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A Prayer About the Spirit’s Work

A Prayer About the Spirit’s Work
These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. Acts 2:15-18
Gracious Father, I readily admit it. The thought of being so under the influence of the Holy Spirit’s presence that someone might charge me with public drunkenness is quite attractive! What joy, unity, boldness, love, and freedom those ten dozen experienced on the Day of Pentecost. Declaring your praises in the languages of the nations, this Spirit-imbibed community announced the end to the confusion of Babel and a preview of the ingathering of your pan-national family! What a glorious and grand reality!
As I look back over my years of knowing Jesus, Father, you know quite well that I have been “all over the map,” with respect to my understanding of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. As the pendulum swings, I have experienced both extremes. I have been theologically rootless, starving for any experience proffered in the Spirit’s name. And I have been theologically rigid, so over-reacting to excesses and abuses in the Spirit’s name, it became much easier just to live from my head, than to engage from my heart.
Today, I simply want to offer childlike obedience to the command, “Be filled with the Spirit.” Holy Spirit, I know you have been living in me since the day you gave life to my dead spirit, and gave me the faith to believe and receive Jesus. I know I was baptized by you into the body of Christ. I know you have sealed me for eternity. I know you are the firstfruits and guarantee the Father will bring me to glory and will reveal his glory in me. I know you are praying in me, according to the Father’s will. I know you are constantly witnessing to my spirit that I am, indeed, a child of Abba, Father. I know you to be the gift and giver of every ministry and manifestation necessary for the building up of the church and the expansion of the kingdom of God… and I praise you for ALL of these things.
Now, I pray, not for balance, but for bounty in all of these gospel-realities! I don’t want to live in fear of excesses, or pendulum swings… I don’t want to be concerned about being either a charismaniac or a charisphobiac. I simply want to obey the command to be filled with You. Because the more I am living under your influence and control, the more Jesus will be exalted in my heart and revealed through my life. So come, Holy Spirit, come. You are not far away, you are living in me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and free me for the unspeakable-delights and kingdom-demands of living for Jesus! Very Amen, I pray!

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