The International Missions Director (IMD) of The Church of Pentecost, Apostle Emmanuel Gyesi-Addo, has entreated Christians to consistently yearn for the presence of the Holy Spirit who is the sustainer of the church and the believer.
“If the Spirit gives life, then what is our problem? Let us avail ourselves and yield to the power of the Holy Spirit; let’s give him time and the space to give us life,” he stated.
Apostle Gyesi-Addo was speaking on Day-4 of the 2020 Heads’ Meeting on Thursday, December 3, 2020, on the topic, “The Spirit Gives Life” – John 6:63, to participants across the globe via zoom.
He asserted that if revival is bringing back to life, then there is none better to do that kind of work than the one who gives life – Jesus Christ. He however said that Jesus himself referred to the Holy Spirit as the one who gives life, because the Spirit is his direct representative on the planet earth.
The IMD explained that for Jesus to say that the Holy Spirit gives life means that the Spirit gives animation and vitality to the church. “He is the one who produces and supplies energy to the church,” he pointed out.
He used the story of the creation of man in Genesis 2:7 to explain his point. According to him, the account gives three scenarios – God forming the man from the dust of the ground; God breathing into his nostrils the breath of life (spirit), and the man responding to become a living soul.
According to the IMD, the first scenario depicts the church both at individual and corporate levels without the Spirit, saying, “The church without the Spirit is lifeless, cold, unexciting, lacks spiritual energy like the man formed without the breath of God.”
He added: “The church without the Spirit is like the body without the Spirit of God. But when God breathes into it, it will be revived.
“When Jesus said that, ‘I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail upon it,’ he implied that he will build a kind of church that has life such that the forces of evil shall not be able to stand against it. Jesus was sure of this because he knew that after his departure, the Spirit of God will come and breathe life into the church and will be with them forever. After his resurrection, he appeared to them and breathed upon them.”
Apostle Emmanuel Gyesi-Addo took the participants back to the early days of The Church of Pentecost when the church went through serious struggles following the splits and indicated that the fortunes of the church were turned around by the power of the Holy Spirit, which the leadership relied wholly upon. He said that the same God is still at work in the church and the lives of individuals.
To keep a constant fellowship with the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14), he called on believers never to neglect the presence of the Spirit. He asked them to continue to enjoy the grace of Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
He also entreated the church to continue to pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit for new converts and noted that every believer must subject him/herself to the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
PENTECOST NEWS.
