'Holy Go…’ By Joel Pridmore

Sunday 19 May 2013

According to the Christian Calendar, today is Pentecost Sunday. Elim is a family of Pentecostal churches representing about 550 churches in the UK and many more overseas. So what do we mean when we say we are Pentecostal? Basically that we believe that the Holy Spirit empowerment that the believers experienced at Pentecost is every bit as real, available and needed today as it was all those years ago in the ‘Upper Room.’ We believe in two baptisms for believers. We will celebrate water baptism next week with two people who have been given new life. It symbolises the cleansing of our sin that we receive through Jesus and of our sharing in His death and resurrection as we go under and rise from the water. The other baptism is referred to by John the Baptist as being ‘baptised with the Holy Spirit and with fire’ through Jesus. Elim started as an evangelistic initiative nearly 100 years ago, and we must continue to realize today that the purpose of being baptised in the Holy Spirit is the power to live the life of a witness. It is not simply so that we can stand in a church building and feel blessed or look spiritual, but that we will be empowered to reach this world with the good news of Jesus Christ. Go to as many meetings as you can, but if there is no evangelistic fruit, then it may be questionable whether it was the Holy Spirit that was at work in you! To quote George Werver at this year’s Elim Bible Week: “The Holy Ghost equals a Holy Go… We must evangelise or suffocate.” “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:2-4)