This week God brought me back to an old hymn that we sang growing up in our church entitled “Pentecostal Power” written in 1912 by Charles H. Gabriel. Indeed, it is a message of Gabriel that we as a Church today desperately need to pray, “Lord, send the old-time power, the Pentecostal power! That sinners be converted and Thy name glorified!” It was not by the will of man that the Church was born but by the Spirit of God according to Peter in Acts 2: 1-4 was sent from heaven: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Jesus in Luke 12: 49 had said, “I am come to send fire on the earth” which was an expression of His mission to bring a transformative and purifying force into the world. He spoke of the “fire” of the Holy Spirit whose arrival at Pentecost ignited a powerful spiritual movement that brought light, power, and zeal to believers. Jesus expressed a deep longing and urgency for this process to begin and continue the spiritual transformation He sought to initiate. Jesus came to set fire to the religious establishment, to the religious hierarchy and Pharisaism. Let us make no mistake about it, Jesus came to build His Church composed of both Jews and Gentiles. In that Pentecost moment the record says they were in one place and of one accord—the empowered church is a church of one agenda—an agenda that centers on one Christ, one Lord, one Faith, and one Baptism of the Spirit. It is time for the Church to regain the power which once she had known. Those men and women who composed the first church were consumed by this fire…this Holy Ghost fire and they discovered that the more they found themselves on fire for God, their own difficulties and individual goals disintegrated. Let the last verse of “Pentecostal Power” be our prayer at such a time as this, “Speak, Lord, before Thy throne we wait, Thy promise we believe, And will not let Thee go until the blessing we receive.” May God rekindle the fire of His Holy Spirit within each of us and fan the flame that can change the world; alter men and nations; replace falsehood with truth; warm stony hearts; give strength to the weak, hope to the hopeless, power to the powerless and love to those who have no love.
In Zechariah 4:6 the Lord says, “This is the word of the LORD…Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” The message is clear—it is not by human strength or abilities, resources or financial means, or determined resolve are insufficient, but solely on the empowering presence of God’s Spirit will His purpose and plan for the Church—Christ’s body be fulfilled. We as a church have been walking by religion and not by faith. We have held on to what we could see—buildings, traditions, schedules, liturgies, ministries and the like. Some churches have loved their denominations more than they love Jesus. True religion is not a matter of carrying out traditions, rites, and rituals, but is always based in a genuine and intimate relationship with God the Father made possible by faith in Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit. If we walk by faith, we have only the promises of God that He has kept for thousands of years to those who trust Him. (Heb. 13:5) We must press on with the mindset that there is always something more to be found in Christ. (Phil. 3: 13) Satan wants believers to believe God is not faithful but the Word and prayer is stronger than the devil. May there be a breaking out—a rebirthing of God’s power—His Spirit as on the day of Pentecost that invades homes, churches, our nation and other nations.
May the words of Isaiah 60: 1-5 become a reality as we return to the Lord; “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the LORD shall arise upon thee. And His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about and see; all they gather themselves together they come to thee; thy sons shall come from far, and they daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see, and flow together; and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.” God demands and deserves our exclusive loyalty and love. He made us for Himself, and we have no higher calling than to draw near to Him. God Himself instructs us to draw near to Him and promises that He will draw near to us. (James 4:8) We need faith to bear the suffering encountered at times in our lives, and we need faith to pray for God to spare us any unnecessary suffering. We are called to arise and walk in the light of the LORD. God is calling His people Israel and His Church at such a time as this as He brings this age of grace to a close. Psalm 115: 1-3 says, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name give glory because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth. Why should the nations say, ‘Where, now, is their God?’ But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” To say that God is sovereign is to say that He has the power and the wisdom to accomplish everything and anything He desires. He is the absolute Monarch of the universe and He will rule all!
As we see the events of today fitting into the pattern of the Acts Church, we are called to consider Christ’s rebukes to the First-Century Church. These words written by Jeff Kinley in his book “Wake the Bride” are pertinent warnings to the Church today—to true believers as we have drifted away from our first love.
