Movements and Obedience

Powerful movements of God begin with obedient actions of His people.

When you see the Holy Spirit poured out at Pentecost, it was because the disciples (all of them, not just the famous eleven) waited on whatever it was that Jesus had promised.  When a guy rises from the dead and spends 40 days with you, listening and obeying what He says isn't really all that optional.

When God shook the world 495 years ago next week through the pen of Martin Luther, it was because the things in the Church didn't line up with the things in the Scripture.  So Luther stood, God helping him, upon his convictions.

When the New World's social order was set ablaze by the Spirit of God, Edwards, Whitefield, and a host of others were not only preaching the Gospel but requiring of its hearers what it required of their own lives:  obedience, not comfort.  They were not without fault but were marked by obedience.

When God opened up the mouth of a southern fundamentalist Baptist preacher and, through his conferences, brought the Gospel to a large portion of the world, untold thousands came to know Christ.  And undergirding the movement of Billy Graham was the man he was committed to be, marked by accountability and transparency.

And if God's going to use you and me, it will not be without our obedience in every area of life.

But that's just me thinking thoughts...