Holy Spirit Revival

How can we cry out to receive the power of God through His Holy Spirit if we continue to deny that power? No I'm not a "power" seeker in the sense that I desire it for myself. I am seeking to know God on a much more deeper level than ever before. Maybe some of you are there. I feel that I am not. I just believe more and more that the kind of relationship I am seeking is centered in something I have denied myself and others most of my preaching life--the Holy Spirit

True, I believe that we receive the Holy Spirit at baptism. But I don't know what that means. I also believe that He works today, but I have limited Him in my mind. There seems this emptiness in my life that I think He can fill if I will but allow Him in. Jesus told the disciples in John 16 that it was better for Him to leave so that the Spirit could come. We saw the beginning of that in Acts 2 on Pentecost. The Spirit came with power--"as of a rushing mighty wind." Jesus kept His promise to them. The promise, however, is to "all whom the Lord our God will call." I am called of God through His message and so are you. Therefore, the same Holy Spirit power that was given that day is still available today.

Do you not feel the tug of God on your heart sometimes that tells you, "Hey, quit playing church and realize the power from on high!?" I think we live in an age much like that of Pentecost. We have crucified the Son over and again by our worldliness in the church. We have done it through the guise of right doctrines and church piety. We have made a mockery of the name of Jesus through church arguments and denominationalism and I have a sneaky suspicion that it is because we have denied the power that God has made available through His Spirit.

I believe that God is calling us to true Holy Spirit revival! We need to do like the disciples in that age. We need to "go to Jerusalem and wait." You know I don't mean the literal city, but we are trying to run around in a frenzy of church programs and activity trying to find whatever we can to make us feel good about what we are doing when we need to be in the "upper room" praying for and waiting for God to come with power on our church.

Let us listen to Him. Listen to His call. Listen to His reality. Listen to the Master call through the Spirit and follow without question. God help us to put away our baggage and listen to You!

BOA RESULTS

Well, I wish I could give you a better report, but it just was not our year at BOA. The competition in our classification was much more stiff than ever before. I have to say, however, that our kids did the best they've done this year. The show went off without a hitch. I told them after the performance that win our lose they could know for sure that they did their best show. Everyone felt the same way.

But, no matter how much you prepare them for bad news, especially since they've won their division four of the last five years, they were still heart-broken. They announce third place, second place, and then first. Our name was not mentioned in any of those. Tears were shed by us all, but I hope that the kids will grow from this. We have a ton of freshmen (over half of our band) and I hope this will really make them work harder next year. If that happens then the lose will have not been in vain. I was very proud of their attitude after seeing the band that beat us out. It really show some maturity in them. The kids said that the band that won our division deserved it after they saw them in the finals competition.


Same trip, same story, different channel. I saw something this weekend that was a great illustration for unity in the kingdom that I want to share with you, my blog family. There were many bands in this Super Regional competition. They all competed against one another. Each desiring that they win. But on Saturday night, just before the awards ceremony, the whole crowd in the Georgia Dome began something we've all seen or be a part of--the wave! It was awesome to see all these competing groups doing something together. Being marching bands who pride themselves in technique, they put on a great wave.

On Sunday morning we all met in the lobby of the hotel for a worship period before entering the park. It was just like the wave. There were people from all kinds of Christian backgrounds worshiping together. In a sense, we were coming together as one--a sort of "wave" in the name of Jesus. I wish to God in heaven that we could put our competing pasts, quirks, doctrines, and whatever else that separates us and come together in the name of Jesus the one in whom we all agree and show what Jesus prayed for--UNITY! God help us.