Words

Part 2 

I want to ask this question of those of you who have taken the call to serve Christ with your entire life, “do you believe that Jesus still prepares His servants today to preach His message the same way that His first century disciples were prepared by Him to preach His resurrection on the day of Pentecost?” 

We have this reality in common with the 1st century believers. Like you and I, Christ’s disciples were scared and were waiting for power, hidden from the Romans and the religious Jews before they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. What we don't have in common is the result of the outpouring they experienced. 

Why? 

When they received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, their lives were radically altered in every way, they were different people on a completely different course. They were now members of the exclusive Jesus culture, under the supervision of their true King -- Yahshua. 

They were compelled by the Holy Spirit to carry the message of Christ’s powerful resurrection bold-faced to the Antichrist-based Roman government and highly religious Jewish brethren who were ready to exterminate them just because they claimed publicly Yahshua's bodily resurrection.  

These once scared and very ordinary folks migrating into the wild unknown of following Christ's spiritual leadership. Those who came from various walks of life. Those who followed Jesus of Nazareth, didn't time to analyze the implications of what they were about to do. 

Eventually these simpiltons would be tortured by the world they sought to win for Christ. After all, Jesus warned them that they should not worry about what their enemies would attempt to do to their bodies, but rather, to fear the One who sent them and who would cast both body and soul into Hell should they not obey.  The baptism of fire animates us into the wildness of this call. 

Mt. 10:24, 28, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave about his master…v28 And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”  

This word of exhortation came to the disciples after they were given the Power to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, cast out demons, and heal the sick.  

Mt.10:1 “And having summoned His twelve disciples, He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”  Who released this power to the twelve? -- Jesus!  Who releases this absolutely necessary power to heal and cast out demons today? --- Jesus!  Who does He call and give this power to? --- Those He has prepared to receive it! 

These very normal humans became holy vessels burned the oil of God’s Holy Spirit in their hearts, to shine the light of the gospel as temples of the living God, this happening the day they received Christ’s Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  They received this call to holiness and power without the least of thought to resist this anointing for on High.  NO, on the contrary they were honored to be filled with all of the power of God’s presence.  They were in a place where they had nothing but holy surrender to do whatever Their Master was guiding them to do for the establishment of His Kingdom. 

Wow. What if we were also pent up to God like they were?

They obeyed Christ’s word and received His Promised blessing.  

For one moment imagine you are Peter as you watch Jesus ascend into the heavens, right after you have received the Lord’s commandment to WAIT until you are endued with power from on high.  

If you were Peter what would you do?  Would you pave on ahead and try to do your call without waiting and receiving His power in your heart and life?

Why then do we see many young men trying to go out and serve Christ by preaching Christ in the toughest of places without the full assurance that they are filled with the Holy Spirit, the fire baptism of Jesus Christ? 

Don't you think we all should be sure that Heaven has called us to GO? 

Lk. 21:10-19, “Then He continued by saying to them, nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.  But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake.  It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.  So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.  But you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all on account of My Name.  Yet not a hair of your head will perish, By your patience you will gain your lives.”   

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Meditate with me on these verses.

These verses were quoted to me after I opened Livin Lattes Café by two people that never met each other and they were spoken within the space of one month.  

Both said that the Spirit of God gave them these words to share with me.  One of them did not know why I was supposed to hear this word from Lk.21:10-19.

So you see that even today, people like just like you and me will be summoned to die for Jesus! And in our dying we will must be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit Fire Baptism.  

In the first century the disciples had enough sense to know that they might die as preachers of His Message; they knew that they needed to gather in one accord and petition Christ for His Promised Holy Spirit in order to have grace to do that which they knew they were called to do!  

In our area of Pilot Mountain, if just two people had enough sense to know that we are on the brink of great trouble and in need of a holy gathering, if we prayed and waited on God in a spirit of unity to ask the The Lord to release His Power to us, why would our God not grant our request?   

Why is this work of gathering resisted so intensely?  Because it will work if we really do gather in His Name. So we see that for revival to come to our cities we must preach a full message not a half baked and religious message lacking  power!  

We must expect that the same Jesus who gave the first century apostles His Holy Spirit, is the same Jesus who will give us the Holy Spirit if we simply ask for Him to come and fill us.  

Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday, and forever!

In obedience to Christ’s command the first century disciples gathered all those who were willing to wait for the “Comforter” to be sent from heaven to endue them with power from on high.   What was the evidence that the Spirit was actually sent?  

The Word of God tells us that the place where they were praying shook from an intense pounding of a mighty rushing wind.  The Jesus they knew on earth was now sitting in power at the right hand of the Father.  

When Jesus was on the earth He told Nicodemus that the Spirit’s power blows like the wind, whereever it pleases, and now, this heavenly power was blowing in Jerusalem. Could it be that Nicodemus was still teaching the Law in the temple as a member of the Sanhedrin? If so, he was about to see the wind blowing in his city.

For these common men and women the reception of the Holy Spirit was a tangible reality.  Just as John’s water baptism made them wet, so too, having the Holy Spirit fill their hearts and lives was going to have the same real effect on their mortal bodies.  

Shafts of holy fire, The Spirit of Christ, was sent directly from His holy heavenly throne and rested upon each one of those who were anxiously waiting for the Holy Spirit to come and comfort them. They were in one accord, will we, the people of God, take the time to gather in His Name long enough to get at least a 120 people to agree that we can do nothing without  the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They were filled with Heavenly Power, and they would never be the same, and neither will we be if we just get in right alignment with His prescribed way of receiving a corporate blessing.  

For these 120 Jewish believers there is no turning back from God’s rain of love and grace that was poured into their mortal bodies.  Do you really want this power today?  

Think about the implications of being part of a group of people who actually want this power so bad that they are willing wait for it?   This kind of work the eternal God desires to blow on us, if we see it happen again it will blow the doors off the modern seminaries.  

If we do experience a true shaking of the Spirit of God, like unto the one our forefathers experienced, we will do whatever the Lord Christ calls us to do.

Your heart, your brother’s heart, and God’s heart will be in perfect agreement.  The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit agree that we are fit vessels for their indwelling power!  How humbling!