SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians
12:1a (TM)
What I want to
talk about now is the various ways God's Spirit gets worked into our lives.
STORY:
W. Duewel shares this story in his book, Touch the World Through Prayer: Finney
wrote how God gave him mighty infillings of the Holy Spirit "that went
through me, as it seemed, body and soul. I immediately found myself endued with
such power from on high that a few words dropped here and there to individuals
were the means of their immediate conversion. My words seemed to fasten like
barbed arrows in the souls of men. They cut like a sword. They broke the heart
like a hammer. Multitudes can attest to this...Sometimes I would find myself in
a great measure empty of this power. I would go and visit, and find that I made
no saving impression. I would exhort and pray with the same results. I would
they set apart a day for private fasting and prayer...after humbling myself and
crying out for help, the power would return upon me with all its freshness.
This has been the experience of my life."
OBSERVATION:
The Holy Spirit is working in our lives or is he? This is
serious stuff. This is an important reality. This is the source of power for us
to become everything God has designed us to be. This is the energy by which we
will convert the world … or at least those men and women who surround us.
The real question is this: are we earnestly praying for this
to become a reality? Do we really want the Holy Spirit to work in us… through
us? Are we ready to give up control… surrender to God’s holy will?
Therein lies the conflict doesn’t it? We really do desire
the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, but we strongly desire to remain in
control. We want to be able to filter what is happening and with whom. We want
to order our days in such a way that we have some “me” time. And this stuff
about surrender… are we kidding ourselves? We couldn’t wait until we became
adults so that we would be in control and now we have to give that control up?
When we have control nothing happens. No lives are changed
or very few. The work of the Kingdom doesn’t get done or not much of it. Our
energy is not at its peak. And, oh by the way, the work of the Holy Spirit is
not the same in everyone. In various and diverse ways the Spirit moves in and
through our lives. All we have to do is open the valve for it to flow.
PRAYER:
Come Holy Spirit and do your number on us. We think that we
are ready and if we aren’t then make us ready. Come Holy Spirit and do your
number on us!
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