For all the 21st Century ills that impact us, there are far more incredible developments which we enjoy every day. Just think for a moment of the breakthroughs of the 2,000 years preceding our arrival! We refer to them as such, but for the millions of forward-thinking individuals responsible, each ‘breakthrough’ came at the cost of many more failures in their trial-and-error process. Today, we take them as givens (I’ve heard the world is not flat after all!) How many of our ‘givens’ originally burned up, blew up, collapsed, even killed people? Electricity, for example. One of the greatest modern-day ‘miracles,’ in my humble opinion, is painless dentistry (Can I get an Amen?). Maybe a close second is the now-ubiquitous cell phone. I’m sure you have your list, too. And we can benefit from all these major breakthroughs without a drop of sweat on our brows or sleepless nights caused by the latest catastrophic failure!
Similarly, we don’t have to experience the Pentecost Event as did the original disciples. Now, maybe it’s because I’m not much of a thrill seeker, but my heart goes out to that group, already gripped by fear of reprisal by the Jews, and lying low in an upper room. Can you just imagine the level of group anxiety? Then, on top of that, the howling of a nor’easter whipping around the room, no wind, just the roar, then fire, the tongues-speaking, the instant transport into the public square! I’m quite content, thank you very much, to simply read about that and benefit from the Spirit’s descent into them, and consequently, into me. For the disciples, as for me, this needed to be a God-initiated ‘baptism’ – His Plan ‘A.’ This was never meant to be attached to human endeavor. To adapt from a quote from German theologian, Jürgen Moltmann: ‘what we call supernatural is simply the natural order of another, truer world.’
I believe every generation comes to the Kingdom for ‘just such a time as this’ with each generation having open access to its full power and glory and majesty. I also believe that our enemy, Satan, knows this, so his primary evil is inundating us with feelings of unworthiness to prevent us from taking advantage of all that’s been made available to us. His accusations, his constant reminders to dwell on our past, his twisted truths, all furnish malicious, but effective, stumbling blocks to our spiritual advance. The antidote is not more effort on our part. The antidote is God’s Word, plus fellowship, prayer, and worship. These things, in combination, cause us to soar past all obstacles, freely reveling in the grace and abundant peace of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, transporting us in the Spirit until “we become one into a perfect man with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ.” And this is still the Holy Spirit’s goal today for the Church around the world, and for the Vineyard Church of the Peninsula, too. Ready for a breakthrough? See y’all tomorrow, 10 AM, 3 PM, UK, 4 PM, FR. PD
