But Wait (Part 2)

Jesus Christ gave the great commission as we discussed in the previous post, that all His disciples should go out and do what they had experienced with Him.  They were to go out and make disciples of all men.  He assured them that He would be with them until the end of the ages!

Previously we discussed a reason for defeat and weakness among the children of God, being lack of enduement of power from the Holy Spirit.  In John 20:22, we have an account of the risen Lord breathing on the disciples and saying to them "Receive the Holy Spirit..."
But the Book of Acts, as told by Luke, He also told them to wait until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit.  

These are not inconsistent. The one is the first fruit of the latter. It is by the Holy Spirit's enablement that we receive and profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (1 Corinthians 12:3).  Our natural inclination will never submit to such (Galatians 5:17).
The latter therefore, is that which enables us to go and preach the good news with boldness and urgency.

This preaching of the good news is what we commonly term "evangelism."  Now how many can confidently say they do this, at all?
We have the good news, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ preached to us, we receive Him by the help of, and in cooperation with, the Holy Spirit, as our Savior.  Usually we confess Him to be our Lord as well.  But here is where the tar meets the road!  We do not obey Him!

Think about this with me for a moment. We call it the good news, we accept His substitutionary death on the cross for us, we declare that we've been translated from the kingdom of darkness, from eternal death, to the Kingdom of God's dear son, to eternal life.
We proclaim to be like the one who is a life giving Spirit.  Alas, we continue as mere living souls, unable to give life to another.

If we truly believe our profession of faith, if we are no longer children of wrath and disobedience, why can we not share what we have received, this so great a salvation, with other lost souls?

Then there's the issue of life style.  People watched the disciples and knew from their lifestyles that they followed Jesus. Can the same be said of us?  We actually use our new identity as a rod of offence, beating people down, and seeking to obtain temporal privileges with it.

Are we not Christians the few hours of the week when we are in a formal fellowship gathering and spawns of the devil the rest of the time?  The one you obey is your Lord and master. It is that simple.  We flagrantly disobey Christ but wonder why His promised cover is not over us.

Prayer
Lord Jesus, please forgive me for disobeying you.  By your Spirit, without whose help I cannot please you, help me to start walking in obedience to you.  Amen.

#momomily2013