Time For Personal Revival
Written by PastorFrancis
Posted on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 10:06 PM.
Act 1:4 - "wait for the promise of the Father...".
Act 2:1-4 "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."
Let me begin this discussion with what we have been preaching at Reviving Grace Tabernacle for the last few weeks. We have been dealing with the good fight of faith. For the most part we do not and are "trained" not to fight the good fight of faith.
Many of us, almost immediately after we got saved (born again), we were told by some "well meaning" saint that we were not always gonna be excited about Jesus and we had to "pace" ourselves so that we didn't "burn out". We have allowed things to "creep in" that have taken the edge off of us as "new creations" and we have become "church folks".
We are familiar with what it takes to "have church" but, we are far from what it takes to "be the church". How we dress to please our denominational beliefs, how well we sing (in church), how we shout (in church), how we are acepted (at church) is very important to the modern day church. There is one problem...it does not give witness outside the church. The world is not only bad but it is getting worse and we justify our lack of witness by saying, "Well you know that the Lord said few there be that find the way".
What is the "good fight of faith"? Is it that we have faith enough to buy an bigger house, a newer car, a pleasure boat? Is the "good fight of faith" designed to help us to get to the next "high registration fee" conference or take the next cruise with the latest Christian celebrities? I believe that the good fight of faith is that we do what we were designed to do in the earth. To Show JESUS!!!
Ephesians 4:11-13 "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:"
Paul writes that the Lord gave us this "five fold" ministry for the purpose of bringing us to a place that we measure up to the "full stature of Christ". Jesus said that we are to do the same types of works that he did (John 14:12). Yet, people who are called to be ministers of the Gospel, of that same Jesus, are given educational degrees, at the highest levels for their achievments in teaching people that they CAN NOT do what Jesus did because those "days have passed with the apostles".
It is time for a PERSONAL REVIVAL! Jesus started the Church like HE wanted it...Now HE wants the Church like HE started it!
Let's have a Personal Revival! (www.revivinggrace.org)
Pastor August Francis
