The people of God, not the Church building, make up Christ Church. Followers of Jesus are God’s spiritual temple in the New Testament.
“And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.” – (1 Peter 2:5 NLT)
The Holy Spirit now resides in the corporate body of Christ. Disciples of Jesus (the Church) make up Christs' visible body on the earth. After the resurrection, Jesus spent time with his followers, teaching them about his Kingdom before his accession into heaven.
On the day of Pentecost, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to fall upon and empower the gathering of believers. Jesus' followers in Jerusalem were full of anticipation. These were just average men, women, and children. Peter stood up to preach about what the prophet Joel had spoken.
“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy." – (Acts 2:17-18 ESV)
Dreams, visions, and prophecy should be normative in the contemporary Church. Sadly the excesses of some prophetically gifted people have caused many to doubt the reality of these gifts. Humble praying people are the ones who experience true manifestations of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul is clear that we are too, "Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy." - (1 Corinthians 14:1 ESV)
Paul also warns us in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 -21: "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good."
The teaching in some Churches today is to earnestly avoid these gifts!
The most balanced approach is to test all prophetic experiences. Do they line up with Scripture? As the old saying goes: "eat the chicken and spit out the bones."
We (the Church) are the Spirit empower representatives of God on the earth. But many believers never tap into the Source of real power. In the book of Acts, we see the Spirit falling upon a praying people. We must spend time engaged in intercessory prayer, personally and corporately. If we don’t rediscover the power of prayer, we will continue to experience powerless Christianity. The lost world is turned off by the arguments, inconsistencies, and lack of unity in the Church. The world is looking for transforming power.
Unity and prayer are the keys to Kingdom power.
So, let us return to prayer.
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