I need a personal Pentecost. I have been stirred recently to want something more than I have, to stop settling for less than all that God has made available to me. The phrase is J. Lee Grady’s from his book on the Holy Spirit. As I read the first few pages I knew what I would like to focus on in my devotions and in my blog over the next year.
After a year when I have found the end of my own resources, I have come to realise that I’ve only been scratching the surface of God’s. I have read about and seen glimpses of the power of God but I have been far too easily satisfied to be a spectator or to receive enough for what I think I need in life.
This is not about wanting more for my own sake, although God only knows just how much I have always tried to live out of my own strength. As Grady points out when the Holy Spirit is moving is someone’s life then there will be a genuine challenge to live a holy life as well as an empowering to share the Gospel of Jesus with others. I want these things and in fact, I need these to be who I want to be and who God has made me to be.
I feel that 2011 is a year for me to search this out, to pursue the Holy Spirit with the passion and determination that God has given me. I want to become the kind of radical Christian that I’ve read about. I want to see if it’s possible for me to go beyond just having a short season or of being content with just enough to be a nice guy.
And so I’m going to pray and pursue. I’m going to read and reflect. I’m going to receive and to write. I want to push past what I’ve ever experienced before. I intend to be real, transparent and practical in my approach and application of what God teaches me. I want to know how this works on a good day or a bad day; a hard day or an easy day. I am curious to see what happens. I have an inkling that God is going to respond to my hunger and indeed that it is God who is calling me out.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
Driven? It should just come naturally. It shouldn't be forced. It shouldn't have to be sought out. Why not just relax and let it be the way it is? There's a difference between wanting to hunger for more and forcing more to come out. -Mike
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