Finding Real Hope

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, [5] so that your faith might not rest on mens wisdom, but on Gods power.

In Acts 8:36 the Ethiopian Eunuch asked Philip "What hinders me from being baptized?" I believe that God's people today need to ask instead, "What is hindering us from seeing our nation saved?" We have eloquent preachers, firey preachers, quiet preachers, jumping preachers, funny preachers and serious preachers. We have elegant churches, simple churches, "no church" here churches, traditional churches and contemporary churches. We have hymnal only churches, singing off the wall churches, multimedia churches, churches with choirs, and churches without walls. We have churches that don't raise their hands, churches that run the aisles, and churches that sip mochas during the sermon. But what we don't have is the power that shakes a nation church.

What America needs is the Word of God with a demonstration of the Spirit's power that will cause men's faith to rest on God's power and not on the conventional wisdom of today. We are a nation full of "Christians" yet one can hardly distinguish between the churched and the unchurched. I'm not talking about the way we dress or the way we comb our hair. I am looking for a people of God. The one true God that is clothed with splendor and majesty, who is covered with light and stretches out the heavens like a tent. Who lays the beams of His chambers on the waters, makes the clouds His chariot, and rides on the wings of the wind. The God of power and might who speaks and the winds obey Him. If this is our God and we are filled with His glorious presence then the devils should tremble when His church moves at His command.

There is something missing in the church of America. We don't lack for funding or organization. We have the best in entertainment and music. We have Christian Education centers and teachers with depth and knowledge. But what I miss is the all consuming fire of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the One True God living in His people and flowing out from their innermost being. We must look to the hills from whence cometh our help. We must look upon His glory and be captured by His face. Paul said it this way, "...that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12). I have seen that I cannot move this nation thru the wisdom of men's words and so I turn in faith to the only one who is worthy to open the book of Revelation chapter 5 and say, fill me with your power. Let my words be directed by you. Let my thoughts be stayed upon you. Let my heart be purifed by you. For You alone are the Preacher and when your Holy Spirit fills me like a hand fills a glove and declares the Glory of God with the demonstration of the Spirit's Power there is hope for the lost.

May every believer put away childish things and seek the only one that will bring real hope to this nation.