Reading the Acts of the Apostles really opens my eyes up in many ways. When I read about all the miracles and signs and wonders that took place in that first church, I can’t help but think why those things are not happening today. Surely, they may happen sporadically and far apart, but not like those times. I ask God this same question. And as always, He answers what I ask for His glory.
The problem is twofold: divisions in His church and spiritual sleep. We have fallen asleep. We no longer talk about Jesus’ return as an imminent event. We think we have all the time in the world. We don’t desire fellowship with other believers, but we prefer to go about our own business and “hang out” with our secular friends. We are preoccupied with “business meetings” than with constructive fellowship. We completely ignore the scripture in Hebrews 10:25 which says “Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together, as the manner of some is: but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (KJV). That is why we also miss verse 24: “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works”. We cannot gently remind, far less “provoke” anyone to good works and love because we don’t have fellowship with one another. We cannot suggest holy life to anyone else because we ourselves do not pursue holiness. Holiness is not standing on a pedestal and pretend we are above everybody else; holiness is availing ourselves to the Holy Spirit for Him to do His work through us.
What can I say about divisions… A large part of the church denies the ability of the Holy Spirit to do His great and marvelous things today as He did back in those days, and another large part tries to force the movement of the Spirit in the church. We either say, “those things were for those times and they don’t apply to us anymore”, as if there is absolutely no need for it and as if we ourselves can replace the role of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives, or we cry and shout and gesture violently, as if that will somehow force the Holy Spirit to move inside the believers. We even dare to “command” blessings, as if God is obligated to perform to our every self-centered desire, so that we would appear to be doing great works. No amount of “Christianese” can ever change the sinful nature of such acts. We even go as far as to presume that, if things don’t appear a certain way, God hasn’t moved or the person or situation we “attack” is resistant to the move of the Spirit. It’s “our way or no way”. We shout and yell and dance about, some times for hours, to “force” a (real or perceived) unclean spirit out of someone. We try to simulate a powerful touch by the Holy Spirit on someone by pushing the person physically. We completely and deliberately ignore the freedom of choice that God has granted to every believer, which freedom includes resisting the work of the Spirit. We would have none of that and we rather push salvation and transformation down people’s throats.
On the other hand, we live our lives in a religious way, lulled by messages full of theology and devoid of Spirit power. We wonder why sinners are not added to the church of believers when our attempts for bringing the gospel to them are weak. Those attempts are based mainly on our own efforts, lacking the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. We forget the words spoken by the prophet Joel and confirmed by Peter: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Acts 2:17-21, KJV). If those were the last days, what kind of days are we living in now? These are the last of the last days! If that message was true for almost 2000 years ago, when the church was just formed, how true can it be today when the church is about to be removed from the earth! We become content to argue our theology and boast on our knowledge and titles and we miss the whole point of our salvation: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (Mark 16:15-18, KJV).
We have made for ourselves a “safe and cozy” environment and we refuse to operate outside of that. We think inside the proverbial box. We don’t want to offend anybody by the word of the cross; even our call to repentance of the sinners has to be done in a “hushed” way. “Let us all bow our heads and close our eyes”, lest we scare away repentance from the sinners. Let’s not be too up front, we may be dealing with shy people. Let us keep begging, “Please, is there anyone who wants to accept Jesus today? Pleeaase? Pretty please? We are still waiting here”. “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls”, we read in Acts 2:41 (KJV). Three thousand souls in one shot, and we beg for one or two! Something is seriously wrong with our methods. But instead of taking an introspection to see if something is indeed wrong with us, we blame others, our fellow-Christians, the sinners, even God, as things don’t happen. And even if we see some genuinely wrong things in our local church, we cower from exposing them, thinking “if the church has operated this way for so long, it means that they know something. Who am I to challenge the church’s leadership?” This is why the Holy Spirit will pass over many believers and He will move on to others, who dare to defy the status quo and humble themselves to the Lord to become agents of change.
We need to repent. There is no other way that we can become God’s vessels for bringing salvation to the world. We need to recognize that we seek to bring a gospel according to our own biased theologies. We need to see honestly in how many ways we promote ourselves instead of Christ. We must admit that we have been trying to do God’s work by our own power instead of that of the Holy Spirit. Only then we will make a firm decision to submit ourselves to the Lord, to humbly admit that we have failed. Only then we will see how deeply divided and failed we are in carrying out His mission, and only then we will be eligible for the Holy Spirit to come with power on and in us and use us to perform miracles such as those of the early church days and even greater. Let’s put aside our silly, prideful titles (Apostle So-and-so, Prophet So-and-so, and any other pedestal we put under our own feet) and only then unity will become possible. Let’s stop fighting and biting each other and instead turn on our real enemy, the accuser of the saints. Every day our brothers and sisters come under attacks of that enemy and many fall by the wayside and we are responsible for that. WE ARE SLEEPING! We fool ourselves by thinking that we will go to heaven and the Lord will be obligated to give us crowns for our vain earthly pursuits. Unless we wake up though, we will stand accused of neglecting each other and sleeping when our brothers and sisters needed our help most. Do you notice people missing services in your church? Hopefully you are there to notice. What do you do when you do notice? Do you make every effort to find them out and support and encourage them, or do you wait until they show up again after a few weeks (or months or even years) to tell them the most hypocritical, “I missed you brother/sister!”
The Lord is coming sooner than you think. It is time to wake up. I plead with you, don’t be like those foolish virgins who in the last moment were frantically trying to get hold of the Holy Spirit, only to miss Him AND the Lord’s coming! Fall on your knees now, ask the Lord to show you in what ways you have failed Him and how you can repent. Then He will use YOU and make great things for His own glory through you. He promised to do it and He will do it anyway, even if He has to use one or two people in the whole world. I pray that you will be that person.
