When The Spirit Moves

We desire a revival from God that is anything but Biblical. We want God to come on the church in power and do amazing things. We also want God to leave things the same and not change anything. There has never been a time in history when God moved in power among people and left things as He found them. We desire a false revival that stirs the heart, makes us feel good about ourselves and allows us to remain unchanged. What we desire is anything but genuine revival.

We fail to see revival in the church is that we are unwilling to forgive the offenses of others. The longer that you harbor a grudge against anyone for anything, the longer it takes the Holy Spirit to work in your heart. We fail to see revival because we falsely believe that we do not need to be revived and that our lives are fine the way that we are. The unwillingness to admit that we need revival always quenches the movement of the Holy Spirit.

We fail to see revival because we are unwilling to surrender our agenda for the church. We want to make the church in our image and not the image of Christ. We fail to see revival because we are unwilling to be changed. Why should God bring revival to people who do not want to experience His power and be made more like His Son? We fail to see revival because we are unwilling to let go of ¡§our church.¡¨ Revival tarries when the church feels that they are in charge of the church.

Until we are willing to give these things over to God, we shouldn’t waste our breath praying for revival or a movement of the Holy Spirit. Ask God to change your heart before you seek revival because often revival starts in the heart of the believer. Ask God to rekindle your passion for Him and His work within your own life. Ask God to do something new in you and your life. We need to stop asking God to do something new in the church until we are willing to do something new ourselves.

Revival requires a change in the deepest levels of the heart. Our problem is that we often resist the call of God to revival. The early church embraced the call of God and experienced the greatest period of revival in humanity history. It should not be surprising that the church was born out of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. What should surprise us is that more churches are not reborn out of outpourings of the Spirit.

Our church does not need more programs. Our church does not need more events. Our church does not need more ministries. Our church is in a desperate need for more of the outpouring of God’s Spirit. We need for God to come and change our hearts. We are in desperate need of what God alone is capable of doing.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8

I. When the Holy Spirit moves, God reveals His power

The promise of Jesus is that God will give the needed power to do His work. Jesus makes it clear that there is no way to accomplish the mission of God’s Kingdom without the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do the work of God without God’s power in us.

The word power here implies living a dynamic life. The only way that our lives can move beyond the ordinary is to experience the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit filling our lives. Believers were never meant to live ordinary lives but sadly we settle for less than God’s desire for our lives. The way to live the kind of life that God intends is to allow the Holy Spirit to empower us for God’s service.

The purpose of God’s power is to give believers the strength to be witnesses of Christ’s kingdom. God gives His power to show His love and grace through our lives to those around us. The power allows the light of Christ to shine through our lives.

It is only when we experience the power of the Holy Spirit that we can begin to impact our world. Our impact starts in our community, we will lose the opportunity to reach the world.

II. When the Holy Spirit moves, lost people come to faith

Here is a list of times through Acts that large numbers of people come to faith

Acts 2: 3,000 converts at Pentecost

Acts 4: The church grows to at least 5,000

Acts 6: The church increases greatly and adds a large number of priests