All Minister's Letters

Mar 2008	They Met at Calvary
Apr 2008	Keeping the Easter Rumour Alive
May 2008	The Way to Pentecost
Jun 2008	Where our Unity lies
Jul 2008	The Californian Redwood
Sep 2008	"Dwight L. Moody, 1837-99"
Oct 2008	Nine Marks of a Good Church
Nov 2008	Mammon
Dec 2008	Advent and the Evangelists
Mar 2009	A Pattern for Lent
Apr 2009	We have seen His Glory
May 2009	Witnesses To The Resurrection
Jun 2009	The Holy Trinity

Minister's Letter - May 2008

The Way to Pentecost

There are few books I prize above Samuel Chadwick’s 1932 classic The Way to Pentecost: 20 short chapters covering just over 100 pages. The last chapter is headed The Way into the Blessing of Pentecost. Here Chadwick makes the startling admission: The blessing I sought was power. The blessing God had for me began farther in and deeper down. Chadwick then gives us two vital preliminaries if we are to receive the Holy Spirit. First we must turn to the Scriptures to discover that the Spirit of Pentecost is the Spirit of perfect love. Then we must believe that the Spirit is God’s gift of grace to those who faithfully long to be Spirit-filled.

Then – says Chadwick - there are the four great steps to receiving the Spirit of Pentecost.

First we have to repent. As individuals and as a church we need to surrender every sin and act of rebellion that we know stand between us and God’s will.

Secondly we must ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit knowing that if we receive the gift it will mean that Christ will become everything to us – all in all.

Thirdly we must be ready to receive. Something will happen to us which is altogether different from anything that has happened to us before. Our life is laid open to God!

Fourthly we must obey. Genuine religious faith is really obedience. Whatever we know in our hearts to be God’s will for us - either as individuals or as a church – that we must obey. That we must do! This is the way to the full blessing of Pentecost. The descent of the Spirit! Whitsunday 11th May - Pentecost 2008 - the transformation of lives and of our church!

Norman Wallwork