DISCIPLESHIP
Focus Verse
Focus Verse
Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth."
Bottom Line
The Holy Spirit lives in us and gives us an unstoppable power to live out God's dream for our lives, our city, and our world.
Tension
If you grew up in church, you probably heard the Holy Spirit talked about at least on occasion. If you didn't grow up in church, however, then I'll just tell you: it's kind of a big deal. According to the Christian faith, God exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
When it comes to God, we have an easier time grasping the idea of God the Father in the Old Testament of the Bible, or God the Son (Jesus) in the New Testament, but we have a harder time with God the Holy Spirit. We tend to treat Holy Spirit as this mystical presence that arrives for brief moments of emotional highs and miraculous healings, then retreats away for periods of time. And the presence of the Holy Spirit has been controversial in many church circles, where some ends of the American Church have been accused of elevating the Holy Spirit too high while others have been accused of treating the Holy Spirit as almost a "step child" part of who God is. In the end, we seem to only talk about the Holy Spirit in superstitious terms, when the Early Church saw it as so much more.
The American Church is at a pivotal point in its history. Today your church is extremely rare if it is growing. Decline is the norm, not growth. Why is this? Why does it seem as if the early church had so much going for it and today we are struggling to keep up with our own culture?
Truth
Here comes Jesus in Acts 1 with words rolling out of his mouth about the Holy Spirit. Up until now, followers of Jesus didn’t even know what it was. Not really, anyway. So I guess it was just as much a mystery to them at that time as it is today for us. But Jesus gave the early Church such an amazing encouragement here. He didn’t treat the Holy Spirit like some slot machine genie that we can manipulate and get to do whatever we want. He didn’t say that the Holy Spirit might show up if the people were good enough, prayed hard enough, or acted spiritual enough. No, he said the Holy Spirit would show up. And when it did, it would bring them power, the sort of power than can only come from the Creator God himself.
Why the Spirit came
Exactly why did the Holy Spirit come? Jesus said that we would become his witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.” Put yourself in the shoes of these early church people. How would you feel if this was your new mission. Until now, you've just been minding your own business, herding your goats and listening to re-runs of the feeding of the 5,000, when suddenly Jesus comes demanding that you change the world. Wow. Heavy. But Jesus did give them the charge, and they accepted. When the Holy Spirit came, it came to convict our hearts of our brokenness, lead us into the adventurous life of following Jesus, and give us power to take the mission of Jesus into the far corners of our neighborhoods, cities, and world.
Natural vs Unnatural growth
So why is the American Church struggling in so many ways? There are many factors for sure, but the greatest factor of all is clear: We have lost our trust in the Holy Spirit. The early Church was an unstoppable force, not because they had the best music or small groups strategy, but because they depended on the Holy Spirit for power. It would be easier to blame church decline on style issues, as if a church's health and vibrancy rested solely on its ability too execute great music and teaching, but the Bible doesn't teach this. That's because a church's style issues are temporal and amoral and the power of the Holy Spirit is eternal and holy. Again, I'm not saying that the quality or style of our music and teaching doesn't matter, but when a church grows based solely on its style choices, its growth is natural, when the Early Church growth was not natural. Indeed, the Early Church didn't just experience growth. They experience a movement. If we learned to trust in the Holy Spirit’s power like the early Church did, nothing would stand in the way of what God is doing in us.
The Spirit living inside you
Did you know that if you are a follower of Jesus, the Bible teaches in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that the Holy Spirit lives inside you? That’s right, God is IN you! This is remarkable news! It means that you have the power of the living God giving you power to take the news of Jesus to all people. He gives you spiritual gifts to work with other believers for his mission.
There is a movement inside you waiting to be unleashed.
Challenge
One of the hard things for us to do as Christ followers is to live "as if." In other words, to live as if we have the power of the Holy Spirit inside us, as if nothing can stop what God is doing in us, and as if God will give us the strength and courage and the right words to take Jesus into dangerous places, even places where he is not welcome.
Where is God challenging you to live as if? At work? School? Your neighborhood? Are you in a Microchurch at Echo and, if so, how will you carry out God’s dream for your mission field? Where has God called you to go? Where does nobody else want to go? Is there something specific you can do today that will advance the mission of Jesus into your sphere of influence?
God did not put you on this earth to just sit around. He put you here to act!
Who can you pray for today? Who has God put in your life for you to be a witness to? Ask God for courage. Ask him to the power to reach this person(s). The sort of power that Jesus speaks about in Acts 1:8. Ask him for the power to be obedient to his prompting. Ask him for the power to live as if.
Dream
Imagine the power that rests inside you and what would happen if it was unleashed in your life. Imagine what would happen if all of us depended entirely on the Holy Spirit for the results. Can you even begin to consider how powerful that would be? Our world would be changed. Transformed. Radically altered. The trajectory of our culture would shift dramatically. Nothing can stop the movement of the Church in America when we choose to let go of our own desire to control mm future and let God do His work. Jesus told us that he would build his Church, not us, and when we trust him fully with our futures, everything will be different.
NURTURE: GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
NOTE: Because of the controversy in some church settings around how the Holy Spirit expresses itself in the area of spiritual gifts, try to keep conversation focused and avoid chasing rabbit trails. Your conversation will be more fruitful if you can keep driving it to the core point of the discussion, which is the Bottom Line: "The Holy Spirit lives in us and gives us an unstoppable power to live out God's dream for our lives, our city, and our world."
- What part of this devotional spoke to you the most?
- Why is it easier to blame a church's growth or decline on style choices instead of the presence or lack of the power of the Holy Spirit?
- Why do you think it is so hard to live "as if"? When you read the Bottom Line at the beginning of this devotional, do you really believe it? Why or why not?
- Share with the group one specific area of your life where you need to live "as if" and an action step you will take to do so. Commit to holding each other accountable to your action steps.
ACTION: PLAN AND PRAY
- What does your Microchurch have coming up that needs to be planned (in terms of Micromissions and Echo Parties)? Supplies? Deadlines? Who will do what?
Pray as a group for the following areas:
- Individual Growth: Pray for each other's areas of need for living "as if."
- Missionary Formation: Pray for each other to be missionaries to your mission field, bringing healing and restoration.
- Group Growth: Pray for the group's unity and dedication to your mission field.
- Mission field: Pray for your mission field, naming specific needs and people.
