Holy Redeemer Lutheran Church
1948 The Alameda
San Jose, CA 95126
San Jose, CA 95126
In your baptism, you received from God, the gift of the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to you that this Spirit dwells in you?
Can you give an example of how you have felt the Holy Spirit guiding or directing your actions?
In Acts 1:8, we read of how Jesus promised the disciples that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit, power to be witnesses to the ends of the earth. Do you think that the Holy Spirit can empower you to be a witness?
The power of the Holy Spirit in the transformation of our congregation’s ministry cannot be over emphasized. As recipients of the Holy Spirit, we have the challenge of considering why this Spirit actively empowers some people’s lives and why this Spirit seems to lie dormant in others.
In The Fire that Ignites: Living in the Power of the Holy Spirit, Tony Evans compares the power of the Spirit to some common things: a satellite dish and a car engine. Think of the Spirit as a satellite dish, deep within us. This Spirit is the receiver for invisible divine signals. Just as a satellite dish is always receiving signals, but we have to turn on our TV in order to receive them, so too, the Spirit is always receiving communication from God. So the question is, what do we have to do to receive these signals?
Or think of the Spirit as an engine in a car. You can sit in the car, put the key in the switch, adjust the rearview mirror, put on your seat belt, and ready yourself for a journey. But unless you turn the ignition on, you won’t go very far. How do you switch on the Holy Spirit?
If we don’t feel the Spirit’s activity in our lives, its tempting to think that we need more of the Holy Spirit. Well, my friends, you were given the gift of the Holy Spirit, You’ve got all you’re gonna get!
So the question becomes not how much of the Holy Spirit do you have. But how much of YOU does the Holy Spirit have.
How much are you asking the Spirit to fill and control your life? How often do you pray for the Spirit to lead and guide you? Do you sit in silence before the Lord and ask for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? Are you actively watching for and then grasping opportunities for service offered to you by the Spirit? Do you pray for the Spirit’s activity in your life and congregation?
There needs to be a spirit of expectation in our lives. An expectation that this Spirit who dwells in us will fill us and empower us. An expectation that the Spirit is going to stir us and move us.
The more we empty ourselves of “self,” the more room there is for the Spirit to fill us and work in and through us. We need to empty ourselves of pride, presumption, self-dependence, selfishness and be filled with the Spirit.
This means that when we make decisions for our congregation’s ministry, we don’t base these decisions on selfish desires, but on what is best for our mission as we join together as the body of Christ. In other words, church (and worship) is not about individual desires about what we might think is best, it is about what is needed in order to move the mission of God forward.
In a congregation which had gradually switched over to having contemporary worship every Sunday, a woman who had been in the church her whole life said at an annual meeting, “I miss the LBW, but if going back to it means we wouldn’t have all these young families in our congregation, I gladly give it up.” What a powerful witness to putting the ministry of the congregation before her own personal needs.
How are you putting the needs of your congregation before you own personal needs. How is the Spirit empowering you to do this?