31 “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied”.
“For the church to increase there must be a genuine fear of the Lord, coupled with the manifested presence of the Holy Spirit. If these two prerequisites are absent from a church, the result is a spiritual and natural decline.”
It has been said that “expectation is the breeding ground for miracles”. While I believe this to be a true statement, I also believe that expectation has the potential to be a breeding ground for familiarity.
If I may explain; for those of us in charismatic circles, it is easy to become accustomed to the manifestations of the spirit. We expect ecstatic praise, tongues and prophetic words, and when all or one fails to manifest we question whether or not the Holy Spirit was involved in the service. And so our “expectation” is really a byproduct of our familiarity.
Where familiarity resides lack of the fear of the lord is soon to follow. And in that environment I would question if the “manifestations” we are seeing are more fleshly routine than they are of the spirit.
So, am I advocating we cease to expect the moving’s of the spirit? By no means! We are Gods people and we should always desire him to move in and through us – especially in the corporate gathering. What I am saying is this, when the Spirit manifests Himself in our services we should greet him with the same reverence and awe that he is due; remembering that His holiness and power are beyond our comprehension. Let us maintain the “fear of the Lord, and The Spirit” and so by doing protect our lives and services from becoming religious (Albeit) charismatic ritual, which amounts to nothing more than the rattling of dead bones.
Luther.
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