If you are serious about serving God faithfully, you know that it requires effort to stay on track spiritually. You have to be determined to study the Bible and pray every day. You have to make choices many times that will please the Lord instead of yourself or others. Jesus has given you commands that you are expected to obey, some that are easier for you than others. You are supposed to influence your family and friends to be godly by your lifestyle, as well as tell everyone you can about Jesus and their need to follow him. All of this is to be part of daily living that has its ongoing ups and downs to deal with.
I remind you of this challenge not to discourage you but to encourage you with some great news. God already knows that none of us are capable of pulling this life assignment off on our own. We need the Lord’s help to be and do what he calls us to. And help us he does when we acknowledge our dependence on him and ask him to give us what we need to accomplish the mission he has for us. From personal experience I can tell you that God does come through always with more than enough to sustain me and enable me to fulfill my kingdom calling. My job is to stay open to him.
I am referring specifically to the gift of power that the Holy Spirit gives to us to be full time witnesses for Christ. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is experiencing God in fullness and being given supernatural power to do supernatural things for Christ. The first time this special enabling was made available to every Christ follower who asked for it was on the Day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2. Before that time, select individuals were given the Spirit’s power for a specific purpose as you can read about in the Old Testament. Not any more. Now, anyone who follows Jesus can receive an impartation of God’s power to be ambassadors for Jesus to the world that we live in. I need that kind of power operating in my life every day, how about you?
Pentecost Sunday is actually next weekend but I want to speak to you about this on Sunday. This weekend Bjorn and a good number of our young people are at the Overflow Convention in Waterloo, a large gathering of youth from across western Ontario coming together to worship, hear challenging messages and experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I ask you to join me in praying over these next days that our young people will be impacted in a huge way propelling them into passionate service for Christ. I’ve asked Bjorn to speak the following Sunday and update us on happenings from the convention and the importance of not just experiencing God’s power in a gathering but living in his power every day.
As you pray for our youth pray also that you will develop a deeper hunger for meeting with God and being filled with his Holy Spirit and power. I look forward to our time together on Sunday to worship and see what the Lord has in store us.
Have a great day….
Pastor Del