STREET FAITH

In our recent Prayer and Perspectives series, dealing with covid19 and the multiple challenges surrounding it, we’ve talked a lot about the need for truth and wisdom. We’ve discussed the fact that God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear but of Power and Love and a clear sound mind. We’ve talked about the need for an ongoing intimate relationship with Him…and the need to listen and hear. But the truth of the matter is, many people, including many Christians, do not sense the presence and power of God in their lives right now. And many have no clear sense of God’s direction for their lives in this moment. As we approach Pentecost (May 31 this year), it’s possibly more important than at any time in most of our lives to look and remember the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost immediately following Jesus’ resurrection. As promised, the Holy Spirit, the very Presence of God, came to empower and guide those first Jesus followers. And that same Holy Spirit is available now to fill and guide and empower us. To speak to us and through us. To give us power and wisdom here and now, in this moment. If we’re willing to receive and welcome that! With so many conflicting voices competing right now for our attention and allegiance, and so many questions unanswered by those we expect to have answers, maybe we have a real practical need to take a hard look again at what it means to welcome the wisdom and power and Presence of God into our lives.

The church hasn't been shut down by COVID 19 restrictions. The church has been deployed. Forced to become creative and engaged in new ways, outside the walls of its buildings and programs. What can we in the so-called Christian west learn in this moment from our brothers and sisters who've been operating this way for years? For decades or more?

“I know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purposes…” Nice sentiment. Right? But what about a global pandemic. Can God turn that to good? Really? Yes! How? Through us. And in us. Right where we are. Trusting Him. And doing what we’ve been prepared to do and being who we’ve been prepared to be all along. For today. For this moment. It’s time.

Health care workers are overloaded. Help lines and websites are jammed. Major nodes of the US internet system have seen so much traffic that they’ve locked up or crashed, multiple times in the last couple weeks. The twelfth chapter of Romans describes the gifts that the Spirit of God pours out to believers, equipping them for life and service in the real world. “The stuff” of New Testament Spirit empowered faith in the streets. Practical gifts. Like giving. And leadership. And various kinds of healings. That’s what is says. Gifts of Healings. Plural and plural! And the world around us right now, right where we are, is in desperate need of all kinds of healings. If we have the Spirit of God, we can call on those gifts and get really busy right now. Being healers. And Raising Up Healers, prepared for such a time as this.