“Taste and see that the Lord is good”
“Intellectual assent to proper doctrine is not the same as having a living, vibrant, and personal relationship with God.” - p. 139
Fox did not believe that this power belonged to him — he knew it was God’s power, and that it was to confirm the preaching of the gospel, Fox told his fellow ministers, “So, in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ preach the everlasting gospel, that by his power the sick may be healed, the leprous cleansed, the dead raised, the blind eyes opened, and the devils cast out.” -p. 142
William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania and also a quaker wrote that he was “most impressed” by the ministry of George Fox and that, “Above all, he excelled in prayer.”
When I read the words, “Above all, he excelled in prayer,” I think about the amount of time George Fox was spending in prayer when he wasn’t in front of others. The power of God that was able to operate in his ministry and the reason he was able to follow the Holy Spirit’s direction into pioneering the fastest-growing Christian movement in the Western World was not because he was a scholar or because of any natural ability he obtained, rather, because of the intimate and consistent time that he spent on his knees before God. By the year 1660, their were 40,000 to 60,000 people that were a part of this charismatic movement.
During this same time in the 17th century, Philip Jacob Spener, a German author and minister wrote passionately about church reformation:
What they take to be faith and what is the ground of their teaching is by no means that true faith which is awakened through the Word of God, by the illumination, witness, and sealing of the Holy Spirit, but is a human fancy. To be sure, as others have acquired knowledge in their fields of study, so these preachers, with their own human efforts and without the working of the Holy spirit, have learned something of the letter of the scriptures, have comprehended and assented to true doctrine, and have even known how to preach it to others, but they are altogether unacquainted with the true, heavenly light and the life of faith. - p. 145
Are you grasping the theme that seems to be happening in these chapters? It’s amazing to me that this same message is spanning time between centuries and distances between continents, however, it remains the same — God desires us. He wants our love, our fellowship, our time. He wants to be priority. He wants us to know Him and be able to hear and follow Him alone.
The real cause of the loss was that the love of many, almost all the so-called Christians had grown cold. The Christians had no more of the Spirit of Christ than the other heathens. The Son of Man, when He came to examine His church, could hardly find faith on earth. This was the real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit were no longer to be found in the Christian church after that time. It was because the Christians had turned heathen again, and had only a dead form left. So, when this faith and holiness were nearly lost, dry, formal, orthodox men began even then to ridicule whatever gifts they did not have themselves. They belittled and discredited all the gifts of the Spirit as either madness or fraud" - John Wesley p. 169
It’s time again for the church to wake up so that the Word can be confirmed among believers and non-believers. So that the power of God can move and work to set people free! Let’s spend time in these chapters this week reading all that God did then and begin to expect a mighty move of God in this generation. Let these chapters challenge you to step up your time with God. Is He truly your first priority? What is getting in the way of your time with Him? Nothing should be more important. Learn to put God as first place in your life and watch and see all that will be accomplished! Nothing is impossible with our God!
Let’s share some testimonies on the wall this week — When you made God first place in your life, how did things change? Has God showed up in your life? Share on this week’s post here - Click here for our facebook group