April 11, 2012
Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day--about 3,000 in all. -- Acts 2: 41 (NLT)
Over the past couple of weeks it felt like I was picking on poor Peter. From his braggadocios way of insisting he would die for Jesus even though he would end up denying knowing Him three times to his rebuking Christ for suggesting the path of the cross. Sometimes Peter gets a bad rap. Yes he was the one who took his eyes off of the Lord and began to sink but he was also the only one willing to step out of the boat. Jesus was grooming him for the role God had written for him. Peter would be one of the primary forces behind the development of the church we now enjoy. We can see in the key verse today that once the page turns into the Book of Acts we seemingly have a new Peter! A Peter filled with confidence in the things of God not in the mind of man. The carnal, temporal Peter has been reborn as the godly, eternal one. What is the difference? The Holy Spirit.
The most misunderstood part of the trinity, the Holy Spirit is simply not taught enough and people do not realize the power they have inside of them as believers in Jesus Christ. Romans 8 teaches us that the same power that raised Christ from the dead now dwells inside of us. Wrap your mind around that for a minute. Think about the awesome power of God that conquered death itself and then realize that power is inside of you! The Holy Spirit is the comforter. The one that comes alongside of you. The Holy Spirit will lead you into the truth of God's Word so that you can understand and apply it to your life. The Holy Spirit will intercede in prayer to God for you with heavenly languages you do not know. There is so much power available to us if we would just be willing to walk in it.
Personally we fail to walk in it because we have not yielded our lives to Christ as we should. Maybe we have turned over portions of our lives but we hold back those areas we know God does not approve of and we play the game where we dance as close to the line as possible. Being saved on Sunday and dancing with the devil on Monday. You cannot walk in the power of God if you still have areas of your life that you have ceded power over to the enemy. Light has no fellowship with darkness. Come out of them, separate yourself from what you know is not of God and watch His power explode in your life.
Corporately we can also mute the power of the Holy Spirit. We can replace true moves of the spirit with emotionalism. You can usually tell by the sheer volume in the church. The Gospel does not need to be screamed and worship does not need to be shouted. Forced elicitation of an emotional response is a sign of the lack of the spirit of God moving in the place. Make no mistake about it. Having a steeple or even large congregations does not mean the spirit of God is in operation! If the true Spirit is in operation then you will see the fruit of the Spirit manifest in the worship, preaching, ministries and leadership. Lastly, a church that has the Spirit of God in charge will see true manifestations of signs and wonders. People will be healed there. People will be delivered there. Seeing 3,000 saved and baptized in one day would be a normal occurrence, not a spectacle.
Peter came a long way but he did
not operate in power until the Holy Spirit came upon him and he was willing to
turn over all areas of his life to God. Listen to me very carefully. There is
no third choice. You are either ceding control of an area to God or to the
devil. The world is the devil. The flesh is the devil. Even when you choose to
not make a decision, you actually have made a choice. Give it to God or realize
that you are by default giving it to the devil. Corporately, beware of where
you are. Look at the altar calls. Look at the nature of the salvations -- are the
people being "saved" each week coming back? Are they being discipled? Does the
preaching of the Word of God have signs and wonders accompanying it? Are people
being healed? Is everything focused on God alone -- not just in words but in
deeds? Avoid showy spirits. Loud spirits. Out of control spirits. The Holy
Spirit doesn't hide. If you truly look you will know if He is there. And if He
is not -- run.
