Christian Renewal Journal

Let your love be sincere - a real thing; hate what is evil (loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from all wickedness), but hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection - as members of one family - giving precedence and showing honor to one another. Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoice and exult in hope; be steadfast and patient in suffering and tribulation; be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of God's people - sharing in the necessities of the saints - pursuing the practice of hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you - who are cruel in their attitude toward you; bless and do not curse them. Share others' joy, rejoicing with those who rejoice; and share others' grief, weeping with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty (snobbish, high-minded, exclusive), but readily adjust yourself to people and things, and give yourselves to humble tasks. Never overestimate yourself or be wise in your own conceits. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is honest and proper and noble - aiming to be above reproach - in the sight of everyone. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

I believe the most continual emblem for the Holy Spirit throughout both Old and New Testaments has been that of fire. Moses' initial personal experience with God began with his interest in the burning bush. Throughout the wilderness pilgrimage the children of Israel were led by a pillar of fire. Jesus told His disciples, "I have come to bring fire on the earth" (Luke 12:49). Jesus burned with the fire of the Holy Spirit in His praying, preaching, teaching and working of miracles. After His death and resurrection, and just before His ascension, He cited John's prophecy that Jesus would "baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matt. 3:11), urging His apostles and believers to return to the city of Jerusalem to pray and "wait for the promise of the Father" (Acts 1:4-5). As Luke would record it, Jesus said to them, "but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:48-49).

The Pentecostal outpouring marked a profound historical moment - the beginning of the Age of the Spirit, the birthday of the Church, the establishment of the New Covenant. Authors W. T. Purkiser and William Greathouse agree that Pentecost "proclaimed the Church as the Body of Christ and the perpetuation of His incarnation in the world" (Exploring Christian Holiness, Vol. I, pp. 116-117).

We must not ignore the historic signs that accompanied the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit: wind, fire and tongues. The violent blowing of the wind represented the breath of the Holy Spirit as the very life of God poured into the 120 believers. The Church was not stillborn! The tongues of fire that first filled the room and then separated and came to rest on each of them signified the purifying power, the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit in personal relationship with each believer. The miracle of these tongues was both in the speaking of all the languages of the Mediterranean world by men and women who had not learned those languages and in the hearing of the thousands of pilgrims who were hearing the praises of God in their own mother tongues. The Pentecostal languages are not to be confused with the gift of tongues mentioned in I Corinthians 14. Pentecostal tongues carried their own interpretation by the Spirit; the "un-known tongues" of I Corinthians must be interpreted to save worshiping believers from confusion and distraction.

Dr. Robert E. Coleman notes, "The Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit marked the beginning of this new era of ministry. It was the culminating step of the descent of the divine into the human. Jesus as an external Presence now became the enthroned Sovereign in the allegiance of His people. His Word became like fire within them, and with hearts burning with the love of God, they went on their way with gladness and singleness of desire, praising their Lord."

But I must remind us that we have been warned by the apostle Paul, "Do not put out the Spirit's fire" (I Thes. 5:19). The Spirit within us can be grieved, quenched, disobeyed and ignored until He is forced by our free agency to slip into an inoperable mode, awaiting our repentance and hunger for His stirring Presence.

But the smoldering flames can be rekindled. Suffering alone in Rome's Mamertine prison, the apostle Paul had more to think about than his own personal needs and approaching execution. He longed to see the face of his spiritual son Timothy, who was in charge of the church at Ephesus. The Spirit stirred in Paul a deep concern for this one upon whom the apostle had lavished his prayers and envisioned as his successor in the coming years. Paul discerned that the fire was burning low in the younger man's heart. So Paul puts it straight to Timothy in a letter, "I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control" (II Tim. 1:5-7). If it could happen to Timothy, it can happen to you and to me. Just as Paul directed Timothy, so we too are called to brush off the ashes of our traditions and routines and acknowledge coldness of heart. In brokenness and humility we must ask the Lord to pull together the dying embers and fan them into red-hot flames. It is surely His desire to make his servants "flames of fire" (Heb. 1:7).

