Winds of Change
Sunday, October 05, 2014
By Rev. James May
Nothing that God does is ever done by chance. He is meticulous in his plans, paying absolute attention to even the smallest details to ensure that everything happens in proper order, at the proper time and in a way that fully complies with God’s own word and law. In his infinite wisdom and great foreknowledge, God always has complete control of all things in order that his perfect will and plan will be carried out without fail.
When I think of all the things that God has done in my life, your life and the life of this church, there can be no doubt that his hand has been guiding each of us every step of the way. Considering where he has brought us from in the past, the many paths of life that we all have walked, and then to see where we are today, it is nothing short of a miracle that we have been led to this hour and this place, all of us together as a Body of Christ, to perform a work for the Lord.
It may seem as though much of life has been just a series of coincidences, things just happened, many of which we had so little control over. You may have felt like a ship driven in the wind, going wherever life took you, out of control and headed for the rocks. Some of you have even crashed upon those rocks and you saw those days of sorrow and heartache when life became almost unbearable because of the burdens you carried.
But somehow, God brought you through it all, and the time came when you heard him call your name for the very first time. It may have been a still, whispering voice in your heart that called out to you that it’s time to make a change. On that day, the winds of change were caused to blow upon your heart as the Spirit of God began the first steps of turning your life around.
When Nicodemus came to Jesus in the darkness of the night in John chapter three, there was a great symbolism there. Nicodemus was a picture of mankind as a whole being held in the tight grip of darkness through the power of sin. Men dwell in spiritual darkness and there is no power within them to break free, but then comes the light of the gospel with the power to dispel the darkness.
Nicodemus moved among the shadows to avoid being seen by other Pharisees who would certainly condemn him for going to Jesus, but something inside of him was pushing him toward Jesus. It was the wind of change; the wind of the Holy Spirit blowing across his path in life, pushing him closer to the Lord that he might find the answer to being set free.
When Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again, the mind of Nicodemus was not ready to receive spiritual truth, and he just couldn’t understand what Jesus meant or how such a thing could be possible. How can a grown man be born again as an infant? In the natural sense it was an impossibility, and when we look at the condition of the heart of a man or woman who is lost in the darkness of sin, it’s just impossible that we could ever break free. Since we are spiritually dead, how can we have any effect at all upon the supernatural? Flesh cannot break spiritual chains. Before those chains can be broken and we can be free, there has to be a change in us. We have to become much more than just a creature of flesh and blood, lost in a world of darkness.
Knowing that we can do nothing within ourselves, the Love of God begins to reach out to us as the wind of the Spirit begins to blow and calls us to go to Jesus in repentance.
There, at the foot of the cross, as we behold the Savior and surrender our lives to him, there is a change that happens as the Spirit of God blows across our dead soul and breathes new life into it. We are Born Again of the Spirit and we become a new creation; a new creature with a new life. This new birth brought about by the wind of the Holy Spirit gives us the power of the supernatural so that now we are able to break free from the supernatural chains of darkness because the blood of Jesus crushes the power that held us.
I’m glad the Winds of Change are still blowing today. The wind of the Spirit is ever moving across the face of the hearts of men as the Love of God ever reaches out to those who need a Savior!
My prayer is that the Wind of the Spirit will blast through this church, bringing a mighty outpouring of the Holy Ghost and fire! I prayer is that a mighty wind of revival will sweep across this nation bringing with it a renewal of righteousness and faith in Almighty God! My prayer is that the Winds of the Holy Spirit will tear down walls of doubt and fear; that the Spirit of God will break through the hard hearts of those in our families who don’t know Jesus, or refuse to serve him, and bring them to the place where they too will be Born Again!
What we truly need is a Hurricane force wind of the Spirit, bringing the right kind of change! While a gentle move of the Holy Ghost wind goes a long way; I thing we need a shaking of the very foundations of our society; an awakening to bring us out of our sleep and help us see how far we have truly fallen. We need a mighty rushing wind once again; and it needs to begin right here in the very House of God! It’s time that the church experiences the power of Pentecost again!
We live in a time when it’s not popular to be Pentecostal. As you travel the highways you’ll rarely see that word posted on a church sign anymore. Pentecostal has become synonymous with strict legalism, and people shun Pentecostal churches because they don’t want to be accountable for living ungodly.
But regardless of whether we have the name posted on the church sign or not, we really need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Ghost and Fire! We need that mighty rushing wind of the Spirit of God to invade our sleeping churches once again! Without the Wind and the Fire of the Holy Ghost, we are powerless and weak!
It’s not a question of whether God wants that wind to blow. It’s a question of whether we, as the people of God, are willing to put ourselves in the position where there is freedom for the Holy Ghost Fire to fall! We have to get ourselves ready and prepare for his arrival. We have to get back to the same conditions that brought the mighty rushing wind in the first place.
