- May 17, 2011
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The answer seems obvious enough, I can hear you now "The Holy Spirit duh! " but if you or I were to walk into any Pentecostal/Charismatic church on any given Sunday and interview any member, most if not all would proudly proclaim they had the same baptism as those 120 in the Upper Room.
My question is, was the beginning explosion of Christianity just a grace of God to get the Church on it's feet, or was there a key to the incredible growth of our faith that we can lay hold on today? Now granted as I stated in my last thread, 1/3 of the world's population claims Christ already, laying that number aside, no matter how inflated, that leaves 4,000,000,000+ who do not believe in Jesus as the Savior, so truly the Church's work is not done.
What do you think made the Church in Jerusalem so effective? I have an idea, not by any means the only acceptable answer, and it comes in many forms.
First was they were a Church of Prayer (Matt 21:22):
Acts 1:14, "They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers."
Acts 1:24, "Then they prayed"
Acts 2:42, "They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."
Acts 3:1, 4:23-31, 6:4-6, chapter 10, 12:5-12, 13:3, 14:23, 20:36, 21:5
Second, they were obedient to the Holy Spirit (John 16:13-15)
Third, they were willing to die for their belief (John 15:13)
I didn't want to list all the scripture references, so forgive me if I cheated you out of that, they are there for sure. My list is by no means exhaustive either... Just to generate discussion is why I ask this to you all..
What would it take?
My question is, was the beginning explosion of Christianity just a grace of God to get the Church on it's feet, or was there a key to the incredible growth of our faith that we can lay hold on today? Now granted as I stated in my last thread, 1/3 of the world's population claims Christ already, laying that number aside, no matter how inflated, that leaves 4,000,000,000+ who do not believe in Jesus as the Savior, so truly the Church's work is not done.
What do you think made the Church in Jerusalem so effective? I have an idea, not by any means the only acceptable answer, and it comes in many forms.
First was they were a Church of Prayer (Matt 21:22):
Acts 1:14, "They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers."
Acts 1:24, "Then they prayed"
Acts 2:42, "They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."
Acts 3:1, 4:23-31, 6:4-6, chapter 10, 12:5-12, 13:3, 14:23, 20:36, 21:5
Second, they were obedient to the Holy Spirit (John 16:13-15)
Third, they were willing to die for their belief (John 15:13)
I didn't want to list all the scripture references, so forgive me if I cheated you out of that, they are there for sure. My list is by no means exhaustive either... Just to generate discussion is why I ask this to you all..
What would it take?