Acts 1:8 – but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.”
John 7:37,38 – Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”
The last thing Jesus taught His disciples the night He washed their feet was about the coming of the Holy Spirit into their lives. If you haven’t sorted this out quite yet the Holy Spirit is the Father’s love poured out upon us and in us. This is more than a feeling or an emotion, the love of God is clearly a person, the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus is the Word of God. The day that Jesus returned to heaven He commanded His disciples to wait until they received power (dunamis) from on high. This power of God is clearly also the love of God.
Now this is where this gets really interesting, this empowering actually accomplishes the two most important things in our lives. First, we are empowered to love God. You know, we love Him because He first loved us. Secondly, we are filled with the love of God for lost people. Just as Jesus was moved with compassion to minister to the lost that is exactly what happens to us.
Now this brings us to Beyond the Grave. The Lord blessed our church with this soul winning tool in October of 1999. We have performed this production hundreds of times and have seen over 100,000 thousand people respond to the altar calls to make a decision for Christ. Today all I can say is that I am grateful for the privelege to be able to be part of this production. We had our first performance for this season of BTG last night and again the altar call was packed with mostly young people giving their hearts to Jesus. Looking into the eyes of these youth being born again reminds me again of what this life is all about, to love God and bring others into His love. Yield to God’s love in your own life, when you do that you will see your heart being stirred for somebody who needs Jesus. Allow Him to love them through your words. In other words, become intentional about sharing Jesus with those in your world. If you give Him a chance to reach out to others through you, lives will surely be changed.