What are those conditions? Let’s examine the description of the first outpouring of the Holy Ghost and see.
Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
What does it mean when the scripture says the day of Pentecost was fully come?
We all should know that the Feast of Pentecost was celebrated 50 days after the Passover. At the Passover, the paschal lamb was sacrificed and eaten, symbolizing the coming Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who would also be sacrificed at the Passover. He is our Bread of Life, and we are to live by the power of his sacrifice.
50 days after Jesus was crucified, in fulfillment of the commandment of God given to Israel at Mt. Sinai, the Day of Pentecost was to be celebrated on the day after the 7th Sabbath after the lamb was sacrificed. This meant that the Day of Pentecost would be observed on the First Day of the Week, exactly 50 days after Passover.
On the morning of that 50th day, 120 people had gathered together to pray in obedience to the command from Jesus just before he ascended into Heaven. The church was told to tarry in Jerusalem until the Comforter would come, and if there’s one thing they needed, it was a Comforter.
The church is powerless without the presence of the Holy Ghost. Without the Fire of God we have to ability to conquer sin and death! Without the Fire of the Holy Ghost, the words we speak fall upon the ground and accomplish nothing! The Fire of the Holy Ghost is what gives my sermons power to touch your heart! That Fire is what makes these pitiful words that I say burn into your spirit and change your life! Without the Fire of the Spirit, there’s no power to change anything!
It’s not by might, nor by power, but by the Holy Mighty Rushing Wind and Fire of the Holy Ghost that a heart can be changed, a life rescued from sin and darkness and a soul Born Again into the family of God! We’ve got to have that Fire!
On that Sunday morning, the first day of the week, 50 days after Passover, 120 Jews who had come from all over the world and gathered to celebrate the Feast of Passover, and who had come to have faith in Jesus, gathered together with their minds set on just one thing! They wanted to see the coming of the Comforter that Jesus had promised.
I think that’s a priority of the church that we’ve lost! Our first priority should be that we won’t make a move without the power of the Holy Ghost leading us and giving us the Fire of God to do a work for the Lord! We should want that Fire! We should be willing to wait for it, pray for it, desire it with all of our hearts, and when we come together it should be but for one purpose – to see the Mighty Rushing Wind of the Holy Ghost blow in our midst once again!
120 disciples of Christ were there. One of the reasons that there were so many is that they had come together in Acts 1:15 to elect one among them to take the place of Judas. That’s where Matthias was elected to be numbered among the 12 disciples.
With the election over, and the Passover finished, and the Day of Pentecost coming on, and knowing that something wonderful, powerful and great was coming from Heaven like Jesus had promised; these 120 came together to wait together, to tarry, to pray and to prepare themselves as best they could for whatever was coming.
There’s a clue to seeing the Winds of Change blow in our midst. We have to prepare ourselves, believe that the promise of the Holy Ghost is real, and then pray and wait for him until he comes!
The church comes together most of the time in these days just to be entertained, or to ease the conscious of Christians who are lukewarm and half-hearted! There’s no feeling of expectancy that something powerful might happen in the meeting! The program is set! The worship is designed and planned. The recording equipment is set and the entire service is so controlled that there is no place for the Wind of the Spirit to blow.
We need to throw out the programs; forget what we have planned; and we must allow the Holy Ghost to move and blow wherever and however He wants!
Flashing lights, loud music, jumping up and down, making a lot of noise and putting on a good show are not the same as a real moving of the Wind of the Holy Ghost! When the real Fire of God falls, all of that can’t compare! We’ve got to have the real thing; not a man made form, but a Holy Ghost inspired Worship! I love the excitement, and if the Spirit says flash the lights, jump to the music, then go for, but the worship needs to come from the heart, stirred by the Holy Ghost and filled with the fire of God, not some man-inspired pep rally mentality.
What does it mean to be in “one accord”? That’s our next clue to having a mighty move of God! It means that the desires of their hearts, the thing that they wished for above all else; the thing that their thoughts were concentrated upon; and the whole purpose of their coming together on this day, at this hour, at this moment in time; and the only thing they had to talk about, was the hope and belief that the Comforter would come!
There was no one in the crowd who stood there uninterested, not focused on why they were come together. No one was over in the corner sleeping. No one was in a corner, reading a scroll, or discussing the sports events or talking about current events. There was not one among those 120 whose heart wasn’t burning for the promise of God that was to come. No one was lukewarm! They all had that burning desire to see something from God! There was absolute sincerity in every heart!
It’s no wonder we don’t often see the mighty rushing wind of the Holy Ghost in our churches much anymore when there are so many distractions in the midst. There’s a ringing cell phone here, a computer game noise coming from over there, a crying child here and someone snoring over there; someone is staring off into space, day dreaming on the left side and someone else talking on the right side about things that have no connection with the service. I know that some things can’t be helped, but how can we possibly expect God to move when all this is going on?
