How easy it is for Christians to hold to a belief system, yet neglect the responsibility to pray and expect miraculous signs and wonders to take place in their lives and churches. I'm certainly guilty of that and not following the pattern of prayer and expectancy we find in the book of Acts:
"And now, O Lord...give your servants great boldness in their preaching. Send your healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus." Acts 4:30
These people were absolutely passionate about God showing up and doing incredible things in the lives of people. They didn't pray out of duty or routine, but because they held the responsibility to seek God and turn their world upside down. Look at the results:
"After this prayer, the building where they were meeting shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they preached God's message with boldness. " Acts 4:31
I'm being revived by this Scripture. It's been too long...Lives must be changed. I can't handle nice services and people that don't really experience the true power of God. I must accept this responsibility.
How can we as Christians explain away that kind of passion and expectancy? What if we admitted that our services were doing nice and good things, but not truly powerful things!?! As for me, I want to purpose in my heart to expect nothing less than the truly transformational and miraculous power of God to be displayed each and every time we gather, and each and every time I preach God's message with boldness.
We have a responsibility to not just believe in the power of God, but to pursue it and expect it to be displayed in the lives of people. What a wonderful responsibility that need not be avoided!
Any thoughts on this today?
1 comment:
Thanks for your thoughts on this. I was just thinking about how I wish I could see more growth in the spiritual lives of myself and those close to me. Then I realized I was falling into the trap of wanting a self-help spirituality instead of surrendering the results to God. We are called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, but we want the instant gratification of total transformation and when we don't get it we look for something besides Jesus; things like pop-psychology and self-help theology. Sometimes we can't see the miracles God is doing in our lives because they are incremetal. They are still wonderful signs of God's power, but they are gradual. We can't visibly see the transformation of the human heart. Keep preaching the gospel boldly, believing in God for the results, even if you can't see them.
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