But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 (NKJV)
Our ability to minister for Jesus must come through the power of the Holy Spirit. If we want to share Jesus Christ with people, it must come from the power of the Holy Spirit that is within us. Wherever Jesus went, He preached the gospel of the kingdom. He healed the sick, reached out to people with compassion, cast out demons, raised the dead and did tremendous miracles wherever He went (Matthew 4:23-25). One aspect of Jesus’ ministry that reaped tremendous success, where He reached a large crowd was through the ministry of healing and miracles. When you flow in the miraculous, you will draw people and be able to minister the gospel to them. When we minister through the power of the Holy Spirit, people are drawn and then the gospel is preached.
Before Jesus left the earth, He promised us the Holy Spirit. He said the Spirit will be with us to teach us and guide us into all truth. There is a strong link between the power of the Spirit and evangelism. It is expected that once we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will naturally evangelize. The Holy Spirit gives us power to do miraculous things for Jesus. He gives us power to witness. The power of the Holy Spirit keeps us in time of persecution and in the time of trial.
The power of the Spirit gives us determination, so that when we are rejected by other people, it will not deter us, it will keep us going. When the disciples were persecuted for Jesus Christ, they did not give up. What kept them going was the power of the Holy Spirit. We give up too easily because we don’t have the power. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost there was an immediate change. The early church operated in the power of the Spirit and thousands came to Jesus Christ . When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, we receive the power to evangelize for Christ.
If we are truly baptized in the Holy Spirit, why don’t we see the power flowing through us? The answer to that question is that Christians relate the baptism of the Holy Spirit to speaking in tongues. We have lost the real reason for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Its purpose is to evangelize and not to speak in tongues. Speaking in tongues is evidence and not purpose. Tongues are for us and God but the power is for us to use to evangelize. We have the power to impact nations but we have it hidden on the inside of us. We are baptized in the spirit but we do not evangelize. When we are ridiculed and rejected by others, we give up but we have the power in us. As a result of this, we can rejoice.
The early church flowed because they had a mission to accomplish. We don’t see the miraculous signs because we don’t see the power and we don’t believe. When you have the ministry of the miraculous, people will find you. People will connect to what God is doing. When this happens, we should not take the glory for ourselves.
The early church was just the beginning of what God wanted to do. It is an example of how God wants us to flow, because God will be using the saints and not just apostles, pastors, deacons and teachers. God did not say that signs will only follow the prophets, He said they will follow all those who believe. If we believe, we will see great things happening. We need to walk in holiness and power. We should not only seek to be holy but we should seek to be powerful.
Five Main Features of The Early Church
1)They were all in one accord and functioned as one body (Acts 4:32). There was no division among them.
2)They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles. Whatever the church taught, they embrace (Acts 2:42).
3) They were committed to pray (Acts 4:23-31, 6:3-4).
4) The church received more than one filling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31).
5) They moved in faith and as a result, they healed the sick and performed miracles.
If we pray for someone and they are not healed, we should not give up. If we pray for someone and they are not healed, could it be that it is God’s time for them to be with Him? Probably we need to spend more time in God’s presence and worship more so we can be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Evangelism must take place through the power, guidance and wisdom of the Holy Spirit and not through a script.
