The Living God within us. Part one.

The last few years I have been dreaming about church and how Jesus moves through and in His church. I feel challenged in the way I think about church and how we express church today. I do not write this as a criticism towards church, but as a journey in understanding how Jesus wants His body to live. Early in my life I realized that church is not the Sunday morning meetings we attend, I wanted church to be more than listening to a sermon. Many times I sat frustrated, not sure what my role was in the church, the living Body of Christ. Was, I a mere spectator on a Sunday morning, cheering and never being part of the game.

We had many programs, family camps, conferences, Bible studies, but somehow I never felt that I had a role to play. Like many others, church were something you attended on a Sunday and the main role player was the pastor. The success of a Sunday morning depended on how good his sermon was. I felt that church needed to entertain us and the messages were made to make us feel comfortable. Later I joined a more charismatic church, I loved the time of worship and the flowing of the Holy Spirit during worship. I realized the importance of baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I realized how much were missing without the Holy Spirit present in my life. God gave His Holy Spirit to empower us, to fill our lives with His presence, the Living God living within us. Imagine the Creator of heaven and earth by speaking everything into existence, living within us.

Acts 1 verse 8, Jesus says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to His followers, through the baptism of the Holy Spirit they will receive power to share the good news to the ends of the earth. We read in Acts 2 that tongues of fire came to settle on them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in other tongues. Peter then addressed the crowd who heard them speak in other languages and told them to repent and to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We read then that almost three thousand accepted His message and were baptized. Peter, the apostle that denied Jesus, had a new found boldness to share the gospel of Jesus, this boldness came from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within Him. The words he spoke carried the power of the Living God, that spoke everything into existence. The same Holy Spirit lives in us today, with all the gifts that were available for the apostles. I believe every gift that were available in the early church is still available for believers today. We need every gift today, to be church and to live out the commandment Jesus gave to us.

I believe that we need the gifts of the Spirit in our church today, we need every member to know their gift and how to use it. Many times I have experienced that a senior pastor is a great teacher, but not a Shepard. I know God has placed many shepherds in the body, but their gifting is not used. How do we as a church move forward, make decisions without a prophetic word? We need every gift of the Holy Spirit, other wise we will do it in our own strength. The role of the church is to equip every believer, so that every believer can live out their gift within the Body of Christ, for the glory of God.