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The Wind and Fire of God
Awakening 2012; 3-25-12
Quick question as we get started this morning… How many of you have ever been surfing? Now, I don’t mean on the web or channel surfing.
-I mean the kind where you paddle out into the ocean on a board and wait for a big enough wave…
-So you can then you stand on the board and ride it back to the shore!Well, even though I’ve never even tried surfing…
-I’m totally intrigued by the folks who do. Especially those who ride those massive 30-40’ waves.
In fact, I was just reading about one of the beaches that’s famous for surfing competitions called Maverick… about a half hour south of San Francisco.
-Listen to how they describe the surf there: “First there’s the appalling coldness of the water, which hovers in the vicinity of 50 degrees all year.
-Then there’s the roar of the crashing surf followed by a powerful current, which sucks surfers down and wears them out…”
“Then there are the immense, jagged rocks, some sticking out of the surf while others lurk below like a cruel wipeout welcoming committee.
-And then there’s the sheer magnitude of the swell… 40 foot waves being fairly common.
-When a big wave swells over a surfer at Maverick’s, he is tossed around like a sock in a dryer… wondering if he’ll ever breath air again!”
Wow! How’s you like to try that? In fact, a famous big-wave surfer from Hawaii died while surfing Maverick for the first time.
-After reading about all that, I looked over on YouTube to see if there was any footage… and, of course, there was a lot (video).
-Imagine standing up on a little board in the middle of a 40-foot wall of water weighing over several hundred tons… it’s crazy!
-I mean, nobody but nobody at an event like that has ever said, “I’m bored! I wish I was home doing something exciting like watch TV!”
What really strikes out at me, though, is just how strongly I believe that God is building a wave under us right now.
-Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, once said that human beings can’t build a wave, only God can. And, he’s right.
-But when God does build a wave, it’s on us to decide whether we’ll just let it pass… or whether we’ll surf it and ride it all the way in.
Most of the time you don’t quite know when it’s coming… but until it does, you wait expectantly… knowing the big one could come any time.
-But for Jesus’ followers after the crucifixion, all hope and expectancy was gone. In Acts 1, chapter 1, we find them huddled in an upper room…
-bewildered, confused, nervous, overwhelmed, feeling incompetent…
-feeling completely inadequate as they rehearsed in their minds what it was that Jesus had just called them to.
I can just picture them going over everything Jesus said… especially what He had just told them days before when He told them to "Wait for that power to come upon you…” That“you're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and all over the world.” You're going to be world changers. You're going to be history makers. Just wait!
This morning, I’d like us to turn to Acts, chapter 2,where we find a 120 Jesus-followers still waiting in that second-floor room in Jerusalem…
- Waiting for life to finally take a turn for the better.
-Ten days have already passed since Jesus ascended to heaven… ten days since He told them to wait.So… they waited.
-But, do you think they had any idea what they were waiting for? Do you think they had any clue what God was going to do?
-Don’t forget, they didn’t have a copy of Acts there to encourage them.
They weren't sitting around going,"This is tough… but just wait until chapter two. Something really cool is going to happen."
-Believe me, no one was saying, "It has been ten days. You know what happens on the tenth day." They had no clue.
-I think they were just huddled in this room, whispering prayers that kind of sounded like, "Lord, are you there? We are in way over our heads. We've got a ton of questions, and we have no answers. We don't know what to do; we don’t understand what you're asking us to do. It's just way too hard. Lord, are you there??"
-Anybody else prayed a prayer like that?
So they waited—overwhelmed and probably a little afraid… deeply discouraged and profoundly desperate for a supernatural touch.
-It must have been so tough for them. And yet, what a powerful a place to be… on their knees… desperate for supernatural touch from God.
-So here they are, 120 of them crammed into this small room, while the streets below are jammed with thousands of people.
It's like 5th Avenue on Thanksgiving. You see, there's a festival going on in Jerusalem called Pentecost—
-kind of like our Thanksgiving minus the football, shopping and turkey.
-But it's a time when Jews from all over the world came to Jerusalem to give thanks to God for the new harvest.
But then, crammed into that 2nd floor studio apartment, we’re told in Acts 2:2, that "Suddenly...”
