15 May Put Your Passion on Display
A few weeks ago, I was on an airplane sitting beside a stranger for one eternally long flight. After the usual small talk, he asked me about my occupation. (Big mistake!) It wasn’t long into the conversation that he commented about my passion for seeing a move of God sweep across our nation. Recently while attending a luncheon, I sat across the table from a beautiful young couple that were children’s pastors in a tremendous church. Again, after just a few minutes of talking about the need for churches to allow the Holy Spirit to be Himself, they too commented about my passion. If this was a support group, without shame I would stand up and say, “Hello, I am Billy Burns and I am consumed with a relationship with the Holy Spirit and unrelentingly passionate about passing this love for the Holy Spirit on to the children, youth, and adults in churches around the nation.” I so desire that it be said of me what was said of Peter in Acts 5:28, “Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine.” I want this passion to be so visible that it spreads to all those around and, before long, individuals and churches and cities will be joining together with me proclaiming “TODAY is the day of the Holy Ghost” and seeing Him demonstrate His presence.
There is so much that I could say about the importance of having this kind of relationship with the Holy Spirit. I will limit myself to just sharing that those around you desperately need to see someone that is filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit and is putting their passion on display. That is the only way that you will fill your Jerusalem with your doctrine.
“For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to …”
Here is why Vickie and I are traveling around our nation. We are fully aware of Satan’s tactics (2 Corinthians 2:11) and know that as Jesus-loving, Bible-believing, Word-quoting believers awaken (1 Corinthians 12:1) to the benefits (1 Corinthians 14:4) that occur when we make a conscious choice to daily connect God’s Spirit with our spirit and our mouth, Satan’s kingdom will be annihilated. Believers need to know that as we continually pray in the Spirit our spirit is speaking directly to God (1 Corinthians 14:2). Each and every syllable or unknown word that we utter by the Spirit brings about radical change … we build up ourselves (Jude 20), improve ourselves (1 Corinthians 14:4), engage in a new realm of worship (Acts 10:46; 1 Corinthians 14:15), pray beyond our mind’s limitations (1 Corinthians 14:14), and quietly commune with God regardless of our environment or circumstances (1 Corinthians 14:28). This awareness will cause us to be able to join the apostle Paul in touting the necessity of praying in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:18).
Here is what I discovered just a few weeks ago. The author of the Book of Acts wrote that his former letter (the Gospel of Luke) told of what Jesus began to do and teach. The Holy Spirit caused the word “began” to jump off of page 941 of my Bible. I have no idea where this word has been during all of my years of reading the Bible. I became so excited when the Holy Spirit used this verse to let me know that Jesus has never stopped what He began. His doing and teaching is continuing through Spirit-filled believers TODAY! This means that when you stand up to teach or preach, be it in an auditorium filled with adults or in a room of children or youth, through you Jesus is just picking up where He left off some 2000+ years ago and making it possible through you to accomplish TODAY the same supernatural results that we read about in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
In his book Christ the Healer, F.F. Bosworth gives the answer for avoiding this tragedy.