Amazing Partner, Amazing People, part 3
Amazing people are people with an explanation
A person with an experience is never at the mercy of a person with an argument.
Our Experience with the Holy Spirit is a Communication Builder!
We communicate most effectively what we know most experientially. Jesus said, “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” The reality is, the more my heart and life are filled with the Holy Spirit, the more relational experience I have with Him, the better I am able to communicate the amazing life I am called to live.
The Spirit filled Disciples model one of the first keys to being an amazing person – it is the characteristic of experience.
Amazing People are People with an Explanation!
Peter wanted the curious and confused crowd to understand what they were hearing and seeing. Look back quickly at Acts 2:12–14 “Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” 14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: ‘Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you.’”
The curious crowds that day reacted to the dynamics of Pentecost in three basic ways: Some were amazed and perplexed, some asked honest and sincere questions and some ridiculed and mocked the Spirit-filled believers. Interestingly enough, all of those reactions are often still the reactions of people today when they first encounter Spirit-filled people. There are many who aren’t opposed to a Spirit-filled life, they’re just curious and amazed about it. Others are hungry for an amazing life; they sense deep within that there’s got to be more to life than what they’re living, and they ask, “What is this ‘Spirit-filled’ life all about?” Still others are critically sarcastic: their attitude seems to be, “These are just flaky people addicted to emotion or experience.”
Look at this account: Peter wasn’t defensive or threatened by any, or all, of their reactions to the Spirit-filled life. By the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, Peter gave them a Biblically based explanation for the amazing praises and prayers they were hearing in their native languages.
Actually, I believe that the confusion of the crowds is often the confusion of the Church, as many believers wrestle with the dynamics of the Spirit-filled life. Have any of you ever been confused about the ways and working of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives? Have you ever witnessed something you didn’t understand or know how to take? The place to start if we want to clear up the confusion about the dynamics of the Spirit-filled life is the Word of God.
Continued tomorrow
