"Be My Witnesses" 3-16-09

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I wait in the silence of surrender and listen for the leading of Your Spirit. … "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). I spent last weekend sharing a series of messages of encouragement for an annual gathering and retreat for evangelists of the Lay Witness Mission. They go as teams of witnesses into churches and other settings to share their journey of faith and the hope that burns within them with a passion for Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit. We were all encouraged and inspired, refreshed and renewed, to hear the ways You are moving in power and changing lives even in these days of such desperation. Humble desperation and passionate faith always seem to draw Your attention and enable us to embrace Your power to change our lives. We gathered for our retreat in the beautiful setting of St. Simons Island, on the Georgia coast, south of Savannah. Before the Methodist revival that set the world ablaze in the 1700s, this was where John and Charles Wesley came to the new world of America to begin their ministries. I had a chance to walk along the path where Charles Wesley walked and prayed, near Christ Church, which he planted with such deep roots that a congregation continues to meet there today. Upon arriving on the beach with General Oglethorpe from England, Charles Wesley wrote in his journal, "Tuesday, March 9, 1736, about three in the afternoon I first set foot on Saint Simons Island; and immediately my spirit revived. No sooner did I enter upon my own ministry, than God game me, like Saul, another heart." Yet John and Charles Wesley, though full of passion and ideas of how to evangelize the Indians and settlers into their idea of religion at the time, were not yet full of the Holy Spirit. That would come later, after this time they considered a great failure in their missionary journey to America. But on the perilous journey over to America, they witnessed the Spirit-filled faith, passion, worship, and prayers of a band of Moravian Christians. The witness of their passion, combined with the emptiness of failure and brokenness of pride would drive the Wesleys to a holy jealousy and desperation for true faith that would later lead to their famous "heart-warming" experiences with the Holy Spirit of the Living God and ignite the great revival that began in John Wesley's heart in the prayer meeting at Aldersgate Street in London on May 24, 1838. Though John and Charles Wesley thought of their time in Georgia as a great failure, it was a great step in their journey to come to the end of themselves so they could be filled with You. You love to redeem our failures into faith, our desperation into utter-dependence, and our brokenness into breakthrough. Those Moravian lay witnesses shared their journey of faith and the hope that burned within them with the Wesleys by living out their faith in the face of adversity by the power of Your Spirit. And in the fullness of time, the Wesleys were changed and so was the world. Lord, thank You for the witnesses of faith and hope You've allowed me to see through the journeys of others. In my times of brokenness, desperation, or failure, let the memory of their witness drive me to closer to You. Let me never be satisfied with anybody's ideas of religion apart from Your invitation to a personal and passionate relationship with You. Let Your Holy Spirit continually come upon me, to fill me and empower me to be one of Your witnesses wherever I am and wherever You send me -- to the ends of the earth and to the end of my self. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, I'm really excited to be invited to be a Keynote Speaker at the Aldersgate '09 National Conference on Spirit-filled Living this summer, July 1-5, 2009 in North Carolina. Please come join us. Register online now for a discount: www.Aldersgate09.org ("Aldersgate" is the name of the street where John Wesley was filled with the Holy Spirit at a prayer meeting in London and his heart set ablaze with a passion for Jesus that ignited a great revival across England that changed the world).] The Fountain will be held in a different location this month due to a major weekend conference at our normal location. This month we will meet in the upstairs Community Room of First Southern National Bank at Harrodsburg Rd. and Corporate Dr. in Lexington on Friday Night, March 20. Please come and spread the word. Come to The Fountain! This Friday Night, 3/20, on the 3rd Friday night of every month for our ministry's gathering of the body of Christ from every tradition and stream to worship the Lord in Sprit and in Truth. Come drink deeply from the Living Waters in the freedom of the Spirit. 7 pm in the upstairs Community Room of First Southern Nat'l Bank this month. All are welcome. Call for details: 859-422-1794 or send Marilyn a note at DirOfMinistries@aol.com Subscribe by email to me at Messiah Ministries --MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" www.messiah-ministries.org 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502 Order My Book, Morning by Morning, and our Ministry Resources or Contribute to our vision and calling: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org