ExpectancyShe went "high on expectancy ... frightened of disappointment". She went forward on the first night to be prayed for, as invited. She relates that the "pastor man said to me, 'What would you like? What are you here for?' I said, I wanted everything that you've got. I've only got two days and I've come from London." While she makes a joke of that—"determined to get her money's worth"—she portrays a desperation. The claim is that God has poured out His Spirit on a little church in Canada, and that they are "now giving away as fast as they can what God is giving to them." Mrs Mumford takes their generosity, to be a mark of the Lord. But does God say that in this Gospel age, He will isolate one place from which to pour out his blessing? The Holy Spirit's ministry is such that He will pour out God's blessing in every individual heart, wherever a person may be, in whatever part of the world. No longer do we have to "go up to Jerusalem", to the place where God is worshipped and sacrificed to, but He has now made His spirit available all over the world, to whomever God calls. One man was told to forget about fasting, for this is a time of celebration. She describes that upon entering this very little "improbable" church, the "atmosphere was electric with expectancy." She claims that the phrase came to her, "Are not these Galileans?" She compares the coming of the Holy Spirit to these "rather ordinary fanny people on whom the power of God rested so remarkably, and they said to each other 'Are not these Galileans? ... and that was just the truth." Yet the point of that question in Acts 2, was not their looks, or appearance, but the fact that the Apostles were uneducated men—country folk—yet they spoke with such power, with such wisdom, with such enlightenment, that they outshone the best of the Scribes and Learned Men of Jerusalem, because the Holy Spirit had touched their lives.
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Copyright © 2002 Homerton Baptist Church. |
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