Acts 1:5 “…but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
I have described to you the hand off from Jesus to the Holy Spirit. Jesus moved aside from these men and placed His Spirit where He used to be.
The evangelism that was about to take place (Acts 1) was a Holy Spirit driven evangelism conducted by people who waited upon and pursued the presence of the Holy Spirit.
You might even say that the evangelism in the early church was “presence” driven. Where at one time the presence of the Son of God, teaching and preaching, doing miracles and encouraging people was now replaced with the presence of the Holy Spirit working powerfully in saints to accomplish even more than Jesus was able to do in person.
John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.“
Listen friend, the presence of the Holy Spirit must be pursued, and He must be honored.
If you were to follow Jesus in His earthly ministry and partner with Him in telling the gospel story back then, as though you were transported in time and space, wouldn’t that be spectacular?
Now if you were in sin and were hiding in your sin, do you know what Jesus would do? Prior to ministering together Jesus would talk to you about it so that your ministry with Him would be fruitful. He would do this because He loves you and others that you and He would be ministering too.
That aspect of care is not unique to Jesus; the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all have this depth of care. The Holy Spirit has taken the role of leadership assigned to Him by Jesus and He functions the same way. Where Jesus would maybe pull you aside and ask about your heart in a one-on-one conversation, now the responsibility rests with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit won’t pull you to the side, He will speak directly to you in your heart. He lives in you and He will speak from in you into you. He manifests conviction of righteousness. (John 16:10)
He speaks in you, not really to you. He speaks in you all the time. He doesn’t speak at you, He is in you. (John 14:17) The Word of God is His language and your heart and mind are His chalk board. Jesus would have spoken to you about an issue, now the Holy Spirit speaks in you.
Evangelism comes from this same operation. The strategy of evangelizing and the method of evangelizing is not nearly as important as we make it to be. Our ability to hear the Holy Spirit is paramount. When walking with Jesus the disciples followed where He went.
The Holy Spirit is exactly like this. He will tell you where to go and who to speak to the same way that Jesus walked and talked with people.
The problem? We have reduced evangelism to a function of the church that no one wants to do because we have removed the Holy Spirit from His leadership role. In our attempt to grow and build we have put structure and strategy together that have not come from the Holy Spirit. So we put format and structure in front of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
To bypass the presence of the Holy Spirit is to bypass the power of God. Because the power of God comes from the awareness of the presence of God.
God does not want us to operate powerlessly. We go out passionately to fulfill the great commission, but often we go powerlessly. The presence of God is our main and chief pursuit. The presence of God in the form of the Holy Spirit is the only One who can direct our efforts. He has the strategy and the success.
Pastor what are you saying? Get into the presence of the Holy Spirit, be filled with the Holy Spirit just as Jesus said to do in Acts chapter 1. Pursuing the presence of the Holy Spirit will undoubtedly proceed right into the power of the Holy Spirit upon you.
There is no doubt that when the power of the Holy Spirit is in you, evangelism will become something entirely different that our perception of evangelism today.
Take a close look at these awesome men of God, who followed Jesus around and saw what He did, they saw Jesus come back to life. They knew He was the Messiah. And even with this first-hand knowledge they didn’t do anything with it. They held up in a room filled with fear and when they did come out, they went fishing.
But when they were filled with power after a period of time of waiting and praying…look out world!
This is why I don’t want you to go out witnessing. Nor do I want you pursuing the power of God. I believe we need to take another step back and simply and passionately pursue the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Look out world!
Holy Spirit, we acknowledge You as the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ. WE honor You and want to pursue You in a way that You want to be pursued. Help us find You in the midst of our dogma and religion. Fall fresh on us in a mighty way so that we can feel and know that You are in us and around us. We confess that You are God and we will follow Your lead in evangelism in our day. Thank You Jesus for making all of this possible through Your blood being spilled for us.
Blessings,
Pastor D
