Until the Spirit is Poured Out from on High

I was in the Dominican Republic preaching in many wonderful churches when the Lord showed me this particular Scripture. I had felt a strong connection to the congregations I was visiting on the island, and I knew this was a word, “in season” for the people of God. It seems when I travel to other cultures and worship with other churches, not only do I appreciate a God who is global in His glory and worship, but it also deepens my affections for my own congregation, the people whom God has called me to serve and minister to. Those are the times I feel I can most feel the pastor’s heart God has graciously given me.

The Lord sent me to one church where the congregation had sadly lost their pastor to an untimely death a short time before I arrived. I met the associate pastor, (who was now the lead pastor). As I watched him pray fervently, I could sense that the Spirit of God was on him and that God had anointing him for this great task. When it came my time to speak, I pleaded with the Lord to give me the right Scripture that would bring help and comfort to this hurting congregation. It was Isaiah 32:15 that the Lord placed on my heart.

For me, it is a great promise as well as a great challenge to the Church of Jesus Christ. It is a reminder that God is at work among His people, but there is a responsibility on our part before seeing such a promise fulfilled. I want to invite you to unpack this tremendous verse with me phrase by phrase. Isaiah 32:15 says, “Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.”

Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high
The responsibility we have as Christ followers today is to seek the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. I feel this need so deeply because churches have fallen into a trap of thinking we can do Church without the help of the Holy Spirit.

I am convinced that if we are not careful, we could assemble ourselves, sing our songs, pray our prayers, and preach our sermons and even if the Holy Spirit was not felt or even recognized, we would still leave thinking it was a good service. This ought not to be! How often do we actively seek the Holy Spirit in our times of gathering? How often do we plead with Him and remind Him that unless He comes and blesses our gatherings and unless He blesses the preaching and studying of His Word, then our attempts are futile?

Your church and my church would do well to seek the Holy Spirit more than ever to be, “Poured out from on high.” When the Holy Spirit comes, He brings power, comfort, peace, joy, and healing. How in the world can we think we can do Church apart from His help?

Now, if that is the case with Church services, how much more so is it in life? If we cannot do Church right without the help of the Spirit, what makes us think we can live the Christian life we should without His empowerment and enablement? If it is this critical to Church to have the help of the Holy Spirit, is it not even more important to have His help in our daily lives?

Humble Beginnings
In the early days of PCC, all we had was the Holy Spirit, and I quickly discovered that was enough! Most people today do not realize that PCC began with such humble beginnings. We truly did not have anything. All I had was a dream…a vision really, and that was about it. I remember vividly that as we prepared for our launch service on January 6, 2001, I rented the conference room of a hotel that could seat about 100 people. My church had less than 10 people, 2 flower pots, a lamp and 4 homemade offering plates. That is literally all we had.

Imagine my surprise when I went to LifeWay to purchase offering plates for my new church only to discover that I could not afford them because they were $200! I was so discouraged. Satan was right there telling me, “How can you build a church when you can’t even buy offering plates?” I could feel him laughing at me.

A wonderful and precious lady to me, Betty Hawkins, who went to be with the Lord in 2003, went to Carolina pottery and homemade a set of offering plates for me. Today, we have the nice offering plates, but I still have those beautiful, humble plates in my library. They are a sweet reminder to me of God’s help in a difficult time. Our first service on January 6, 2001, had approximately 60 people attend (mostly friends who were supporting our vision), and I was so excited that I forgot to take an offering!

But the point is, we did not have any of the things my Church has today except one thing…Prayer! When a Church (whether it is 10 people, 100 people or 1,000 people) gets serious about seeking the Holy Spirit through prayer, you can be assured that He will be “Poured out from on high.”

As I watch my congregation grow, I realize all the more that it Is not more technology we need, it is not bigger budgets or better marketing. NO! What we need more today than we did back then is the power of the Holy Spirit, for nothing can replace it! May the Spirit be poured out from on high upon your church and upon my church!

The wilderness becomes a fruitful field
I was in Pensacola, Florida when the Lord told me that it was time to launch my church. The problem was that I was only 19 years old! I was not married and did not have a family, I had never pastored a church as a lead pastor. I felt as unqualified as anyone could possibly feel. I did not have a launch team…I didn’t even have one single church member yet! But none of those factors would matter because I knew in my heart that God was calling me to plant this Church and to do it now! The Holy Spirit firmly told me that delaying planting the Church would be direct disobedience to His will for my life.

So, where do you begin such a task, I questioned God. I didn’t have a building, I didn’t have a budget…I did not even have one single church member. How do you start a church without any people? I hadn’t been to Bible College or Seminary. I remember asking the Lord, “What will I say to people when they ask me, ‘Where did you go to seminary?’ You know what the Lord said to me? “Chad, you will never lead someone to Me, or pray for healing and counsel their grief that someone will ask, ‘Where did you go to school.’” It would be a humbling journey, and while it is not the path for most, it was the path God had for me.

So here I was, driving North Interstate 65, afraid to say, “Yes” to the Lord, because I felt so unqualified to do what He was instructing me to do. But God promised me that if I would trust Him and step out in faith that I would never be alone. Even though I did not understand near as much back then as I do today…one thing I got right was this, I had to have the help of the Lord. If we did not have the Spirit of the Lord, then all we would be is a group of people, not a church.

And so all these years, through all the growth, all the trials, all the ups and downs the Lord has been faithful. His Spirit has poured out upon us! He has met with us each time we have gathered and I can honestly say that I have never experienced a service or any other gathering at PCC that the Lord was not in our midst!

What was a wilderness (no people, no money, no building…nothing), God has made it into a fruitful field. Even as I type this, my heart overflows with gratitude to the Lord!

And the fruitful field is deemed a forest
When you commit to going God’s way, you can trust that it is going to be an exciting journey. I am so thankful the Lord does not leave us to ourselves, but He continuously guides us because He wants to take us from, “Glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). In my ministry, part of this process has been watching the Lord take a barren wilderness, turning it into a fruitful field, and now I am trusting that it will become a forest!

While I do not know fully what or how the Lord will accomplish this, what I do know is that the Lord’s purpose will “prevail” (Proverbs 19:21). In your life, are you expecting the Lord to bring growth? Are you living with an anticipation that God is not finished with you and that your latter years will be greater than the former? Look to the Lord and let your faith grow as you look back to what He has done and you look forward to what He is going to do.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned through the years of watching the Lord build His Church, it is this…that God is always working! And that means that God is always at work in your own life. So do not be discouraged, even if it seems God is silent or if feels that God is going to do what He promised you. I want to remind you that God is faithful and He will help you. It might be that the greatest need you have in your own life is for, “The Spirit to be poured out from on high.” Ask the Lord to help you first by filling you with His Spirit. Then what is a barren wilderness in your life can then become a fruitful field and will one day become a forest to God’s great glory.