Fresh Fire: Supernatural Power
We are at the end of our eleventh month in our Fresh Fire series. On the Holy Spirit.
11 months - doesn't seem possible does it?
Have you enjoyed the journey so far?
In January we considered: “the Spirit in the World Today”
February The Spirit in the Old Testament (Pentateuch)
March The Spirit in the History of Israel
April The Spirit in the Writing Prophets
May The Spirit in the Life and Ministry of Jesus
June The Spirit in the Teaching of Jesus
July The Spirit in the Book of Acts
August The Spirit in the Everyday Living
September The Spirit in the Ministry of Believers
October The Spirit in the Ministry of the Church
This month we have been hearing about “The Spirit in Supernatural Demonstrations”
And Next week we will move into our December Programme and consider:
The Spirit of Advent / Christmas & Healing
11 months of teaching about who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit does, and what the Holy Spirit enables us to be and do.
Let me ask you some questions....
Have these last 11 months made a real difference in your Christian Life?
Have you gained a greater understanding of who the Holy Spirit is?
Have you experienced Him doing more in your life?
Has the Holy Spirit enabled you to be more the person that God has called you to be?
Have you allowed the Holy Spirit to work in you and through you?
11 months - is there a real difference in your knowledge, in your understanding, in your experience of the Holy Spirit in your life?
My hope, our hope as a ministry team, is that this year you will have been truly impacted by the Holy Spirit - that you will have seen and experienced the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in your everyday life.
That you are allowing the Holy Spirit to operate more fully in your life - that you are experiencing His supernatural power in your life. The promise of Jesus is that The Holy Spirit will operate in Power in your life.
The words of Jesus recorded in Acts 1:8 are : “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Are you experiencing the full power of the Holy Spirit in your life?
Or are you limiting the flow of power to your life?
Do you only allow a small trickle of power to flow?
Or are you willing to experience the full flow of Holy Spirit Power in your life?
This morning, how willing are you to allow the Holy Spirit to make you the person God wants you to be?
Are you being the witness that God has empowered you to be?
To the ends of the earth?
Perhaps if we were to paraphrase this verse for our group of churches, we would have a better understanding of what the power is meant to be for -
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Ashingdon, throughout Rayleigh, in Southend, and to the ends of Essex.”
Does that bring the truth of the reason for the Power of The Holy Spirit in your life a little closer to home?
Does that paraphrase help you to desire that God given Holy Spirit power to be fully operational in your life?
Friends, if you know Jesus as Saviour, then that power is already present in your life.
You need to allow Him to flow in your life.
We can all wrap ourselves up in excuses about why we don’t witness, we can find reasons to try and justify what we don’t do to share our faith with others.
We can blame our weakness, we can blame our eloquence, we are British so we can even blame the weather...
Actually, we don’t have the right to blame anything - Jesus says that the power to do it is already ours.
So why don’t the majority of us do it?
Are we too busy trying to protect ourselves?
Are we afraid of what will happen if we allow the Power of the Holy Spirit to operate in our lives?
Are we unwilling to show people the real person that God has called us to be?
Are we too worried about what our so called friends will think of us if we tell them the truth about who Jesus is?
Are we scared that if they knew the “real us”, they may not want to be friends with?
Do we love our friends enough to allow the power of the Holy Spirit to empower us to witness to them?
Do we care enough to tell them that Jesus Loves them?
Will you tell your friends the truth about eternity, about Heaven and Hell?
Will you allow the Holy Spirit to use you in His power to be salt and light?
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Humanly speaking, Have you ever wanted to tell a friend what you really thought about their outfit, or what you really thought about their attitude?
Most people avoid being totally honest because they don’t want to hurt anothers feelings or lose their friendship.
And if someone asked about their outfit, would they really want to hear the truth anyway.
People would rather hear flattering words - they want assurance - they want a pat on the back - not a slap in the face.
How many friends do you have that you are really comfortable being yourself around?
Are there people that you could just open your heart to and tell them exactly how you feel?
