What Is Your Image Of The Power Of God In The Church?
Good Morning Friends,
When the disciples could no longer follow an earthly Jesus, Jesus sent them and us something to bind us together in Christian love. He sent us the Holy Spirit so we would have the advantage and ability collectively to show the world. Maybe you sense power in winning souls, changing lives and impacting the communities in which we live. This was most certainly a motivation for Peter and for Paul as we read about their relationship in the book of Luke Acts. Maybe you sense power in a Pentecostal Holy Spirit that came so that the Church could be Jesus’ presence in his absence… first to the Jews through Peter and then to the Gentiles through Paul. There is much to contemplate on this subject. What Is Your Image Of The Power Of God In The Church?
Scripture: Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem . . . and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 (NIV)
Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.
2 Peter 3:14-16
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
John 17:20-26 (NRSV)
Message: There is a miracle that lies within each of us that empowers, equips and enables us to receive the power of life…love. In love we have the power for living, the power to witness, the power to pray and even the power to perform miracles. The good news is that the Holy Spirit connects, comforts and convicts us in the process of learning to love. What it amounts to, when in unity with other lovers, is the power to be like Jesus in this world. The Holy Spirit gives us capacity individually but more importantly collectively. Indeed we are to know and to rely on the love God has for us individually but collectively as well. We are to witness by and through the power of the Holy Spirit in which we move, live and have our very being. Friends, we need to live in the power of the Spirit here on earth until we get to our heavenly home that Jesus has prepared for us. We need to rejoice because Jesus has interceded for us to protect, sanctify and bring unity to us all through love for those collectively called out to assemble for His purpose of witnessing to the incarnation of Christ…the presence of Jesus in the gift of life we have been given. The image of power is love and sometimes this love requires us to be in tension with others as it did with Peter and Paul. But then hopefully we appreciate each other enough to work through it for a greater purpose than our own.
Pray that when we move we move with God. Pray we have the courage to follow the leaning of the Holy Spirit. Pray we thank God for the companions along the way. Pray we move in unity of Spirit. Pray the called out assembly in this place lives to emulate Him. Pray we learn to love creatively with faith in the power God to do great things in and through us. Pray we have the power to live for Jesus. Pray we individually and collectively are in the unity of God’s love. Pray we have the power to believe and the power to have faith. Pray we realize the power of the Holy Spirit is for a purpose. Pray we conform to Christ-likeness. Pray we receive the gift of the Father through the Son. Pray we share what we have received in Christian love. Pray that the streams of Holy History converge into one, of Christ transforming every area of human experience washing over and transforming culture in the power, revelation, and revival of His presence with us. Pray we remember those who have loved.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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