From Side Piece to Center Piece

James 5:16–18 “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.”

Your present reality is a result of your present prayerfulness.

Some of us have been complaining and sulking about the state of our lives for quite some time.

We have spent our days complaining and sulking about…

Our mental state

Our circumstances

Our spiritual lives

And instead of PRAYING about it, we’ve remained stuck and not moving forward.

Make no mistake: these verses and the ones before them prescribe PRAYER and COMMUNICATION with God as the remedy for all we face

James 5:13–15 “Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.”

Hardships, good times, bad times, in sickness, and in times of mistakes CONNECTED PRAYER with God is the answer!

Going back to… James 5:16–18 “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.”

Lets look at the words EARNEST, RIGHTEOUS, POWER

Earnest (combined with the word “prayer” as well): to ask, request, make supplication (which is to humbly come before)

Righteous: just and right

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

It says “righteous person” not “perfect person”

Righteousness is obtained through Christ alone. So upon believing in Jesus, we are righteous because of Him!

Power: strength, effectiveness, being capable of doing something, is healthy

So we see in V16 that “the humble pursuit of a person made right with God has strength, is healthy, and is capable of obtaining what is being sought after.”

James even gives the example of Elijah to encourage us in this pursuit, and Elijah did great things!

So if the humble pursuit of something through my relationship with Jesus accomplishes things, why are we living a life of blandness and ineffectiveness? BECAUSE WE HAVE FORFEITED THE ART OF PRAYER AND PURSUIT

God has called us to a life of adventure in Him and with Him. If you are unsatisfied with Jesus in one way or another, you are not doing life with Him right. It is time as Generations Youth, as Gen-Z and Gen-A, that we get back to a life of pursuit and prayer with Jesus.

GEN-Z, its no coincidence that you have the letter Z in your generation name because God is saying you have the calling in this time and season to be the ones of say “all this junk stops with me”.

GEN-A, its no coincidence that you have the letter A in your generation name because what will be stopped in Gen-Z is going to be a new beginning for your generation through your willingness to partner with Gen-Z is saying “enough is enough”

What should we be praying for? An upper room experience that changes everything about the way we live our lives

See the disciples up until the book of Acts had heard Jesus teach and preach. They saw Him heal the sick and raise the dead. They walked with Him, stayed with Him, and slept in the same areas and homes as He. They saw Him endure the harsh words of the Pharisees with authority and power. They heard His prophetic declarations and even the secrets of heaven that wasn’t revealed to the masses because they intimately walked with Him. They saw Him die the death He prophesied and then be raised to life in the manner He also prophesied would happen. They spent time with Him after His resurrection. They spent some of the most intimate parts of a person’s life with Jesus, but yet, Jesus told them it was best He go away.

John 16:7 “But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.”

Why was it better? BECAUSE FAITH IN PURSUIT IS MORE POWERFUL THAN SIGHT

John 20:29 “Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.””

There is a special blessing on the faith pursuit of Jesus.

This is what Jesus was inviting the men and women in the first part of Acts to: a faith pursuit that would lead them to fulfill their purposes He had already planned for them to do John 14:12 ““I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”

We talked about this a couple weeks ago when I preached, that when Jesus had told them to stay in Jerusalem until they were filled with power from on high and He ascended to heaven, those men and women obeyed. They found a place to pray diligently together. 10 days later, we come to Acts 2

Acts 2:1–4 “On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.”

These men and women had an encounter that they could tangibly feel, tangibly see, and tangibly hear that would affect their faith journey for the rest of their lives. None of these people would be the same after this experience.

What has been considered as a weird, scary, and odd experience by most of the church today was the very thing that these people needed to ignite their faith in a way that they never knew they needed.

The promise from on high that Jesus spoke of to His disciples was made manifest by the Holy Spirit coming to dwell in the lives of these believers on a new level.

This encounter would not only impact the world around them, but their spiritual world within them.

We see after this encounter that Peter, the same Peter who denied Jesus 3x, would preach a sermon and 3,000 would be saved.

Peter and other disciples would go on to encounter the government officials who opposed the preaching of Jesus and speak with authority and boldness to where these officials knew they had been with Jesus. The sick would be healed, the Gospel would be preached, the Church would be formed and grown, the Holy Spirit would give wisdom, and many others would be filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Why were these encounters happening now instead of back then? BECAUSE WHEN JESUS WAS F2F WITH THEM, IT DIDN’T REQUIRE A FAITH PURSUIT. THE LEVEL-UP WAS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF A FAITH PURSUIT.

WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT…

A SIDE PIECE

Side-piece: A person with whom someone already in a relationship carries on a physical affair (not emotional affair) without having the intention of forming a serious relationship

This would mean that you would only want to a have a surface-level relationship with this person, not an intimate one.

This would mean that you would only experience this person on YOUR terms.

There is no interest in commitment. You are only available to them if they are able to give you something in return, most likely a feeling.

A relationship with the Holy Spirit either consumes your life (and becomes the center-piece) or is nothing at all to you.

He is not interested in an experience, but He is interested in LIFE CHANGE.

After the Holy Spirit was unleashed on those in the upper room, this is the summary of the message Peter preached to the masses this experience attracted: Acts 2:37–39 “Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.””

The Holy Spirit made His message clear, the same message that the Father and Son, Jesus, had spoken of throughout time: COME UNDER MY LORDSHIP

A FLAVOR OR OPTION

Some in the Church today have made the baptism of the Holy Spirit a type of flavor or option, just as if it were a topping or side dish that you would choose at a restaurant.

Many have decided it to be a flavor or an option due to a lack of understanding and proper teaching, but many have so much as stooped down to call it downright wrong, fake, and against the Bible for numerous reasons.

It is clear: the Bible never stated the book of Acts experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit for believers to be optional, but to follow other steps in the faith journey with Christ.

We see people usually saved, baptized in water, and then baptized in the Holy Spirit.

However, we do see accounts in the book of Acts of people receiving the Holy Spirit baptism before water baptism.

Either way, the one requirement is that you must be a believer.

Acts 2:38-39 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.””

God was promising that this experience was for the believer.

How is a promise received? BY FAITH

Just as we receive salvation by faith, the Holy Spirit baptism is the same.

The promise is produced by the promiser. All the recipient has to do is trust (have faith) that the promiser will deliver what was promised.

Acts 1:4–5 “Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.””

WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT IS…

OUR ALIGNMENT WITH THE FATHER

Using the prayer language given to us by the Holy Spirit, we can use it in two ways:

For ministry in the church

For our personal prayer life Romans 8:26–27 “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”

We don’t always know what God is doing in a situation and we don’t always know what to pray for for ourselves or others.

The Holy Spirit can pray through us for us to align us with what God is doing in our lives and others lives Jude 20–21 “But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.”

Praying in the Spirit helps strengthen us

We CAN understand what God is saying to us through His prayers 1 Corinthians 14:14–15 “For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don’t understand what I am saying. Well then, what shall I do? I will pray in the spirit, and I will also pray in words I understand. I will sing in the spirit, and I will also sing in words I understand.”

2. OUR POWER FOR INFLUENCING THE WORLD WITH THE GOSPEL

Although we see Jesus sending out the disciples while He was still on Earth to go a preach the Gospel and heal the sick, we don’t see the full potential of what these men and women could do until after they experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit

We see Peter preaching sermons. We see Peter and John standing before government officials who threatened them to quit teaching Jesus fighting back with authority and boldness. We see Paul sharing the Gospel far and wide. We see others being empowered by these well-known Bible heroes to share the Gospel, start churches, preach, teach, heal the sick, and so on.

Peter, John, Paul, and all the rest of the believers we see making a difference in the NT have one thing in common: they had experienced the Holy Spirit on a personal level, and that level empowered them to endure persecution, hardship, beatings, slander, good times, bad times, sickness, health, and even death.

That encounter caused them to truly sell their lives to something that mattered. It was something that made a difference, all because it was the Truth.

So I said at the beginning: Your present reality is a result of your present prayerfulness.

Is your reality one of power or one of lack?

Is your reality one of disconnect or connection to God?

Being a person of prayer and faithful pursuit of the things of God on a daily basis is what keeps you from lacking power and connection.

Instead of trying to PULL the things of God down to our level of understanding and commitment, lets PUSH forward into all God has for us in faith, unashamed. That journey begins with salvation, but doesn’t stop there. Some of you need to baptism of the Holy Spirit for the first time and some need to have a fresh encounter and be reminded of what you’ve been missing out on.