I think the majority of Christians would like to escape to some safe, quiet hideaway in the mountains to keep from being tainted by all the iniquity surrounding them. Many despair, saying, “What can one Christian do about all this moral degradation? What can one church do in a wild and wicked city?” Others think, “Is there really anything I can do, an insignificant Christian like me? I have no money, no training, no influence. I only have a great love for Jesus.”
We often expect God to move in one of two ways: by sending a large, supernatural outpouring of his Holy Spirit to sweep multitudes of people into his kingdom, or by sending judgment to bring people to their knees.
Beloved, that isn’t God’s method of changing things in an evil day. His way of rebuilding ruins has always been to use ordinary men and women, filling them with his Holy Spirit and sending them into warfare with great faith and power.
God is raising up a holy ministry consisting of people who are totally committed to the Word and to prayer. They do not lord it over anyone. They are caring men and women whose hearts are stirred with no plan in mind but to seek, hear and obey God.
Next, God is calling you into immediate service. He needs the common man and woman. He uses people whom the high priests would call “uneducated and untrained” (see Acts 4:13). Scripture also says that in the Upper Room at Pentecost, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). They all became bold, powerful witnesses. This group did not just include Peter, James, John and the other well-known disciples, but also widows, young people, and ordinary working men and women!
We know that Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost, “full of faith and power” (see Acts 6:8). He was not an apostle nor an ordained minister. He served tables for the church so the disciples could devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.
Like Stephen, you can be God’s witness to your city. The Lord uses all those who get alone with him, are stirred in their hearts and seek him in prayer. Go forth, full of Holy Ghost faith and power!