She grew apathetic toward Him. (Revelation 2:4) Jesus says to His bride, “You have left your first love.” What about the church today? When we gather, is Jesus the focus? Or is the service itself emphasized more? Are we more impressed with the music, the venue, and the teaching or with the Lord Himself? Do we leave each week equipped, challenged, and inspired to fall more passionately in love with our Savior? If not, then either we have fallen out of love with Jesus or our church has. Still betrothed to Him; still singing about Him; still using Christian lingo; still believing the right things about Him; still planning meetings and running ministries; still programming activities in His name; still doing church—but no longer head over heels in love with Him. In other words, asleep. She tolerated false teaching. (Revelation 2: 14-20) The early church dealt with a variety of false teaching and false teachers that Paul’s epistles were written to confront and correct. Today, with the emergence of feel-good preachers and obsession with being relevant to culture, we’ve seen a decline in biblical teaching among many churches. This isn’t to say we’ve tossed out the Bible. It’s just that Scripture is viewed more as a self-help book and how-to manual for life rather than as a revelation from God. Today’s lack of biblical understanding is one reason why many Christians feel so spiritually powerless, ineffective, and disconnected from God. Because we live in a world where many speak and write about the Bible, being equipped to sound teaching is how you learn to discern God’s truth from satanic deception and human error. We are told to do as the Bereans—to search the scriptures daily whether those things were so. (Acts. 17: 11) She acted like she was awake and alive, but in reality she was asleep and dead. (Revelation 3: 1-2) She had movement, just not life! Churches can easily slip into busyness that soon makes them more of a business than a body. The life Jesus seeks in His bride is less about deeds and more about devotion. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing—focused on the Head—Christ. Submission is more important than service. She was lukewarm. (Revelation 3: 15-16) A Christian or church with no visible passion or desperation for Jesus is ineffective in His eyes. He has no use for such lukewarmness. It’s salt that has become tasteless. She thought she was something when she was nothing. (Revelation 3: 17) Have we effectively pushed Christ to the margins of His own church? Have we gradually reduced our need for God while incrementally increasing our dependence on ourselves and our own resources? How radically different this is compared to John the Baptist’s life refrain. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Prestige, power, possessions, and pride are words used by many skeptics and unbelievers to describe the American church today. There’s no shortage of celebrity pastors with egos as big and deep as the debt on the buildings they persuaded their congregations to buy into. Paul encouraged every believer “not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment.” It doesn’t mean we deny accomplishments, abilities, successes, or wins. It just means we know at the end of the day we’re just a voice pointing to Someone far more important than we are. Surveying the church at the close of the first millennium, we see the bride drifting without anchor in many areas. This leads her into an encounter with an upset Christ who, due to His great love and jealousy for His bride, calls her back to Himself. It’s easy to see many of these parallels in the church today. According to Paul, Christ loves His church through helping her “sanctify” herself in purity. Every local church and individual believer exists primarily to set herself apart and prepare herself for her bridegroom. When the Holy Spirit fell on the early believers on Pentecost, a dramatic difference occurred in their lives. Peter explained that what was happening was spoken by the prophet Joel in 2: 28-29. He said in verses Acts 2:17-18, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” Peter did not state that Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Peter quoted Joel’s prediction as an illustration of what was taking place in his day, and as a guarantee that God would yet completely fulfill all that Joel had prophesied. The time of that fulfillment is stated here “afterward,” that is, in the latter days when Israel is back in the land that occurred in 1948 when she was recognized as a State. The Church is not prepared for the powerful move that God is about to do. It is not just a revival but an outpouring of God’s Spirit. God is a God of love and has not forgotten us. God is calling us to reformation and awakening and to a higher level of prayer.
Dr. Stanley gives us these instructions on how we can fan the flame in our lives resulting in a Church set on fire for God’s purposes at such a time as this. 1. We prevent ourselves from drifting by anchoring to the Word of God that is our instruction book for living. 2. We prevent ourselves from drifting by obeying the Word of God. 3. We prevent ourselves from drifting by surrendering our lives to God every day. 4. We prevent ourselves from drifting by staying on guard against the schemes of the devil. We must daily confess our sins according to 1 John 1:9 so that we are cleansed and filled with the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit involves both putting off the old way of life “works of the flesh” such as immorality, hatred, jealousy, and selfish ambition and putting on the new way of life marked by the “fruit of the Spirit” including love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. HOLY SPIRIT, SET US AFLAME WITH YOUR PENTECOSTAL POWER SO THAT THY NAME BE GLORIFIED!