-No Emergency Broadcast System alert telling them that something was about to happen… no super Doppler weather radar-warning thing.
-No "I just have a feeling something is about to happen."
It says,"Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm in the skies above them.
-And it filled the house where they were meeting.
-Then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability."
I can hardly imagine how they must have felt. In fact, the only thing that comes to mind is when you’re moving slowly up that gigantic, rickety old roller coaster… getting more and more anxious…
-You’re wondering what in the world you’re doing there…it’s horrible, “God help me… What am I doing here…
-God me out of here…” And, all of a sudden, BANG… you’re heading down at a hundred miles an hour!
The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus had promised to pour out, had just crashed that sad little party… and nothing would ever be the same!
-Luke tells us that the Spirit appeared like flames of fire.
-Throughout the OT, whether it was the burning bush for Moses
or the pillar of fire that guided the Israelites through the wilderness, fire represented God’s manifest presence.
-When talking about Jesus, John the Baptist said in Luke 3:16, "Right now I baptize with water, but there is One who is going to show up. He's going to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with" what? "Fire."
The very presence of God… not just a visitation from God… but an inhabitation of God through the Holy Spirit in our lives…
-Changed that small band of discouraged, deflated, locked-in-an-upper-room group of believers into an untamed,barbarian Jesus-following Spirit Tribe…
-Ignited with joy and courage and peace like they’ve never experienced before.
- Seriously… raise your hands if you’d like to experience more of the presence of God in your lives!
- Raise your hands if you couldn’t use a little more God-breathed joy and peace in your life!
But, Luke also tells us that the Spirit came like a mighty wind. Throughout the Bible, that word for wind,
-which happens to be the same word the Bible uses for Spirit, represents the power of God.
-In Romans 1:16, Paul spoke of the power of God to save all who believe in Jesus.
-In Colossians 1:13-14, we read, “For He has rescued us from the one who rules in the Kingdom of Darkness and has brought us into the Kingdom of His dear Son. God has purchased our freedom with His blood and has forgiven all our sins.”
And yet, it meant everything to Luke that we understand that God had not only saved us…
-but that His power had broken in that day so that those whom He has rescued can now become the rescuers…
-So that we could be that unique Community of the Kingdom, that Community of Hope, on whom He has poured out His Spirit.
In Ezekiel 37:4-5, for example, it was the powerful wind of the Holy Spirit that gave that valley of dry bones new life.
-4Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! 5This iswhat the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again!”
-**So, what we’re seeing poured out here at Pentecost was both the Presence and Power of God being released on God’s People.**
Back in the Great Depression, there was a man named Ira Yates from Texas who own a bit of land… and a lot of debt.
-In fact, because he couldn’t even pay the interest on his mortgage, he was likely to loose everything he had.
-With almost no money for food and clothing for his family, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy.
-Day after day his situation got worse… until some people from an oil company came to visit him one day.
-They suspected that there might be some oil on his land and asked permission to drill a single well on his land, which he agreed to.
At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large.
-In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test on just one of the wells showed it still had a potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.
-And, Ira Yates owned it all! This man, living on government subsidies, was a multimillionaire… a multimillionaire living in poverty.
In Ephesians 1:19-20, Paul wrote, "I pray that you'll begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the place of honor, at God's right hand in the heavenly realms."
You see, without understanding “the greatness of his power for us who believe in Him,” we’ll find ourselves living a lot like Ira Yates… having all those riches, but living in poverty.
-Look at what Paul is saying here… The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is where? In you!
-The power to forgive when you don't feel like it… The power to walk away from temptation… The power and authority to pray for the sick… the Power to love unconditionally.
-The Power to flee from sin and run to God… the Power to stare fear and adversity in the face and walk ahead with courage.
-The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is in you!
Interestingly, when the subject of the Spirit’s power comes up, it’s not uncommon to see a few bewildered looks! It was true on Pentecost… and it’s true today.
-I mean, we know all about political powermilitary power.
-We know all about economic power as well as nature’s power to unleash unspeakable destruction.
-But, when it comes to understanding Spiritual Power, suddenly, those familiar looks get a bit clouded.