General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, once wrote his officers: "Keep the fire burning! The tendency of fire is to go out, so watch the fire on the altar of your hearts." Richard Newton acknowledged, "The principal cause of my leanness and unfruitfulness is owning to an unaccountable backwardness to pray." John Wesley once confessed, "When I fail to fast and pray, I soon lose my spiritual heat and passion."

I would dare to say that "the spirit of fear" that Paul alleged had happened to Timothy has now gripped most of the leaders and laity of the North American evangelical movement. We can read the book of Acts and realize that this bondage was absolutely foreign to the apostles and deacons of the early church who had been filled with the Holy Spirit and fire. The predominant mood of negativism, division and unbelief that has seized our minds and paralyzed our spirits clouds our vision, smothers our inspiration and confuses our direction, and all the while we are acclimating to the spirit of the age.

We must have an awakening from above, a mighty shaking which will bring us to our senses until we see only one course, just as Paul showed Timothy: return to the source of your power! Unless North American evangelicals return to the Upper Room, the revival we have been hoping for over the last 25 years will pass us by.

It will have to start with God's people humbling themselves, praying, seeking God's face and turning from their wicked ways (II Chron. 7:14). It does not really require great numbers in the Upper Room. It does require humble, passionate, believing, penitent, desperate, obedient believers who will form the commitment and finally reach critical mass. Of course, this Upper Room approach will thin out the ranks. Nor will it be appropriate to point out and name those who are not among us. But the few who remain must covenant with the Lord and one another to pray until revival comes! Those who remain must become as shameless in their persistence for a divine visitation as the widow was with the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). Sooner or later, I believe the winds of the Spirit will bring revival breezes, then invasive gales of power that will clean up the Church. And then tidal waves of revival will sweep lost multitudes and American cities and rural areas will cry out to God in repentance as did the Ninevites under the preaching of Jonah.

O God, kindle enough fire in the hearts of your born-again children to long to gather back in the Upper Room. And there let our frozen hearts be thawed. Let the scales fall from our eyes. Melt the wax in our ears, and give us an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the American church. Give each and all the hunger, the faith, the boldness to ask for "the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire" that you promised.

O God, pour out on the Upper Room American believers "a spirit of compassion and supplication," so that as we weep over our indifference and betrayal of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we shall not stop short of asking for a new cleansing, that you purify our hearts that we may walk in holiness and power and be used of you in spreading revival fires from coast to coast and from gulf to border.

O God, in light of the soon return of our Lord and Savior, come even sooner in a mighty full-scale historical spiritual and moral awakening! And please, Lord, let it begin in me! AMEN!

We have been appealing to you, our prayer partners and supporters of CHRISTIAN RENEWAL MINISTRIES, from time to time to pray for the possibility of relocating the Big Sky House of Prayer from Belgrade, Montana into a more spacious and accessible place in or near Bozeman, Montana.

I thought by the time of this issue we would have some exciting news about a possible new location, but this is now on hold. So we ask that you continue to pray for the Lord to make it possible for us to either build or buy a property where believers throughout Southwest Montana can come together to pray often. We envision a facility where we will have classrooms for Schools of Prayer, a Healing Room where we can pray for the sick and extra rooms where groups can gather for prayer.

Meanwhile we will continue in our small facility in Belgrade. We are grateful for the Lord's anointing on our Tuesday and Wednesday nights and our Friday morning sessions of worshipful intercession. I am personally delighted to slip in any time through the week day or night and enjoy calling on the Lord.

I am praying for a location where we can also create a Garden of Prayer on the outside of the main building. Please continue to pray with us that the Lord will lay it on the hearts of people to contribute financially to this vision.

We'll keep you informed on the progress of relocating the Big Sky House of Prayer.

Rev. Tharp with grandson and magna cum laude graduate Tim Tharp, M.Div., at Nazarene