by Terry D. Smith, Eastern Pennsylvania District superintendent
Eastern Pennsylvania District and The Christian and Missionary Alliance National Office hosted SEEK: An Alliance Regional Deeper Life and Missions Event at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, May 20–21, 2016. About 650 people attended, representing 130 Alliance churches from 13 districts or associations.
Every speaker brought God’s Word with clarity and power that indicated the Spirit’s anointing upon him. SEEK was truly a Christ-centered, Acts 1:8 family event.
Christ-Centered
The Spirit’s ministry is all about exalting Jesus Christ. His presence was manifest at SEEK in some of the most intense, Christ-honoring worship times I have ever been a part of. The worship team from Community Alliance Church (Butler, Pennsylvania) led us into Jesus’ presence.
John Soper, former vice president of Church Ministries and current lead pastor at Ridgeway Alliance Church (White Plains, New York), took us to John 15:1–11 to remind us that deeper life in the Spirit is about abiding in Jesus. He is the vine, and we are the branches.
We need Jesus’ life pulsating through us if we are to bear the kind of fruit that Paul lists in Galatians 5:22–23. We don’t somehow work up love, joy, or peace. Instead we live in intimacy with Jesus, and He lives out His life through us so that we are filled with His love, His joy, and His peace.
Acts 1:8
Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8 communicate both deeper-life and missions messages. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Tim Meier, director of Envision, helped us to see the bridge between the two halves of this verse. Being filled with the Spirit and being on mission with Jesus are inseparably unified.
Tim Crouch, vice president of International Ministries, suggested that the word “witnesses” in Acts 1:8 carries the idea that we are to be evidence to the people around us of the reality of Jesus Christ. We can never accomplish this apart from the Holy Spirit’s filling and power.
President John Stumbo took us to Numbers 11, highlighting Joshua’s resistance to the Spirit’s work and manifestations. Sometimes we too resist the Spirit because we have a desire for control. May the Lord help us to be open to all the Holy Spirit wants to do in, among, and through us.
In his second message, John Soper reminded us that the Holy Spirit inhabits every believer at the point of salvation. Deeper life is not about receiving the Holy Spirit but about being filled or baptized with the Holy Spirit.
While the initial filling of the Holy Spirit happens in a crisis moment of full surrender, John told us that we leak. Therefore, we need the ongoing filling of the Holy Spirit that Paul talks about in Ephesians 5:18.
Two Alliance international worker couples shared their stories, including their own personal experiences with the initial crisis experience of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Both of these couples work in challenging parts of the harvest field, clearly pointing to the need for the Spirit’s power if The Alliance is to see a great and growing harvest around the world.
Family
At one point during SEEK, John Stumbo suggested to us that he is “weird.” He went on to specify his “weirdness” as being a love for being together with the Alliance family. I believe many of us would confess to that same “weirdness.” Part of the delight of SEEK was being together as family.
There were multiple opportunities for response at various times throughout SEEK. Some were times of silence and personal reflection before the Lord over themes like “What’s causing me to resist, quench, or grieve the Spirit?” and calling out, “Spirit, come and fill me!”
A significant number of people had someone pray for them in regards to how the Spirit had been working in their lives. During SEEK I prayed with a young man who wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit and a veteran Alliance pastor who sensed the need for a fresh filling. I’m sure those kinds of prayers were multiplied many times throughout our time together.
I can’t imagine that anyone walked out of SEEK unchanged by the experience of the Spirit’s presence and work. I know I didn’t. The Lord manifested His presence and did powerful work in the lives of His people.
Learn More
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Be sure to listen to the audio recorded at the event. Listen Now