In Acts 2, after Peter and the other disciples were filled with the Spirit at Pentecost, debate and confusion arose as a result of the Spirit’s power released there in Jerusalem.
-It was true back then… as it is today… that when the Spirit moves in power, there are always those who want to debate the authenticity of what they’re seeing.
-That was certainly true concerning the Toronto Blessing or the Pensacola Revival or the Florida Outpouring.
-We dismiss those things because of one or two things we’re not personally comfortable with.
The problem is… what would you have thought if you were there at Pentecost 2000 years ago?
-We’re told that, as the disciples were ministering in the Spirit’s power, they were so taken by His presence that they appeared to some as being drunk.
-In response, Peter says to them, in Acts 2:15, “These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning!”
So, he basically says, “No… we’re not drunk… the bars aren’t even open yet… its only 9am! What you’re seeing here is what Joel prophesied centuries ago…”
-Then Peter goes on in verse 33 saying, “Now He (Jesus) sits on the throne of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as He had promised, gave Him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today.”
Even within the church, people disagree over the issue of the Spirit’s power in the life of believers.
-Some people say that this life-changing power was given solely to the first generation church…
-to substantiate the ministry of Jesus and the disciples as they laid the foundation for the church.
-Others go the opposite direction, saying that there is power today… but that this power is for the spiritually elite…
-those few spiritual superstars who make the front cover of Charisma Magazine, for example.
And then there’s a third position that says that the power of the Holy Spirit is not only available but also necessary for each and every one of us in the body of Christ...
-That nobody is excluded… that we’re not only invited to experience His power throughout our lives and ministries… but urged… and even called to it.
-So, when it comes to the awakening power of the Spirit in our lives… we need to ask ourselves a few basic questions?
- Is the Power of the Spirit Really Available?
Jesus said in Acts 1:8 that when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive what? Power!
-That God has given us both authority and power… and that He’s called us to walk in that authority power as we live out our every day lives.
-So… know that, from the authority of God’s Word, we ARE called to walk in His presence and power.
-It’s why we’re praying for renewal through these 21 days… to see the reality of His wind & fire touch our lives (and those around us) like never before.
If you’re struggling with an issue… if you’re dealing with brokenness or deep need or hurt in your life, as we all do to one degree or another…
-thanyou need to know if God’s power is available to you in your life today.
-If you’re reaching out to someone who is broken and needy, you need to know that God’s power is available to you as you minister.
-If your heart is crying out saying, “there has to be more than what I’ve been experiencing, Lord”, then you need to know that God’s power is real!
Maybe you believe in the power of God… but what may have seemed like the absence of God’s power in your life…
-has made you wonder if its somehow passed you by. Have you ever felt that way? I know I have at times.
-And yet, if that HAS been your experience then I’m just going to ask you this morning NOT to give up…
-to get with God and, in spite of your disappointment… to get on your knees and worship Him.
-In fact, if you haven’t joined in on Awakening 2012… I want to ask you do start from the time you get home. Will you do that?
2. The second thing we need to ask ourselves is, “What do we do next?” How do we experience this for ourselves?” Let me just share a few things with you…
a. Take God at His Word. Jesus said that, “you shall receive power when the Spirit comes upon you.”
-Standing on His Word about the Spirit’s power means that you take Him at His Word even when your experience seems to be saying something different.
-Standing on His Word also means that you grow in heightened expectation of that power coming when it doesn’t seem to be there… like the expectation of spring through a long winter.
So, when you pray, when you read the Word, when you worship… do so with expectancy for a fresh inbreaking of God’s kingdom in your life.
-Let me tell you something… God meets us at our level of expectation.
-And yet, if you’re expectation level is somewhere below the basement right now,
-and I’ve been there… then, again, the way forward is to go back to the basics. You see…
In order to take Him at His Word, you have to be in His Word! That’s why we’re making personal devotion such an important part of Awakening.
-Use the Awakening daily devotional links we’ve sent out to you… but make sure you’re reading the texts from the Bible as well as the devotional.
-But, along with that, make sure you create some space for worship. It may not be easy…
-but get into a quiet room with some quiet music in the background… and start thanking Him… for Who He is… and What He’s done.