Or are you the one that people are comfortable sharing with?
Do you offer wise words of counsel?
Do you provide the listening ear??
Do you offer to pray for your friends that are hurting or in distress?
Do you allow the Holy Spirit to minister in you and through you?
When someone hides their hurts under a fake smile, do you allow the Spirit to reveal the truth to you?
People may tell you, everything is fine, you may say everything is fine, but the reality may be very different.
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I don’t know what kind of week you have had.
I don’t know how your morning started today.
Maybe you have come to church this morning, acting as if everything in your world is OK.
Maybe you are showing on the outside that everything in your world fine - but maybe you are hiding the reality behind a mask.
Perhaps this morning you are putting on a front, putting on your “Christian Face”, when really you are far from OK.
Perhaps this morning you need to be honest and open about what you are really feeling.
Maybe this morning you need a greater sense of the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Do you need to stop fighting God and allow the Holy Spirit to control and guide your life?
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Throughout the world today there will be many people that go to church, and act like Christians, but the reality is they haven’t done anything all week to become more like Christ.
The reality is that they have not experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
They may have spent hours at work.
They may have spent hours in front of the TV.
They may have spent hours doing hobbies, walking the dog, playing games,
updating Facebook, twittering comments about everything and nothing.
Hours doing the things of the world, but they haven’t more than a few minutes in prayer, that have not sought the power of God in their lives, and they haven’t read the Bible at all.
I pray that you are not one of those people.
I pray that you will have spent time in prayer.
That you will have spent time in the Word.
That you will have sought the power and the presence of God in your life.
And if you did not do it last week, then ask God to help you do it this week, and the week after, and the week after that!
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11 months...
How has this Fresh Fire Series impacted you so far this year?
What has God revealed to you?
What journey has he taken you on?
Do you sense more of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life?
Are you experiencing more of His power?
Are you taking every opportunity to experience the power of God in your life?
Have you made a real commitment to allow the Holy Spirit to work in you and through you?
In the last 11 months have you taken the time, have you made the commitment, have you allowed the power of the Holy Spirit to change you? to use you? in power?
Have you made more effort to focus on God operating in your life?
Will you make more effort to be the person God has called you to be?
Don’t just visit church when you feel like it,
Don’t just read your Bible when you feel like it,
Don’t just worship God when it fits in your schedule and expect to fully experience the presence and power of God in your life.
Allow yourself to be led by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Draw closer to God and allow Him to work in your life.
Allow the power of the Holy Spirit to flow in your life.
Friends, God doesn’t give His power to people who refuse to worship Him.
And God doesn’t empower those who refuse to serve Him.
God anoints those who seek after Him.
Friend, God loves you, and He wants your heart and attitude to be right in His sight.
God loves you and wants you to fully experience His power in your life.
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As I draw the message to a close let me ask you:
Do you find it hard to pray?
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you.
Do you find it hard to study the Bible?
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you.
Do you find it boring to come to church?
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you.
Do you find it difficult to witness to others?
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you.
You may find time to do many things in your life, but what you need to find time to do is ask the Holy Spirit to help you become the person God wants you to be.
Ask the Holy Spirt to give you a Fresh Fire for God.
God wants you to be filled with power.
He wants you to do great things for him.
He wants you to do great things for His Kingdom.
He wants you to use the gifts and talents He has given you.
In your own strength, in your own power, you may have trouble talking to others about Jesus.
Maybe you worry about what to say, maybe you are worried about what not to say,maybe you are a little afraid of failure.
Allow the power of the Holy Spirit to work in you and through you and God will take care of the details.
Allow the fresh fire to change you, to empower you, don’t limit what God can accomplish through you.
Let me encourage you to spend time in God’s Word.
Spend time in prayer and worship and Seek the power of the Holy Spirit in your life that you will be His witnesses, telling people about Him everywhere—in Ashingdon, throughout Rayleigh, in Southend, and to the ends of Essex.”
Amen.
