CHURCH CORNER: Fire for today
Published 9:09 am Wednesday, February 14, 2018
17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. –Revelation 2:17
I have the reputation of being “new school” when it comes to my ministry methodology. That is partly true. I do believe that that God is doing a “new thing”, and “that was then, this is now”, “what got is here, won’t get us to the next step.” Jesus Himself said, you don’t put new wine into old wineskins (Luke 5:27).
That being said, I always enjoy reading about and listening to the stories from our spiritual mothers and fathers about the revivals and moves of God from decades past. Church history has always been one of my favorite subjects. As I read about and listen to the stories of mighty moves of God, miracles, blind eyes being opened, paralyzed people jumping to their feet, sick people healed, demons cast out, addicts instantly delivered, and lives completely and irrevocably changed by a single encounter with the power of God, conviction weighs heavy on me.
How come we don’t see that same power today? Jesus is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. God never changes. So the problem isn’t with Him, the problem is with us. The problem is with me. We need that same Holy Ghost power today more than ever; perhaps, even more than we did in decades past. I myself if no one else, desperately need the power of God in my life.
I simply cannot function, without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. I don’t know how it is for anyone else, but for me, if I try to do anything without the anointing, presence, and power of the Holy Spirit, I am just like the Church of Laodicea in Revelation chapter 2; “wretched, poor, pitiful, blind, and naked”, having a form of godliness but denying its power.
As much as I love church history and in particular, revival history, I don’t want to live off of the ashes and smoke from the fire that burned on the altar decades ago. I want the fire of God burning bright and hot in my life, my family, my ministry, my community, right now, TODAY! Saints, it is imperative that we get hungry and desperate before God. Our times demand that we be a church burning hot with God’s fire and alive with His power.
The only way we will have that is if we get on our knees and cry out to God to make us hungry for more of Him and His precious Holy Spirit until He is all we want. We also need to call upon Him to break us until we come to terms with the reality that we can do nothing apart from Him, the vine. Until we realize that we are utterly useless, ineffective, “wretched, poor, pitiful, blind, and naked” without the anointing, power, and presence of the Holy Spirit burning in our hearts.