What's Up?

Pastor Rick, you have preached so many sermons on the baptism in the Holy Spirit in the last few months...What’s up?  Let’s cut through the chase and get directly to the point.  There are so many benefits to being baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire but I believe one takes precedence over all the others.  Jesus said in Matthew that He came to seek and to save those who were lost.  When He gave us the Great Commission He gave us a mandate to go into all the world and reach and teach the lost.

That is definitely an impossible task without some kind of supernatural intervention to enable us to accomplish what He has called us to do.  He told His disciples to go and tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power.  Power to do what?  Acts 1:8 (NKJV)  “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." We have to receive this power to accomplish His will for the lost being saved. We must obey His mandate!

So what happens when we get filled with His Spirit and power?  The same thing that happened to the apostles and the early church.  Acts 2:47 (NKJV)  “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”  As the disciples continued to walk in the Spirit look what happened:  Acts 6:7 (NKJV)   “Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.”  The point is this...souls are added to the church and then multiplied!  Wow!