December 17 I Tuesday

Amos 7-9

Revelation 8

“And He is the head of the body, the church...”   

—Colossians 1:18

The Church of Jesus Christ is intended to be the outward manifestation of the inward working of God. It is men, women and children who surrender so completely to the Holy Spirit that He has the freedom for His power to work in their lives.

The Church of Jesus Christ is meant to be a Spirit-filled Church, where it is a supernatural Church in which there will be something about the people that cannot be purely explained in human terms.
If people do not see the transformation of others, they will have no reason to listen to what is being preached. But when the Church shows itself to be a place of power, work is accomplished, lives are transformed and the only legitimate explanation is God at work.

If we need to be in control, plan the strategies and calculate an end result in our churches, then we must ask, whose agenda are we on? What role does God play? His presence within the corporate body of the Church is not to ensure that our plans work well, but to implement His plans by the Holy Spirit and we be carried along by His power and direction.

In order to understand the true nature of the work of God in the early years of the church, we need to know what it was that revolutionized about 120 men and women, gathered together on the Day of Pentecost. Two things happened. Firstly, the disciples received the Holy Spirit. Secondly, Christ received a new body in which to work through. The church of Jesus Christ is not an organization, but an organism. It is a living body where Christ is the head, His Spirit is its life and we, as Christians, are all members of this one body.

From its inception, the church grew from those who “…were added to their number” (Acts 5:14). Today, there is a sense in which corporately, as we meet in church, there is a special awareness of God’s presence. We do not walk out of God’s presence as we leave the church, nor do we have any less of His presence. Church should not be a separate part of our lives and the rest of the week we are on our own. The greatest need in the church is not to learn how to apply the principles of Jesus, but to allow the release of His Holy Spirit to work in us and through us. As it was in the birth of the Christian church at Pentecost, our lives will then be inexplicable apart from the fact God is doing something!

Prayer: Dear Lord, I pray for Your Church all over the globe to be a fruitful, Spirit-filled church, in which Your work is accomplished and lives are transformed. Thank You, Lord.