FRESH WIND, FRESH FIRE (2)

More reflections for believers everywhere (it might be easier if you get the book!)

• We have lots of markings that look like Christianity these days, but we have drastically revisted the parameters. People have lowered the standards in vain attempts to make churche look more successful than they really are. The sermons have to be uniformly positive, and the services cannot go longer than 60 minutes. Even then, church is inconvient for some, especially during football season. Shwoign up at church is such a burden that soon people will be faxing in their worship!
• Seriously, what will our children and grandchildren grow up experiencing in church? Extended times of waiting on the Lord will be totally foreign to their experience. There will be no memory bank of seeing people reach out to God. All the will recall are professionally, polished, closely timed productions
• The message of the cross will always be foolishness to some, a stumbling block to others. But if our attention is on the market reaction, we move away from the power of the Gospel. This fearfulness to talk about the Blood of Christ is an overreaction. Worse than that, it borders on heresy, distorting and deflating the power of the Good News
• We don't need need technicians and church programmes, we need God.He is not looking for smart people, because He's the smart one. All He wants are people simple enough to trust Him
• According to 1 Corinthians 13, if meetings are governed by the Holy Spirit, the result for the visitor will be that 'the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, God is really among you' (v25) This should be our goal. When a visitor comes in, there should be a mixture of God's truth and God's presence that the person's heart is x rayed, the futility of his life is exposed and he crumbles in repentance
• In revival the congregation does the preachin (Alexander Whyte) What hemeant was that beyond the presence of preachers, musicians and other ministries, what speaks to the heart is that God is dwelling in close communion with His people
• The absent element is what is expressed in the final sentence of the prayer recorded in Acts 4: Stretch out........ (v30) What gains unbelievers attention and stirs the heart is seeing the Gospel expressed in Power!
• In too many churches today, people don't see manifestation of God's Power in answer to fervant praying. Instead they hear arguements about theological issues that few people care about. On Christian radio and television we are often merely talking to ourselves.
• What we are dealing with today is an Old Testament 'vow religion' comprised of endless repetitions and commands to do all the right things.......There is little dependance on God's power to make an ongoing difference. There is little callijng upon God to revolutionize us in a supernatural way.
• In too many places where the Bible is being thumped and doctrine is being argused until three in the morning the Spirit of that doctrine is missing. William Law, and English devotional writer of the early 1700's wrote 'Read whatever chapter of Scripture you will, and be ever so delighted with it - yet it will leave you as poor, as empty and as unchanged as it found you unless it has turned you wholly and solely to the Spirit of God, and brought you into full union with and dependance upon Him.
• Yet Christians often hesitate to reach out to those who are dfferent. They want God to clean the fish before they catch them. If someone's gold ring is attached to an unusual body part, if the person does not smell the best, or if the skin colour is not the same, Christians tend to hesitate. But think for a moment about God reaching out to us
• Anytime people get hungrey to truly know the Lord, the Holy Spirit quickly puts a shovel and broom in their hands. Husbands and wives begin to deal with long buried issued hurting their marriages. Adults take a closer look at their choice of TV programmes and movies. Church members begin to see the damage wreaked by their gossup, their racial attitudes, their criticism
• When it comes to spiriual matters, you and I will never know our potential under God until we step out and take risks on the front line of battle. We will never s what power and anointing are possible until we bond with our KIng and go out in His Name to establish His Kingdom. Sitting safely in Bible discussions among ourselces, or complaining to one another abou the state of todays society will do nothing to unleash His Power
• Consider how many Gospel preaching churches there are in the 50 states of Amercia - 200,000 if not more. If each of these churches, on average, brought only two converts to Christ a week - not robbing peopel from First Baptist orFirst Nazarene down the road, but winning new people for the Kingdom of God, that would mean 100 new baptsied believers in each church in a years time, or 20,000,000 nationwide.

That will do for now!!!!