On May 15 we will celebrate perhaps my favorite Christian Holy Day and that is Pentecost Sunday. As you well remember, Pentecost is the day that the Promised Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and they started declaring with a boldness to all who were in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost the Good News about Jesus Christ. People who were scared became bold as the Holy Spirit empowered them to go beyond themselves.

R.A. Torrey, evangelist and Bible teacher wrote:

The Holy Spirit does regenerate men. He has power to raise the dead. He has power to impart life to those who are morally dead or decaying. He has power to impart an entirely new nature to those whose nature now is so corrupt that to men they appear to beyond hope. How often I have seen men and women utterly ruined and vile come into a meeting scarcely knowing why they came. As they sat there, the Word was spoken, the Spirit of God has quickened the Word thus sown in their heart, and in a moment, that man or woman, by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, has become a new creation.

It is the Holy Spirit who convicts and calls men and women to Christ and enables us to fix our eyes on Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit working in us that allows us to be the hands and feet of Christ and to do things beyond our wildest imaginations.

That is where we are at FPC. We are a congregation seeking the wisdom of God for our next step and season of ministry. We are seeking God’s guidance. The prayers that we have been circling these last two months have been from the following Scripture texts: Ephesians 3:16-19, Psalms 127:1, and now let me add another to our list. Let us bear the mark of the Holy Spirit.

Paul writes in Galatians 5:16 “So, I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law… 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit”.

Our prayer for our congregation that we will bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit by allowing the Holy Spirit to be in charge, in control of not only our individual lives but the life of FPC. This is what on the outside looks like a simple prayer. But if prayed with all sincerity and willingness to be controlled by the Spirit you will be joining me for an adventure of a life time. Hop aboard and join me for the ride of your life!

Love and prayers in Jesus,

Ilona