The Power of the Holy Spirit

​In an article I read earlier this week the pastor described a couple that attends his church. Now this couple was strong. The guy was literally at one point the strongest man on earth! He could bench 1000 pounds! He was absolutely massive, and the crazy thing was that his wife could bench 400 pounds! They were both just absolutely huge! Now imagine if you met their children and they were scrawny little kids! That would be weird, right? You would expect that with such huge, strong, powerful parents that their children wouldn’t be these scrawny physically small kids! What if I told you that I was in fact describing what has happened to the church?
           
We believe in a powerful, all-knowing, mighty God who has giving us his Spirit of power and we go to church, hand someone a bulletin, say “glad to have you here, service should be done in an hour- see ya next week!” That doesn’t make sense! Shouldn’t our gathering reflect this power that God has given us?
 
In the early church people couldn’t stop talking about what was different with Christians. In Acts chapter 4 we see the power that the Spirit gave Peter and John. The rulers were amazed because they knew that Peter and John were ordinary unschooled men and that there was a supernatural power to their message. It also says that the believers “were one in heart and mind”. “With Great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus”. We also read that the believers “spoke the word of God boldly”. Clearly this early group of believers had this supernatural power given to them by the Holy Spirit that enabled them to preach the gospel effectively and boldly.
 
Isn’t that same Spirit of power available to us today? Don’t we have the same access to the Holy Spirit as the early church did?
 
Let me answer that clearly. YES. Yes we do! This is great news for us! We don’t have to do it on our own! We don’t have to have the pressure and weight of our ministry to the church and to unbelievers placed solely on us! The Holy Spirit is with us! We can serve the church and the community in the power that He gives us. We can boldly speak the word of God because we have been given this Spirit of power. The same Spirit that empowered Peter, John, Paul and many more in the early church empowers us TODAY.

I challenge you to live in that power. Listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling you to do, and most importantly, ACT on it!
 
Prayer- Lord may we be a church that ministers and gathers in the power of your Spirit. Thank you for meeting with us every day of the week and for helping us build your kingdom here, on earth as it is in heaven.