We read in Acts 9:31, “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.”

The Acts of the Holy Spirit is the history of a disciple-making movement that multiplied all over the Roman world in ONE generation. What made this movement so unstoppable?

The early church had its sails set so the Holy Spirit of God could mightily blow into those sails to bring about a movement of disciple-making and church planting. The early Church had its sails set with “peace, being built up,” and multiplying because of a healthy fear of the Lord and the presence and comfort of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit used a rag-tag bunch of nobodies to transform the known world through the Gospel of the Lord Jesus with a disciple-making movement.

Why can’t we get there? What are the obstacle stopping us? We could blame the culture for being so hardened to the Gospel. We could blame the church for being so program-centered. We could blame the Holy Spirit for not blowing His mighty wind into our sails. Those are easy cards to play, but that keeps us in the victim role.

Who is to blame? I am the biggest obstacle. I need to repent, run back to the Cross, and cry out to the Lord for blaming everyone and everything else except ME for a lack of disciple-making movement.

I believe we are on the verge of the greatest persecution against the church in America in our short history. The “obstacle” of persecution led to an explosion of the early church in Acts 8:1.

How will we respond? Members of the early church got on their knees fervently and corporately praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and for boldness (Acts 1:14, 2:42, 4:24-31, 6:4). We must do the same.

Let’s not fret and worry about what is happening to our culture. Let’s join together in fervent, corporate prayer crying out to our Lord for a mighty blowing of the Holy Spirit into our set sails and prepare for a great harvest of souls and a disciple-making movement all for our Lord Jesus’ glory and praise.

You can join us on a ZOOM call each Wednesday, 8:30-9:45am, for fervent, corporate prayer.