My cry for Christians to awake and tap into the power of the Holy Spirit:
In Numbers, Moses was bearing the heavy burden of the Israelites by himself...much like we Christians bearing the burden of the Great Commission and feeling like it's a burden too heavy to bear...the need is too great and the burden too heavy - Numbers 11:10-15. And what's God's answer to Moses?
Numbers 11:17 - "I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone."
His answer was the Holy Spirit. And 70 elders of Israel received the Spirit that day and prophesied.
And Moses' response? "I wish that ALL the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!"
And the thing is, Moses' desire, his wish, has come to pass.
Joel 2:28 - "and afterward I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions"
It is not a privilege and honor set for only the precious few as Joshua and the disciples thought (Num 11:28, Mk 9:38, Lk 9:49). As Christians and children of God, according to Romans 8:14-16, we have all received the Holy Spirit. So this is my cry. It is similar to Moses': Awake my fellow brothers and sisters! The Holy Spirit is in you, living and active, giving you access to power that enables you to do even greater things than those who came before us! Pastors and missionaries cannot bear this burden alone! It was not meant to be that way! I too wish that ALL of my fellow brothers and sisters would experience the Spirit on them! Because, the more the merrier! Only then, will the Kingdom of God advance in a power and force that right now, we can't even imagine...something that is far bigger than ourselves. Not only do I wish that for my present brothers and sisters, but I wish that for the non-Christians that become Christians. Numbers, Joel, Romans...it's all blending in together.
Convictions I have had within the past week:
1) If we were all measured by our love (for God and for people), what size would each of us be?
2) The enemy has sold us on a lie: Christianity must happen inside a building. But we don't need to build buildings. We need to build people. The world is tired of hearing what love IS. It wants to see what love LOOKS LIKE.
A praise:
I'm back to normal! (Well, almost). My fever's gone. Body fluids have (almost) stopped flowing out =P (I won't be descriptive here). And I felt absolutely wonderful today! (Which is just in time because I have a 8-9hr day tomorrow). Thank you, to those of you who prayed for me. Thank you for your prayers. God heard them.
Let me know how I can pray for you guys as well!
With regard to what love is/what it looks like- my cousin had a great quote in her profile that I can't seem to find.. Something along the lines of, "Every jerk in the world says he loves someone. It's what you do with that love that counts." It wasn't until I read that that I really felt convicted of this- honestly, even the cruelest people in the world say they love their mothers, kids, dogs, etc... How much more is my burden as a follower of Christ to show his mark of love?
ReplyDeleteAlso, can you pray for me? My workload is completely out of control... hundreds of pages of dense material... probably twice the amount of last year's work, and I'm not even on a special journal/mock court like my more accomplished classmates. I'm enjoying classes but I'm already drowning and I'm not even sure what to pray for myself! Thanks sister :)