06 - EVER-GROWING FULLNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

In Acts 2:1-4, we read of the tremendous initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon 120 of Jesus’ followers at Pentecost. However, soon afterward we also read of the gathering of believers in Jerusalem (now numbering in the thousands), where they prayed for boldness and SIGNS AND WONDERS, that God might be truly glorified (Acts 4:29-30). And we read that, "When they had prayed, the place was SHAKEN where they were assembled together. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with boldness" (v 31). There had already been one mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but now they received another, just when they needed it most, and now more than ever, SIGNS, MIRACLES AND WONDERS followed them wherever they went.

Jesus said to His disciples: "HEAL THE SICK, CLEANSE THE LEPERS, RAISE THE DEAD, CAST OUT DEVILS: freely you have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:7-8).And He also told them, "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and OVER ALL THE POWER OF THE ENEMY" (Luke 10:19). "He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and GREATER WORKS THAN THESE shall he do." (John 14:12). As the Scriptures and also Revival history clearly show, a man or woman of God must often spend years in a "wilderness" of obscurity before they truly come into their ministry. This will often be a place of barrenness, "WAITING" and preparation where they must overcome and endure - all the while being molded and trained by God - if they are ever to reach their godly potential in anointing and empowerment from ’on high’. While others concentrate on their careers, or busy themselves with building tidy little ministries along the usual predictable lines (which often need little of God to succeed), these men and women are called away into the secret place with God, from whence they will emerge broken but fired with an unshakeable resolve, humbled but never cast down. There have always been many called, but few chosen. As the apostle Paul wrote: "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I PRESS toward the mark for the PRIZE of the HIGH CALLING OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS." (Php 3:13-14). God often prepares such vessels for many years, largely hidden from view, before unleashing them upon the world. And then suddenly they appear, as if from nowhere, to bring glory to their God, to rout the devil in His name, and to raise His standard in the earth once again. From such ’mighty men and women of valour’, true Revivals are born.