“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” – Acts 1:8
We are admonished not to give the Word of God our own interpretation, but to hear what it says and run with it, and that the moment we find the Holy Spirit and Power in the same sentence (1 Thessalonians 1:5) we are to take heed. So then according to Hebrews 2:3 “how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,” how indeed shall we escape when the mandate is so clear and the Master is expecting us to bear fruit? We have received the Holy Spirit and Power, the next most important question will be; for what? Why do I need the Holy Spirit? Why am I endued with Power? Because that is salvation, salvation is a life of the Spirit, in the Spirit, and if truly it is of the Spirit there is resultant power (Acts 4:16). Nobody can escape this glorious expectation, This is the purpose of our calling (Ephesians 2:10), God did not send His Son so He could inherit trophies for the room divider, but He did it to inherit sons, who would be just like Jesus (Luke 7:22), who would be just like Him (God).
1 Corinthians 2:4-5 says: “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” This would be the perfect time to face facts, we have been saying a lot of things about God to people, worse than that we have been saying a lot about our churches, ‘come to my church because one two three’, ‘come to my church because four five six’, and how many of those people have come? I had a grand opportunity to link up with a childhood friend last year and this was it, this was my moment to get her on the God side, and I failed dismally. I regretted that meeting mid way because a couple sitting across the room from us looked over at us quizzically while I was blabbing on about my church this, my church that. While the accounts I shared with my friend were true, the timing was off, needless to say she has not entered our church gates yet, neither has she been to any other church since (I keep in touch, so I know). She has beliefs of the Universe and energies and anyone who knows truth knows that god is the devil.
She is still alive so I am not deterred, I am encouraged rather by this teaching (Holy Spirit & Power) that I have received what can change people’s lives, what is in me can turn a meeting over coffee into someones live changing encounter. I am wiser now to know that you don’t go into contact with people as yourself, no, you go as your best self, your higher self. You allow Holy Spirit to influence your every word, you allow Him to flow through You (when it is truly Him it won’t suck). We all know there are some people we may never see again. This one chance meeting can be the difference between them knowing Christ and continuing in purposeless existence. We have the power, we have the Spirit, we must set out with intent, the devil is wreaking havoc out there, I don’t think we have the luxury of saying ‘we don’t want to pester people’, but rather we should be praying; ‘Lord here I am, I am available, I am desperate to win souls to your glorious and eternal kingdom, use me Lord, Holy Spirit give me utterance, send me out Lord I pray, let me do the works that Jesus did and even greater works than He did as this is your will, amen!’
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