A young man accepted Christ and became a Christian one night at a community revival. He found a church to attend and began reading his bible beginning with the gospel and then continuing on through the book of Acts. This young man was excited about what he was reading and wished to see the things that were written about in Acts, manifested in him and his church, but sadly he began to become disillusioned. Every Sunday he listened to the liturgy, and the sermon was always three points and a prayer, and the neat and tidy service always ended right on time. One day he asked some of the folks around him “When are you gonna do the stuff?” “What stuff?” they wanted to know. He said, “You know. . . the stuff!” He had been reading about the conversions, healings, deliverance and other miracles that took place in the early church that were recorded in the book of Acts. But he wasn’t seeing any signs and wonders, as a matter of fact he didn’t really see or feel anything and he began to wonder is this it? Where is the excitement? Where is the fire? Where’s The Passion and the Zeal? Sometimes I wonder the same thing, has our fire been extinguished? Have we become so worried about what the other person might say or think that we have quenched the Holy Spirit? If so we need to reignite that flame, we need to pray and seek out a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit and catch the world on fire.
Let’s look at how it all began (read Acts 1:8, Acts 2:1-4) So what’s different in today’s church? In the book of Acts we see that signs and Miracles were expected but in today’s world it seems that we show up and expect the same old same old and don’t anticipate a move from God at all.
Church we need to realize that God is still the same today as he was yesterday and the Holy Spirit should still be moving in the church today, the holy spirit should still be moving in our lives , we should be expecting The Holy Spirit to move us and for God to show up and show out.
Church, we need to be spirit filled, we need to be expecting a change in our lives, we need to be expecting and seeing change in the life of our church. If we would open up to the Holy Spirit and let it fill us and begin to operate under the Power that it gives us we would see:
• People being drawn to repentance
• People being healed both spiritually, physically, and emotionally
• We would see lives change and love abound
• We would see revival like we have never seen before
We need to experience the unity of the Spirit as the early church did, we need to be living in genuine love with each other and we need to have the fire fall and the people of God to rise up.
Houston We have a problem, it seems that all over the world we fail to reach our ignition point and the flame doesn’t ignite and we continue trying to do things our own way and under our own power, because that’s the way we have always done it. Folks we need to change our mindset, we need to get out of that rut, but the only way to do that is let The Holy Spirit take control. The same Holy Spirit poured out on the day of Pentecost is poured out for us.
In Joel 2:28-29 we are told
I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
Brothers and Sisters the Holy Spirit is ours it is a gift, Acts 2:38-39 tell us repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.
We all got it we just need to reach the ignition point and catch on fire.
When we reach our ignition point and the spirit lights us up things start to happen: barriers are broken, relationships are reconciled, disease is cured, addiction is broken, hope is established, people are blessed, and church happens. The Spirit of God is present in our lives so we need to be expecting something every single day.
We can reach our ignition point and catch fire if we would just realize a couple of things.
First we need to realize that the Christian life isn’t about keeping rules it’s about knowing Christ. Church’s all over the world today are filled with people decked out in their Sunday best; The Preacher is saying all the right things and everyone is right on cue with the responsive readings. But where is the passion, where is the zeal. I’ve been there I’ve been in services where no one sang out loud, or clapped their hands, Heaven forbid if someone raises their hands or says Amen. Folks when did Church become a place for silent worship, where has the excitement of that early Church gone? When were we told that if we love God to keep it silent and don’t talk about it?
What happened? Where’s the Fire? Have we been unable to reach our ignition point?
In churches all across the Nation the gospel of political correctness is being preached. The gospel of doing your own thing is the norm, in some places church is just a place for politics and social causes. In some places, the measure of a person’s Christianity is in how tolerant or inclusive they are in their acceptance of other people and ideas.
But until we start preaching that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him, we will not experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in its fullness or know the zeal of the early church. Until those of us who call ourselves People of God renew our commitment to Jesus Christ on a daily basis and live faithfully for him, we will not experience the power of Pentecost. Until we live by repentance and faith we will always be going through the motions of religion without truly knowing Jesus Christ.
As long as we think that Christianity is something that WE do, we are missing the point. Because it’s not about what we do, but about what God does in us. Being a Christian isn’t just about doing the right thing or believing the right doctrines, it’s about knowing the right person. It is not about being a member of the church or reciting creeds It’s not just about, baptism or communion, although all of these things are important parts of our life together, It’s about surrendering our lives, our bodies, our minds and our hearts to Jesus and asking him to take up residence in us. It is about confessing our sins and turning away from it. It’s about banking everything we have on God and loving him with our whole heart. The Christian faith isn’t just a feeling, it’s a reality, and it’s a relationship with a living savior.
To hear some people talk you would think that the Christian life is only about being born again, think again. Some folk act like they think that once we come to Christ we’re just supposed to hang out till Jesus returns. If that is the way we think, we will never experience the full potential of the Holy Spirit. As Christians we are supposed to be the salt and light in a tasteless and dark world and we need to be transforming in order to be more like Jesus each day.
Folks if we want to feel the Power of the spirit we need to reach our ignition temperature and catch on Fire.