Holy Ghost wind will never blow if there is so much division and so many in the church with a don’t care attitude and all they want to do is see the service end so they can rush out the door and beat the crowd to the restaurant or get home before the football game starts on TV?
They were all in one place. Where that room was, we don’t know for sure, but most scholars believe that it was somewhere in the temple complex. Acts 2:46 tells us that they were daily in the temple with one accord, and on this 50th day after Passover, they were probably in the temple at the time of the morning prayer meeting. They did not forsake the assembling of themselves together. Being in one accord, they were too excited, lived in too much anticipation of something great that was coming, to miss being there. They understood the importance of coming together for mutual support, for mutual edification, for corporate worship and prayer, and they were faithful to meet together, as the Body of Christ, to be ready for the coming of the Wind of Change!
Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Suddenly – how can it be suddenly when they’ve been praying, waiting and anticipating something for 50 days? It’s suddenly because when the wind of the Spirit began to blow, it happened quickly and a powerful way, and it swept across the room like a storm and it brought a fire and the voices of praise and worship filled the room!
The quiet prayer meeting become a Holy Ghost revival and those who were suddenly Pentecostal began to shout and praise God as never before! That’s why Pentecostal worship is loud and exciting! When the Fire moves, something has to shout! How can we sit quietly unless there’s no real fire of the Spirit in us?
I wonder, Oh Lord, is there anyone here that’s really on fire for God? Is there anyone here who really senses the presence of the Holy Ghost? How can we be so quiet if there is really a Wind and a Fire down in our soul? Somebody ought to be shouting! Somebody ought to be praising! Somebody ought to be alive and demonstrating the might move of God down in their soul!
Lord, give us some life in this place! We need a mighty fire; a mighty wind; a mighty move of the Holy Ghost Wind to change us into people who are truly Pentecostal and full of the Holy Ghost!
Acts 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
How do you really know the Holy Ghost is moving – when the people begin to speak in other tongues because of the fire of God that’s inside! When the Holy Fire of God lights on your heart, soul, spirit and mind – how are you going to sit still and not let it be known? Let me light a match and stick to your foot and I think you’ll jump and dance a little! Light that match and stick to your hand and you’ll be raising your hand and moving around to get away from it! Lord, light a fire in our seat that we will learn to stand and shout and worship with real Spirit and in a true heart! Lord send the Fire of the Spirit upon us and light us on fire for you!
The Holy Fire of God was for each of them, not just a few, but for all of them! Nobody was left out! All of those who were in one accord, hungry for the coming of the Comforter and looking for the promise, felt the fire fall! If you don’t feel the fire, then maybe you need to get in the right frame of mind and spirit. You’ll never feel the fire until you’re wanting it and looking for it and believing for it and crying out to God for it! The Holy Ghost will never come to someone who doesn’t want him!
Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
They were all filled – every last one of the 120 became Pentecostals that day! Do you realize that all 120 members of the early church in that room became Pentecostals? No, they weren’t members of a legalistic, condemning, judgmental attitude religion like so many try to make it out to be. Being Pentecostal simply means that I believe in the baptism in the Holy Ghost and Fire with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives the words to speak, regardless of what they sound like, and that I either have experienced the infilling of the Holy Ghost, or I’m doing my best to receive Him!
I’m praying and waiting with great anticipation that we are going to experience the Winds of Change in the church; not just Victory Temple, but in the entire church! We need the revival of the Holy Ghost and Fire! The church needs to get in one place, in one accord and get serious about seeing the Holy Ghost in our midst! Unless the Fire falls, we’re going to dry up on the vine and cease to have any impact upon our world!
Jesus told the early church to wait for the Holy Ghost before they went forth to fulfill the Great Commission! That didn’t mean that they didn’t try to win converts for 50 days, but that they didn’t venture out into the world to preach the gospel to every nation until they were filled. They needed the power, the fire, the wind of the Spirit before they could really make a difference!
Just as Peter went from a fearful disciple, hiding in the shadows, running in shame from his denial of Jesus, and finding himself living in defeat and trying to find a place of repentance; to being a man on fire for God and winning over 3000 souls in a single day – so will the Holy Ghost empower us to do a greater work for the Lord!
If you think that you’ve seen God move, then get ready for the greatest move of God you could imagine as the Holy Ghost and Fire begins to move in your heart and soul! There’s no denying his presence when the Fire is there! There’s no doubting his power when the Winds.
I’m ready for the Winds of Change! Are you ready? Do you really want to be Pentecostal or are you satisfied just being mediocre in your experience with God?
The Holy Ghost is here! He wants to blow across this church like a mighty rushing wind, but it’s up to us to be in the right place, at the right time, in the right frame of mind! He will come suddenly; and when he does there will be no denying his presence as the tongues of fire light on each of us! Wind Blow! Holy Spirit Fire fall on us today!
