper room in Jerusalem into this highly energized, Holy Spirit empowered, life-giving local church?

When you read the book of Acts, and you see what God did through that first church, you will stand in awe at what God did through a local fellowship. That local fellowship became the launching pad what F. F. Bruce calls “the spreading flame” for the spread of the church around the world.

If you are like me when you read Acts, and you look at a churches vital signs, signs like those mentioned, you find yourself saying, "God, I want more of that kind of spiritual activity in my church. I would give anything to be set on fire with the explosive power of the Holy Spirit in my congregation. I'd give anything for my church to become an Acts 2 church."

To which God responds, "I would too."

But then when you ask the follow-up question: "How can we get started? How can the revolution get going?" I think the answer from heaven will be "Start where the Acts 2 church started."

Why is it that some churches are ablaze with the movement of God while others have more in common with the morgue? Further, why is it that some individual Christ-followers have obvious signs that the Holy Spirit is performing his transforming work in them, while it appears that God has failed to bring life-change to others.

I know that the Holy Spirit is instrumental in Christians experiencing spiritual breakthrough. After all, the filling of the disciples with the Holy Spirit is the pivotal event in Acts 2. The chapter begins “On the day of Pentecost, seven weeks, after Jesus’ resurrection, the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm in the skies above them, and it filled the house where they were meeting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit …” (2:1-4).

You see, what happened to the disciples, the Holy Spirit comes and not only appears as a flame, but lights a spiritual fire within them that transforms the world.