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A Holy Fire.

The book of Acts describes how early believers, empowered by the Holy Spirit, carried on the life and work of Jesus Christ after His ascension to Heaven. This account is well known to most Christians but is worth us pausing to reflect on. Ordinary men and women were able to carry on with the life-changing work of Jesus after He had returned to Heaven.

Wait. What? The work that had previously been done by the Son of God, Jesus Christ was carried on by ORDINARY men and women? How? Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the work of Jesus was carried on by ordinary men and women. And so it is today.

One of the most wonderful things about living a life that is led by the Holy Spirit is that we are empowered to bear fruit. That means we can actually expect that the work we put our hand to would achieve good results, be that in business, in our relationships, in our creative pursuits, in our character and even in our efforts to share Jesus. As we see evidence of this and it becomes one of our foundational beliefs, we live with greater confidence and faith.

Sometimes we forget that the Holy Spirit is the source of our power and find ourselves in a place where our well-intentioned diligence has become striving. Sometimes we forget and become overwhelmed by feelings of powerlessness.

When we choose to live empowered by the Spirit, life becomes an adventure. We develop a boldness to take risks. Freed from the fear of others’ opinions and self-reliance, our lives are characterised by having a go, taking a leap and the thrill of being in that faith-place where you can do nothing but trust God to come through!

One can not study the revivals of history without being struck by stories of great faith - men and women with a Hebrews 11:1 kind of faith who were confident in what they hoped for and assured of what they did not see.

Phoebe Palmer, for example, was a bold evangelist and writer in the 1800s and was considered one of the founders of the Holiness Revival in America and the United Kingdom. Greatly criticised for speaking publicly as a woman and for addressing mixed crowds, she was so assured of her calling and confident in relying on God, that she was not shaken from her hard work and persistence. As a result, thousands of men and women came to know Christ under her teaching.

If faith comes from hearing the message of Christ (Romans 10:17) and faith without good works is dead (James 2:17), then let us today take God at His Word and do something!

Take a moment today to re-align and invite the Holy Spirit to empower you once again and to remind you that everything you put your hand to, will flourish! Write down the name of someone who you would like to share the message of Jesus with. Do something to actively build the relationship or strengthen your friendship with them - it is relationship that will make a way for you to share Jesus with them! What other areas in your life are you believing God for breakthrough?