 Outpouring of Holy Spirit is likened to a waterfall By Robert P. Mills The Presbyterian Layman Volume 33, Number 5 Posted September 29, 2000 “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” With those words from Acts 2, the Rev. Jim Logan began his message to the rousing service of praise and worship that opened Pentecost 2000: Prayer that Shapes the Future. The five-day prayer gathering, sponsored by Presbyterian-Reformed Ministries International (PRMI), was held in Montreat, N.C., July 25-29. It drew more than 600 people from around the world (including Canada, England, Uganda, Brazil, Philippines, Taiwan and Hong Kong) and across the U.S. A waterfall
Brad Long, PRMI’s executive director, said the vision for the prayer gathering came about three years ago. At a time when people were fearful about Y2K, Long said, “I felt the Lord say, ‘I am going to pour out my Spirit in even greater measure at the turn of this century than I did at the turn of the last century,’” a time marked by revivals in Wales and Korea and the beginning of the Pentecostal movement in the U.S. At the beginning of every great revival, Long observed, people have been found on their knees. “We need to be on our knees in prayer to open the floodgates of revival around the world. Revival must be prayed in, obeyed in, believed in. Above all, we’re here to do the work of prayer. That is our vision.” Another Pentecost?
“I submit that it is not another Pentecost but the power of that Pentecost that we desire. We’re looking for power to live right, power to walk right, power to talk right, to be witnesses, to see our communities and even this church transformed. “We don’t need another Pentecost. What we need is another outpouring.” To understand this, Logan said, we need to understand that the first Pentecost came as a result of obedience. Jesus had told his disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift.” Obediently, they waited weeks for the gift to come. “We are not going to see the outpouring we seek,” Logan said, “until we as the people of God begin to walk in the will of God. This is so simple that many of us are missing it.” Another outpouring “We need another outpouring,” Logan continued, “because we have lost our moral compass and are mirroring society at large. We need a fresh outpouring that will pull us back to our first love. We need to stop this love affair we have with the world and fall in love with Jesus again. The Church cannot be like the world. We’ve lost our ability to witness to Jesus with integrity.” “We need another outpouring,” Logan concluded, “But it’s not going to come until we make up our minds that we’ve wandered too far, we’ve compromised too much, we’ve winked at sin, we’ve been tolerant to the point of grieving Christ. Pentecost has already come. God’s Holy Spirit has already come. All you have to do is reach up, receive him, and walk in obedience.” Following Logan’s sermon, Long urged those in attendance to publicly reaffirm their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and recommit themselves to obeying his will and following his leading. In a moving illustration of unity in diversity, 600 people, of different races and from different parts of the world, all of whom had gathered to do the work of prayer, stood to affirm their faith then knelt to confess their sins. In another plenary session, Parker T. Williamson, executive editor of The Presbyterian Layman, asked, “Do you sometimes feel a disconnect from the culture in which you live? If so, you’re in good company.” He reminded his hearers that first-century Christians clashed with their culture as well. Turning to Hebrews 12:1-2 he challenged those present to, “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,” reminding them that “This is not your race. You didn’t pick the objective. Jesus is out front. You don’t have to know where the finish line is. Follow him. He’s the pioneer. He’s also back there behind you, picking up your loose ends, weaving them into the fabric that is his will.” In his plenary address, Tom White declared that “Jesus has given us authority over the evil one. The Holy Spirit in you is adequate. Yet the church in our day has fallen into captivity to Babylonian culture. Our compromises with culture have robbed us of our spiritual authority and have left us spiritually anemic." And preaching on the opening verses of Acts 1, Alan Leach, PRMI’s director of ministry development, said, “God has an agenda. He has a plan. He’s not sitting on the throne looking at your church wondering what to do. He wants to see the church ignited, and one of the ways is to do what Jesus said in Acts 1:8, ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.’” Leach said that “as we flick the tiny match we call prayer or spiritual warfare, it contacts the presence of God and the whole thing ignites. In the process, we need to have a vision of the immensity of God. If I could give the Church a gift it wouldn’t be a better vision of how to do it. It would be a better vision of the one who does it.” |
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