It is uncanny to me to see how the Holy Spirit is working in our congregation at Community of Joy! Six weeks ago as we launched a series on the book of Acts from the Bible, looking at the question - what were the characteristics of the first church that enabled it to experience such explosive growth and why aren't we experiencing the same growth?, we heard Jesus telling the first church to wait in Jerusalem until the gift of the Holy Spirit was given. So, that first week, I encouraged our folks to wait on the gift of the Holy Spirit. To pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit to guide us into a new future. Too often we just lunge ahead in our own power and neglect the gift of the Holy Spirit that God give us. So, we began to wait on the Holy Spirit and to pray for its guidance.
And as we waited and prayed, evidence of the coming of the Holy Spirit began to show up. The very next week in worship, both worship gatherings in different ways experienced the Spirit's power. And then the Spirit gave me a discipling model (I had been looking at models of other churches but the one I was given was one we had a couple of years of positive experience with!) Last week, I shared the model and said we would take steps into that model in the coming weeks. And this week, looking for 4 leaders to form new circles out of our one existing 5Q Circle, I already have 3 leaders confirmed and I didn't have to twist arms, or beg, they just stepped forward. One person even had a Holy Spirit confirmation that they shared with me. And one more evidence... all three of these new leaders are persons who shared last week in my sermon, the impact this 5Q Circle has had on them. That is evidence you can't dispute!
I can hardly contain my excitement and the growing excitement I feel as we take steps toward Jesus and invite others to do the same!
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