Nobodies from Nowhere

Do you pray for and expect an extraordinary work of God in his church? The church in America has not seen an extraordinary work of God since the early part of the 19th century. Some who look at the mega church say this must be an extraordinary work of God. They see a lot of people in one place seemingly singing with great joy or seeming to do great works in the earth and conclude that this is an extraordinary work of God. But is it?

In America today 17% of the population attends religious services on Sundays. Of this 17% only 7% claim to be evangelicals and of this 7%, 15% of these say God is the top priority of their lives next to all other things that compete for their attention. We are observing a godless nation and a godless church in America today. People are swapping churches, not coming to Christ in conversion.. Churches are glorying in themselves, not the knowledge and enjoyment of the all glorious God. And people in churches are growing after their own interests not the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ through repentance and faith.

In the midst of this bleak picture Al Baker says, “Ministers are discouraged, disillusioned, and disenchanted.” How will this bleak picture be met? I was very encouraged as I sat together with approximately 30 men from our denomination in a seminar Al Baker lead at our General Assembly entitled, “Nobodies from Nowhere”. In this seminar Al Baker lead us in a study of Ephesians 4:30 a small group discussion and time of prayer. In the time of study we learned how we may “grieve the Holy Spirit” or cause the Holy Spirit great sorrow, driving him away, rather than seeing the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and churches through an inward reality of his presence that heightens our knowledge of God in Christ overwhelming us with a sense of his majesty, grace and mercy and causing us to continually look forward to that day of redemption.. He said we grieve the Holy Spirit when we do anything unholy, forget his presence, ignore his promptings, forget his redemption and trust ourselves. When the Holy Spirit is grieved by us it does not mean we lose our salvation or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But it does mean we lose a sense of his power, presence, joy, peace and love, opening ourselves to an onslaught of the enemy. So what are we to do? We must believe in the Holy Spirit and his promised work to glorify Christ in the earth. We must repent and keep on repenting each day and throughout the day seeking to live in Christ in his holiness. We must pray for revival in our hearts and churches, pray for the lost around us, pray for the nations of the earth, and pray for church planting efforts. Last we must be found waiting for the Holy Spirit in prayer expecting God to finish the work he has begun.

We must seek not to grieve the Holy Spirit but we must long for His work in our hearts, our churches, our communities and our world, repenting of our self driven thoughts and efforts. May he rend the heavens and come down bringing us to repentance and faith.