Praise God for Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. Several people have commented and questioned me about what a genuine move of the Holy Spirit looks like. Thank you!
One man told me that before the Vietnam war ended, he went with Pastor Liechty to Virginia to join in a circle of prayer around the Pentagon to pray for peace. He told me that when he came back here to Bear Creek, he felt a very strong urge to write Senator John Glenn to help stop the war. He said, “I am no writer; I am very shy, but I felt something stirring inside me when I wrote that letter and the end result was something much more than what I have the ability to do myself.”
Senator Glenn personally responded to his letter, told him he was moved by what he read and secured a three day moratorium on the war. Jesus told us that if we speak to a mountain, it will be cast into the sea. This brother, from right here at Bear Creek was moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke truth to power, and God did a miracle. God touched the heart of the Senator. With God all things are possible.
I know that this man’s story is one of many from here in this church. The interesting thing is, this man really wants to be incognito about what God lead him to do. Why? Because it isn’t about his ability to hear from God, it’s about God bringing glory to Jesus by sending His Holy Spirit into him. I like that approach.
My mom and I were talking about revival yesterday. God is leading her to pray for it. She asked me: “What do you think needs to happen to have revival?” My answer was simple, “God has to do it.” The questions: Is it a result of a lot of prayer? Is it a result of faithfulness of the people? Is it a result of our self-sacrifice? Is it a result of forgiveness? Is it a result of our humility? Is it a result of our repentance? Those are all good questions, and I think I can point to an historical revival somewhere when one or several of those actions by the church community were involved in the revival.
But, all of those actions are the result of revival, not the cause. The cause is God. Revival is about God, not about us. I say this: “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send your Spirit and we shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth.”
Come Holy Spirit.
