Forty Days of Fire

We are only ten days away from Pentecost Sunday, which means we are in our final days of Forty Days of Fire. The final objective is to fill the sanctuary for Pentecost Sunday while expecting a tremendous outpouring of the Holy Ghost and Fire. This has been a time of prayer, fasting and Bible reading.  We had a special focus for each week of fasting:

Week 1 - Media fast.
Week 2 - Meal fast.
Week 3 - Meaningful fast.  This was a fast that each person did on their own.  Something that we eat, drink, or do that we would miss the most.
Week 4 - Daniel fast.  We are currently on the Daniel fast as found in Daniel 10:3, "I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth."  This will conclude on Saturday after our church prayer.  (We only get the building every other Saturday, so this will be our final time for a group prayer meeting.)

Pastor McGriffin is currently in the Philippines, so Les taught the Tuesday night Bible study.  He taught on the Feast of Pentecost as found in Leviticus 23.  According to Judaism 101, Pentecost, known as Shavu'ot celebrates the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai.  "The period from Passover to Shavu'ot is a time of great anticipation. We count each of the days from the second day of Passover to the day before Shavu'ot, 49 days or 7 full weeks, hence the name of the festival. The counting reminds us of the important connection between Passover and Shavu'ot: Passover freed us physically from bondage, but the giving of the Torah on Shavu'ot redeemed us spiritually from our bondage to idolatry and immorality." 

It is no coincidence that Pentecost is consider the birthday of Judaism and Acts chapter 2 records that the birthday of the New Testament church took place on the day of Pentecost.  We had a great service a few weeks ago to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and now we are looking forward to a great outpouring of His Spirit on Pentecost Sunday!

Being Truly Apostolic Pentecostal in 2016

We started the year off with amazing church yesterday!  Pastor White preached a fantastic message last night that I will blog about tomorrow, but I want to tell about Les' Sunday school lesson today.  The title was "The Pattern of Pentecost."  We read about a 3,000 soul revival and marvel, but what did that early church do?  Les presented us with 30 ingredients for being truly Apostolic Pentecostal.  He challenged us to check off those we are currently doing and make the others our goal for this year.  My list is in my Bible and I plan to review it often this year. 

Here's the list with the corresponding verses from the book of Acts:

1. Tarried (1:4)
2. Continued with one accord (1:14)
3. Continued in prayer (1:14)
4. Continued in supplication (1:14) 
5. Filled with the Holy Ghost (2:4)
6. Explained the experience (2:14)
7. Taught separation (2:40)
8. Gladly received the word (2:41)
9. Were baptized (2:41)
10. Continued in doctrine (2:42)
11. Continued in fellowship (2:42) 
12. Continued in breaking bread (2:42)
13. Wonders and signs (2:43)
14. Sacrificial giving (2:44)
15. Daily in the temple (2:46)
16. Praising God (2:47)
17. Grew daily (2:47)
18. Hour of prayer (3:1)
19. Personal witnessing (4:20)
20. Spake the word (4:31)
21. Spread the word (8:4)
22. Sang praises (16:25)
23. Readily received the word (17:11)
24. Daily searched the word (17:11)
25. Preached water and Spirit baptism (19:1-5)
26. Practiced water and Spirit baptism (19:5-6)
27. Worshiped  (24:14)
28. Believed all things (24:14)
29. Preaching the kingdom (28:31)
30. Teaching with all confidence (28:31)

The last two items on the list were from the very last verse in the book of Acts.  Revival started on the day of Pentecost, but as the followers continued, that revival grew and spread.  I want that in 2016, how about you?