4 Those who had been scattered preached the word
wherever they went.5 Philip went down to a city in
Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When
the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close
attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks,
impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were
healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city. -Acts 8:4-8
From someone in the church at that time, this must have
seemed like a disaster. The church is
being scattered through persecution. I can
imagine the burdened prayers going up to God praying for God to save their
church. Was God answering that
prayer? Yes. But, unless the church was filled with the
Spirit, they would not have known God was answering that prayer and just
accepted it. They would have been in
despair believing the church was being crushed and living in fear.
When things happen at our church or in our lives today, do we react confidently in the
Spirit or in fear? We had this homeless
debate among the whole church some time ago in our community.
Were people working in the Spirit or in fear? This is a difficult thing for the members of
the church because people don’t have signs over them that let you know if they
are walking in the Spirit or in fear. I believe half the church was in fear and the other half in the Spirit. The result was confusion and a bunch of unhappy people. The church has to be of one accord, all in the Spirit. When it is, it becomes dynamic in all areas.
I believe that the church is afraid to pray for the Holy
Spirit. We are afraid that the Spirit
will come in and change everything. We
won’t have control of our church anymore.
It won’t be ours. The church
isn’t supposed to be ours! It is the
body of Christ! We are members of His
body. He is the head; He determines the
direction; we follow Him as the body.
Jesus used persecution to grow the first church while they followed Him
through the Spirit. What will happen to
our churches today if we become filled with the Spirit and follow Him? We don’t know, but we need to learn to trust
God completely and turn the control of the church over to Him. Otherwise, we need to go fishing on Sunday,
we are wasting our time in this social club.
What would happen in our lives if we would pray for the Holy Spirit to fill us and we would follow His leading? People are afraid they will lose their life!! They might not get to do what they want to do. They don't want to be seen as a fanatic. I believe they have made their choice. They choose the world. They choose themselves as their own god. If you claim to be a Christian, it's time to pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you and become alive again!
The people of this first church are scattering to surrounding areas. Yet, God is using this to spread the
gospel. Those who scattered preached the
gospel wherever they went. Do we do that
today? Is this true of the church
members in our church? During the week,
do you preach the gospel? Or do you hope
that nobody can figure out that you’re a Christian?
No comments:
Post a Comment