HOPE BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

(Romans 15:13-21, Preacher: Ps Paw Liang)

The Power of The Holy Spirit in Our Conversion

No matter how eloquent a speaker, we need the power of the Holy Spirit to convey the salvation grace into our hearts, our minds and especially our wills. The Holy Spirit continue to work in us and grow our faith.

Faith and Hope by the Power of the Holy Spirit

Why Paul needs to emphasis “may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit? Many of us will put our faith in God with the hope God will take care of our family, our business our career. We put our hope in Christ for the future of our loved ones.

As we mature in Christ, hope is not just about our personal and family life, but also the family of believers, the church, and the world. How much do we believe the church is the hope of the world? And how much do we ask for the Holy Spirit to help us to grow the church, so that we can be the instrument of God’s hope to the society, to our nation?

We may have undermined the power of the Holy Spirit by only trusting Him to work in our personal matters. The Roman’s believers are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. They need to open the floodgates of God’s grace so they can be used by God as the ministry of His Gospel to touch the lives around them.

The Holy Spirit Starts with A Person and Becomes A Movement

God called Paul and used him as the apostle to spread the Gospel—churches grew throughout Minor Asia and some cities in Europe. God sent William Carey to start the church in India. God touched John Wesley’s life and used him to start the Methodist movement. In the history of the Methodist Church shown us, those who responded to the Gospel began to congregate—late John Wesley train lay speakers to propagate the spread of the Gospel. He initiated Class Meeting and Band so that the new converts can uphold one another and grow together.

Can We Ask the Power of The Holy Spirit for Growth?

Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask and it will e given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you…” I believe this is not just God’s offer for us to ask Him to cure our physical sickness and to release us from problems. But we can ask God to cure the sickness in our souls and church. Ask God to make you become all that the Spirit of God can make you, not only a good and contented believer but also a useful believer, whose life is so full with God—with his joy and peace that may overflow, more than enough for us and our loved ones; it will be so full that the grace of God may overflow from our life to touch the live around us.

May the power of the Holy Spirit make you to be the person that God intend for you: make

you to be a useful believer who overflows the people around you with God’s blessings. Your

life will be a goof promoter of Christ, a living testimony that inspires people to come to Christ!

~PLT~