Monday, May 17, 2010

FIRE!!!

Recently, I have felt God calling me away to a time of prayer. I know we should be praying all the time, but there are times that it seems the voice of God whispers (very persistantly) come run with Me! Over the years I have come to realize those have become monumental turning points...advancements...or whatever you want to call them.

Some of you may remember a series I preached called The Outpouring...that was the result of the last time I specifically felt God call me to a time of prayer like He is calling me to, right now!

We have a good church...but I'm ready to see it become great. I believe our fellowship has the ability to begin something that can be an example for churches all over the world. Over the years we have kept one passion that I am so thankful for...we have kept it all about Christ and people coming to know Him.

Yesterday, I continued the series call Spirit-Life...it isn't going anything like I anticipated. That's okay! I just want God glorified, the saints encouraged, and Jesus saving people. I preached from Acts 1:5 where Jesus referred to John the Baptist and reminded the disciples that he told them that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit and FIRE!

I encouraged our church to becomed immersed in the Spirit of God. I never want to become so programmed, so technologically dependent, so culturally relevant that we lose the power of the Spirit in our services or every day life.

I am ready to see the FIRE burn in our community. I don't believe God gave us a building and a fresh start just to gather the same old folks together so we can have church. If that's the case...I pray God has an exit strategy for me! Don't get me wrong I love Christ Life, but I don't believe for one second that God called us to be a church of 100 people. I truly believe we can grow to 1,000 if we will now take the FIRE God has started and let it spread. The FIRE may be hard to contain once it gets going...but I think I'm ready for WILD FIRE if that what it takes!

My prayer...God let the wind blow and let this FIRE spread!