PRAYER, CATCHING THE WIND OF GOD (1 OF 3)
by Tim Melton
Scripture: Acts 2:1-13
This content is part of a series.
Prayer, Catching the Wind of God (1 of 3)
Series: The Essentials of the Church
Tim Melton
Acts 2:1-13
When we work, we work. When we pray, God works.
As a church we have a choice. We can either serve Christ in our own power or we can follow Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Scripture at times differentiates this by talking of the flesh and the spirit. Are we serving God out of our own power, and our own resources, the flesh or are we serving God, trusting in His power and His resources? This would be serving in the Spirit. One key indicator is how much we pray. Those who serve God in the flesh will be very busy doing the work of the church but will spend little time in prayer. Those who are serving God in the Spirit will also be working diligently, but their main work will be that of prayer.
Imagine a boat in the middle of the ocean. You see two people in the boat rowing as hard as they can to make progress and reach the other shore. Fatigue is setting in and yet all they see on the horizon is endless water. How futile must that feel. They are working tirelessly, trusting in their own strength with very little results. But what if they put up their sail and catch the wind? They would still need to discern the direction of the wind and steer the boat, but how much greater would the result be as they catch the wind and are carried along by it.
The Holy Spirit is to the life of the Church as the wind is to a sailboat. The sailor does not create the wind, He merely puts up the sail and is driven along by the wind´s power. Prayer is how we put up our spiritual sail to catch the wind of God. If we are going to be the church that God desires us to be, we must be a church that prays.
We even see this truth in Jesus´ life. Only Jesus had seen prayer from both an earthly and heavenly perspective. With this complete understanding, He prayed, continually. If He, the Son of God, needed prayer that much, how much more do we.
In Acts 1 we see th ...
Series: The Essentials of the Church
Tim Melton
Acts 2:1-13
When we work, we work. When we pray, God works.
As a church we have a choice. We can either serve Christ in our own power or we can follow Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Scripture at times differentiates this by talking of the flesh and the spirit. Are we serving God out of our own power, and our own resources, the flesh or are we serving God, trusting in His power and His resources? This would be serving in the Spirit. One key indicator is how much we pray. Those who serve God in the flesh will be very busy doing the work of the church but will spend little time in prayer. Those who are serving God in the Spirit will also be working diligently, but their main work will be that of prayer.
Imagine a boat in the middle of the ocean. You see two people in the boat rowing as hard as they can to make progress and reach the other shore. Fatigue is setting in and yet all they see on the horizon is endless water. How futile must that feel. They are working tirelessly, trusting in their own strength with very little results. But what if they put up their sail and catch the wind? They would still need to discern the direction of the wind and steer the boat, but how much greater would the result be as they catch the wind and are carried along by it.
The Holy Spirit is to the life of the Church as the wind is to a sailboat. The sailor does not create the wind, He merely puts up the sail and is driven along by the wind´s power. Prayer is how we put up our spiritual sail to catch the wind of God. If we are going to be the church that God desires us to be, we must be a church that prays.
We even see this truth in Jesus´ life. Only Jesus had seen prayer from both an earthly and heavenly perspective. With this complete understanding, He prayed, continually. If He, the Son of God, needed prayer that much, how much more do we.
In Acts 1 we see th ...
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