The Holy Ghost Makes You Do What?

Acts 2 tells the story of Pentecost, the birthday of the New Testament church.  Verses 41-47 lists what happened in the church when the disciples became empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

The list goes something like this:

Verse 41

1.       Baptism

2.       Numerical growth by conversion

Verse 42

3.       Bible study

4.       Fellowship

5.       Eating together

6.       Praying together

Verse 43

7.       Collective fear of/ reverence for God

8.       Miraculous wonders

9.       Miraculous/ prophetic signs

Verses 44, 45

10.   Pooling financial resources

11.   Meeting financial needs through shared resources

Verse 46, 47

12.   Public worship and

13.   Powerful effect on the surrounding community

14.  Repeating all of the above

It's a long list, and you’ll notice that it includes the words "wonders" and "signs."   But signs and wonders are only PART of the litany of activities that come out of a Holy Ghost empowered church.

If we ignore the reality of miracles, we're quenching the Spirit.  We’re selling the Holy Spirit short.

If we ignore everything except miracles, we also are selling the Spirit short.

A church filled with and empowered by the Holy Ghost may, for example, speak in tongues and prophesy (and they might not).  But if the members of the church ONLY speaks in tongues and prophesy; but they don’t help anybody, or teach anybody, or touch their neighborhood, or love each other, or do anything with their tithes other than make the building and the pastor look fancier and fancier----- then that church is missing out on the Holy Ghost just as much as those poor Christians who no longer believe in miracles.

The church with no wonders and signs and the church with wonders and signs only are equally incomplete in ministry.

And if we stay satisfied with either extreme we become the kind of Christians that Paul warned Timothy about.   We become people having a form of godliness but denying its power.(2 Timothy 3: 5)

Jesus promised His disciples that after He sent them the Holy Spirit they would take His ministry farther.

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. (John 14: 12)

Remember that Jesus did many great works, and not all of them were miracles.  Jesus healed, but He taught more than He healed.

Jesus multiplied physical and financial resources, and He also advocated for the poor and the marginalized.

Jesus prophesied and discerned the thoughts of other, and He systematically explained the scriptures and applied Biblical teaching to contemporary life.
Jesus came out and preached to mass gatherings of people, and He spent years training and discipling a small group of future leaders.

Jesus did everything on the Acts chapter 2 list.  And He expects that we who truly believe in Him will do even greater, even more of the same things He did.

And that is what Holy Spirit filled ministry looks like.  

Jesus said, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (John 14: 26)

ALL things that Jesus said.  ALL of the same things.  Not just the miraculous things, but also the equally important and not so spectacular works of a Holy Spirit-filled ministry.

This Pentecost season, I pray that we all seek and find, ask for and receive the fullness of Christ’s ministry.  May this Pentecost make today’s church like the New Testament church on Pentecost.  May we all grow into the full ministry of the Holy Spirit.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

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To listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

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Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

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