|
About Jesus - Steve Sweetman After
The Rush I may have looked
like a hippie in 1972, but I wasn't. Hippies
called me a Jesus freak. On
one occasion I and a friend spoke to a high school class about how we had
given our lives to Jesus. That's
something we could never be allowed to do today.
In a question and answer session I was asked what I was high on. Apparently
it looked like I was experiencing the rush from drugs, as the hippies put
it. In the vernacular of
the day I answered by saying I was high on Jesus.
Unlike the Holy Spirit rush I was experiencing, hippies liked the
intoxicating rush of sex, drugs, and alcohol.
Neil Young's 1970 song entitled "After The Goldrush"
seemed to allude to this rush. "They
were flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun."
While the hippies
were feeling the rush from their psychedelic drug induced trips to the
sun, I and many Charismatic Christians in the 1970's were flying high from
the rush of the Holy Spirit. We
would race from one meeting to the next to experience another spiritual
high. For many, the latest
spiritual high was what life was all about, but is that what life is all
about? If you read the
book of Acts you will see what the rush of the Spirit, or the outpouring
of the Spirit as it calls it, is all about.
One hundred and twenty disciples of Jesus were blown away by the
mighty wind of the Spirit in Acts 2, but it didn't end there. They
experienced it again in Acts 4, 8, 10, and beyond.
Like many Charismatics in the 1970's the first generation disciples
experienced the outpouring of the Spirit over and over again.
Unlike many Charismatics in the 1970's the first generation
disciples understood the outpouring of the Spirit to be more than a
spiritual high. The pouring
out of the Spirit gave them the power to do the work of the Lord.
For them it was about the work, not the rush.
Many Charismatics
in the 1970's lost their fervour for Jesus.
The outpouring of the Spirit into their lives was wasted because
they failed to understand what it was all about.
This should be a warning for those of us who desire another massive
Holy Spirit revival. It's not
about us. It's about Jesus.
It's not about how we feel. It's
about how Jesus feels. It's
not about an exciting meeting. It's
about the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. It's
certainly not about experiencing a rush.
It's definitely about receiving the power and authority to do the
work of the Lord.
|
