The Kindling of Revival: Holy Spirit
Acts 1:4-8, “4 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; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 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 end of the earth.”
Acts 2:1-4, “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
After this, Peter gave a sermon and 3000 people were added to the church. It was not the eloquence of Peter’s sermon that convinced the people to be born again. There was no emotional manipulation to convince the people to be born again. It was one person and one person only! The Holy Spirit. Everything that occurred from there on was the work of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is the Great Revivalist. For this revival to happen, we must learn to depend on Him and let Him lead it.
Acts 3:1-7, “Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.”
In this passage, we see the Great Revivalist is at work again. Peter and John prayed to Jesus to heal that man and Holy Spirit backed them up, because Holy Spirit only confirms the works of Jesus. A lot of revivals and moves of God don’t last because they begin to stray away from the Truth. They begin to come up with weird ideology and base their theology on the miracles and signs and wonders that are happening. When you start doing that, you won’t last for so long . You will be exposed to the enemy and his demons. For safe keeping and longevity in the faith, we must be centered on the word of God.
This is not only true for revivals and moves of God, but also for our personal walk with the Lord. You build your life on the word of God and the Holy Spirit will back you up in every step you take. In our revival, starting here, we are going to base everything on the word of God. For as long as we stay in the scriptures, Holy Spirit will confirm our words and our works. Look at what Jesus said concerning Holy Spirit
John 16:12-15, “12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”
Holy Spirit will only glorify Jesus, and not us. For us to be used effectively in this revival, we must totally surrender to the Lord.
Acts 4:13-17, “13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. 14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. 15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, 16 saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.”
When God starts moving, the enemy will do what he can to derail the work of God. That is why we must decide now what we are going to do. Are we going to give in, or are we going to stand on the word of God?
After this chapter, the next big events are Holy Spirit exposing hearts and confirming hearts. He exposed Ananias and Sapphira’s heart. They were faking to be all in, but they really were not. Then, He confirmed Stephen’s heart, who was all in, and he became the first martyr. When this revival happens, we must be sure to be honest with ourselves and not try to test the Holy Spirit.
We don’t only rely on Holy Spirit for revival, but we need Him for everything. We need Him to guide us in this crazy world we live in. We need Him to reveal to us who we truly are. We need Him to reveal Jesus to us. He is our everything.
