A path toward greater intimacy with Christ

The infinite Holy Spirit, as the builder of our churches, could lead an infinite number of supernatural movements in our churches this year. We as pastors are a major factor in what movements he leads through our churches.

I’ve been meditating on Luke 5:33-39, Christ’s parable of the wineskins. The wines are movements of the Holy Spirit. Those movements could be seasons of spiritual growth in our churches, elevated numbers of salvations, numerical growth, a much needed removal of wolves from our flocks, constructing a building, opening a door to an unreached people group, or adding a key staff member.

The wineskins are us—pastors and leaders. Old wineskin pastors and leaders are those who have drifted from our mandate of “to live is Christ, to die is gain.” Fresh wineskin leaders are those who want what Christ wants, nothing more and nothing less, at any cost to them.

The Holy Spirit will not lead new movements of God through old wineskins; only through fresh ones. And Christ’s big point in the passage is this—prayer and fasting is the means to become and remain fresh (vs. 35). Through prayer, fasting and the Scriptures we can find such personal intimacy with Christ that it’s as if we are physically dining at a table with him.

Fellow pastors and church leaders, here at the dawn of a new year, the greatest way we can lead our churches is to intentionally enter a season of prayer and fasting for greater intimacy with Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Would you consider setting aside 30 minutes per workday to pray for greater intimacy with Christ? And would you consider setting aside one workday per week during the month of January to fast for greater intimacy with Christ?

Greater than all our planning and programming is the stirring of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives and in our churches. May Christ be exalted from our churches during 2017!