Waiting on the Spirit

7:20 p.m. Today's project was to spend a nice afternoon with Steve after church. We were very encouraged by Pastor John asking us to stand if we needed a refilling of the Holy Spirit, which we both did, or to be baptized in the Spirit initially, as the risen Jesus commanded His disciples in Acts 1:4-5; 8:

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

"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 ends of the earth."

What is lacking in many Christians'experience is sharing the gospel with their family, friends and acquaintances. We were challenged to share Christ with someone today. I generally do share the Lord out loud or in writing with people I meet or know who are not saved, but today the only folks I saw in person were believers! The two possible non-Christians I spoke to on the phone this afternoon I'll be seeing tomorrow and Tuesday, so good personal opportunities for sharing are imminent.

The amazing part about the refilling of the Spirit today was that other Christians and I have been discussing recently the need to hear more of the baptism of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit in church services, like we did in the 80's. How exciting that we had that opportunity today! God hears the prayers of His people, and the spoken and unspoken longings of our hearts. The key player, of course, is the Holy Spirit Himself, who puts a desire to know more of God in our hearts to begin with. And as God, He can move upon the hearts and minds of many believers at once--He is omnipresent, indwelling all born again believers, no matter who or where we are, as I Corinthians 12:13 tells us:

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and have been made to drink into one Spirit.

After loaning our daughter our American Kennel Club dog manual and returning wedding centerpiece mirrors to one of her friends, we left the church parking lot for home, re-energized and ready to ask the Lord, "What do you want us to do, as individuals, as a couple, as Spirit-filled members of the Body of Christ?"

We'll be waiting to hear!!