Spread the Fire - January 2008 - (Page 22)

fourteen years before (2 Cor. 12:2). It is, therefore, wrong and dangerous to try and make Paul’s one time experience the norm for believers today. It was not even the norm for Paul. Our attitude should be that of Bereans who, in Acts 17:11, were commended by the Holy Spirit because, instead of naively accepting what Paul and Silas preached, they searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether those things were so. 2006 marked the 100-year anniversary of the famous Azusa Street Revival that occurred in Los Angeles. I had the privilege of writing the official book, FIRE ON THE EARTH, for the centennial celebrations held in Los Angeles. While reading again the original documents of this revival, I was intrigued by the fact that they were not praying for revival when it came. They were seeking to know Christ more intimately and to be more yielded to Him. After the revival erupted the leaders became concerned that people were becoming too preoccupied with the manifestations and losing their focus on Jesus. Frank Bartleman wrote, “I became very much exercised in the Spirit that Jesus should not be slighted, ‘lost in the temple,’ by the exaltation of the Holy Ghost and of the gifts of the Spirit.” A commitment was made to keep Jesus front and center in all their preaching and activities. During this time a woman came to William Seymour imploring him to, “Pray for me that I will get the tongues.” In his kind, congenial manner, Seymour replied, “Now, see here Sister Sadie, don’t you go seeking tongues. You seek Jesus. He’s the One.” During times of revival we are most easily distracted from Jesus by our own spirituality, how many visions we have seen, how many prophetic words we have been given, or how big were the goose bumps in the last meeting. This very thing happened to a church in the New Testament, the church at Colosse. Paul wrote a letter to this church in which he addressed this problem, which New Testament scholars have dubbed “the Colossian heresy.” The Colossians had lost their focus on Christ, becoming preoccupied with their own spirituality and enamored with supernatural phenomena such as visions and angelic visitations. This is clear from Paul’s exhortations to them. In Col. 2:18, for example, Paul refers to the worship of angels and the dwelling on visions by the Colossians (NRSV). The word “worship” in this passage is not the normal New Testament word for “worship.” It is a translation of the Greek word threskia and, besides this passage, is found in only three other places in the New Testament, Acts 26:3 and James 1:26, 27, where it is translated as “religion.” The point is that the Colossians had developed a “religious” fascination with angels and it had caused them to lose their focus on Christ. Paul’s answer was to direct their attention back to Christ. Let us not repeat the Colossian Heresy by losing our focus on Christ. Let us keep the flame by remembering Heb. 12:1b-2, Let us run with endurance the race that is before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. “During times of revival we are most easily distracted from Jesus by our own spirituality.” S TF - 2 2

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Spread the Fire - January 2008 Contents In the River Thriving Between Times of Revival How the River Changed Our Church Taking Our Revival Temperature Therefore, Go... International Itinerary Resource Center Catalogue Upcoming Events Visitor Information

Spread the Fire - January 2008

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