Have you ever thought to yourself, I wish we were living in the days of the apostles?
And then you think to yourself. You know in the days of the apostles there were miracles, and signs, and wonders. The power of the Holy Spirit was falling. People were being baptized in power.
The lame were walking, and the deaf were hearing, and the blind were seeing. Those must have been glorious days.
I have thought that way. I've had those very same thoughts... Lord what it must have been like to have lived during the days of the apostles, and to have seen the miraculous supernatural power of God working and manifesting through the lives of the apostles and the disciples.
I thought about the very introduction of the Holy Spirit as the baptizer in Acts chapter 2 when he comes and he baptizes his people with fire. Tongues of fire sitting upon their heads.
And they go forth with tongues of fire witnessing to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ with great power and authority.
It must have been glorious. It must have been amazing. And I have to admit, I have thought to myself ... I sure would have loved to have lived in the days of the apostles.
But to be honest about it I did not really fully and completely and accurately process the information that I had.
You say Pastor Terry what do you mean by that? Well what I mean is, all the information is right there in the book of acts, but I only saw what was comfortable, and what was exciting.
I didn't see the persecution, and the hostility that was raging against the church. I didn't see the intensity of the anger and hatred for the message of the gospel and toward those who carried it.
Now when I look in the book of acts I see things differently.
Now I understand that the apostles, as much as they were highly anointed and used by God, they were equally hated and persecuted because of their faith.
But they were bold and they were aggressive, and they were faithful to the calling and to the ministry.
Now I said all that to say this... I believe that we are living now in apostolic days. Or I should say, in days such as the apostles lived in.
But here is my concern. My concern is, that though we are living in days of apostolic persecution, we are not living in apostolic power.
This is my genuine concern today.
The apostles lived under the continual threat of persecution, but the apostles also lived in the power of the Holy Spirit!
My concern is that we are in days of apostolic persecution against the church, but the church is not moving in apostolic power.
I'm going to say something that I believe with all my heart.
I believe that in as much as the church is beginning to experience persecution and hostility against it, it is also going to be used by God as a catalyst for good, to ignite the church, and to get us back to apostolic power.
But here is the question, how is the church going to get back to apostolic power?
The answer is very simple, although the path is not. We have to go the same route as the early apostles.
It all starts in the upper room, where 120 men and women who recognized the immensity of the work before them, and understood their inability to accomplish it in human strength or ability, set themselves to praying and seeking God, and crying out in faith, for the promise of power from on high.
Before Jesus left he told them that they would receive power from on high after the Holy Ghost came upon them. (See Acts chapter 1:8)
And he told them, "Tarry in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." (Luke 24:49)
Jesus knew the work before them would require supernatural power, because Jesus knew that their battle was spiritual, against demons, principalities and powers of darkness.
Jesus also knew that the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire would equip them for this battle and this spiritual warfare.
As they came together in one place and one accord to contend in prayer for the promised power from on high, bible scholars say they were there for ten days pleading for “power.”
That’s what Jesus said they would receive and that’s what they were contending for. “Power from on high.”
Then suddenly the answer came. Suddenly heaven responded to earth, and the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead came rushing in like a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
The might of heaven, the strength of God, the mighty Holy Ghost, came suddenly upon them, and set upon them as cloven tongues of fire, and filled everyone of them until they began to speak with other tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance.
Suddenly they were endued with a supernatural power from on high. They were not moving in the weakness of human flesh, they were moving by the power of the Spirit that created the universe. He was now living inside of them, resting upon them, and flowing through them like rivers of water.
This is where we must come back to, we must come back to Jesus first words concerning their baptism of power.
He said... Go to Jerusalem and tarry there until. How long? Until!
How long is until? It is as long as it takes.
It is until and unto.
*Until the heavens open.
*Until our weakness is clothed with his strength.
*Until the fire of God sets upon us, and sets us on fire.
*Until our tongues speak by Divine power and utterance, and authority.
They waited. We could stop right there for awhile. They waited.
Waiting is a lost art today. We live in a microwave age, we want everything on our time, and that means fast.
The Holy Spirit could have rushed in upon them as soon as they reached the upper room. But there is something important that takes place in the waiting.
In the waiting...
*Motives are exposed.
*Attitudes are corrected.
*Hunger is increased.
*The lukewarm, and half hearted are sifted out.
*Waiting increases our capacity to receive.
Waiting is the way God prepares us to receive.
*The willingness to wait reveals the value you place on what you’re waiting for.
The greater value you place on something, the longer you are willing to wait, and persevere for it.
I hear the Holy Spirit saying, it’s time for the church to get back to the upper room, and get in the receiving posture again.
It’s time to position ourselves before God as the early church, with the same until attitude.
Tarry until the power comes.
Jacob had that until disposition as he wrestled with the angel of the Lord. The angel said, let me go the day breaketh. Jacob said, I won’t let you go until you bless me.
This is where we must come back.
*I won’t let you go until you bless me.
*Until you pour your Spirit out upon me.
*Until you clothe me with your power.
*Until you fill me with your Spirit.
*Until you consume me with Holy fire.
The reason we are not experiencing apostolic power today is because there is so little apostolic praying.
When the church comes back to apostolic praying, she will come back to apostolic power.
in the book of acts chapter 4:29-31 It says, when the apostles had been threatened for their preaching and their teaching in Jesus name.
The Bible says they were gathered together and they prayed. They prayed, and they said, oh Lord behold their threatening's and grant unto servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
Then the Bible says, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak the Word of God with boldness.
And then the Bible says in vs 33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
Then in chapter 5 vs 12 it says, and by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought, or performed among the people.
The point is... They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. There was a fresh baptism of apostolic power that came upon them when they prayed.
This is the main reason the government is trying to keep the church from assembling together.
They are not really afraid of our singing, or even our preaching, what they are afraid of is our praying.
When the church really gets down to the business of praying with power. Then the church will emerge clothed with power, and that is what the devil is afraid of.
A praying church is a dangerous church, dangerous to the plans of hell.
Never before in the history of this nation has there been a greater need for men and women who know how to pray, who know how to groan in the spirit, how to travail and agonize before God for the power to confront the devil and destroy his wicked agenda.
If the church does not find her knees in prayer then the church is going to lose everything she has.
What makes the church the church, is not chicken dinners, and padded pews and air conditioning and stained glass windows. What makes the church the church is the presence and the power of God, residing in and flowing through her to heal and restore and deliver, and the only way to have that is to pray.
The greatest privilege and the greatest responsibility that has ever been given to the church is prayer. If we fail here, we fail everywhere.
If in this most critical hour of our history, the church neglects the most critical responsibility that she has, which is to pray, then we are handing our children and our grandchildren to the devil on a silver platter.
I believe we need President trump in the White House. But more than that, we need praying men and women in the church house.
Jesus said, my house shall be called of all nations “a house of prayer.”
That’s why there is such an attack against church attendance. The devil has an agenda to destroy this nation and ultimately the world. But through prayer we introduce the kingdom of God into the equation, and when Gods kingdom is manifested, Satan loses every time.
For some time now the prayer of the church has been... Lord have mercy on us, and rightly so. But I am convinced that the church must now assume a different posture, and that posture is militant and aggressive.
If we the church of the Lord Jesus Christ do not take a militant and aggressive stand against the principalities and powers and rulers of darkness that are destroying our nation, we will lose our country not by conquest but by forfeit.
In other words, it won’t be because the devil has more power, it will simply be because the church failed to access the power available to us.
We are in apostolic days of evil and persecution. Now the church must return to apostolic prayer, and we will see an explosion of apostolic power.
