Pull the trigger, Lord, unleash the potential of my life!

Let's go to the word of the Lord in chapter 2 of the Book of Acts, a well-known passage. It says: “…When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together with one accord, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, which filled the whole house where they were sitting, and scattered tongues like fire appeared to them, settling on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them to speak….”

Where does one start? I have been struggling with this passage, it is such an important passage and so full of teaching. I've been preaching about him or around him so many times that I even thought, look, let's skip to chapter 3 and continue our study of the Book of Acts like that. But I think it would be a criminal act if it really did so because it is a passage that we have to respect and give it its proper place. And we're going to see how long in the next few weeks it takes us to get through this passage, but it's important that we dwell on it.

This passage is like the foundation of the church of Jesus Christ, it is like the inauguration of the movement of the church here on earth. It is a graduation, so to speak, of those who followed Jesus Christ and their initiation into a life of service, evangelism and conquest.

The Lord, from the beginning, in the Gospel of Luke, for example, had already said, and John himself had also said, John the Baptist. John had made a distinction between his ministry, which was a ministry of bringing people into repentance and preaching the word of God, and also of water baptism as a sign of repentance and new life in Christ. He had made a distinction between that ministry that God had given him, John, and the ministry of Jesus, which had a much more powerful ministry characterized by a stormy move of God's power, a ministry that would be characterized by the ability to transmit directly the power and energy of God.

Juan recognized that he moved in the priestly, religious aspect. He had an ability to announce God's truth. He could handle the symbols of the church of God. Perhaps one could say that he had the ability to handle the logos word of God, but Jesus' ministry was qualitatively superior to John's because Jesus could handle the creative power of God. Jesus could impart gifts. Jesus could activate ministries. Jesus could give life to that church that was still a mere potentiality. John couldn't do that. John could only declare a truth that he had received from God but Jesus could move with power.

That is why John said, I can baptize you with water, that is, a symbol, but he said, but behind me comes another who is going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And it occurs to me when I think about that difference between the ministry of John the Baptist, and the ministry of Jesus Christ that that is the difference between a Christian church that only possesses the general, eternal truth of God, a church that can be very beautiful and very pleasing to God as John the Baptist was pleasing to the Lord, a church that can move in the rhythms, in the symbols and in the truths of God, that can announce to people about Christ, about his ministry, a church even that he can introduce people to Jesus as John introduced people to Jesus Christ.

The difference between that Johannine church, so to speak, is a theological term…. And an anointed church, filled with the Holy Spirit, a church that has on the foundation of the word and the general and eternal truth of God but that has on that foundation the super structure, to use a Sunday word, of baptism and the filling of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, access to direct revelation from God, the ability to transmit the power of God to others, the ability to bring others into a vital and direct experience with the power of the Holy Spirit, the ability to set captives free, to heal the sick, to move in the power of God, to receive direct revelation from God, to wield the transforming instruments of God's power.

So, as we can see, I believe that this is what this passage here from chapter 2 teaches us. At the beginning of chapter 2 we simply find a church that has been with Christ and has received the word of Jesus Christ. It is a church that has seen the miracles of Jesus and has walked with him, but it is not a church that still has the power of God, it is not a church that can shake the earth, it is not a church that can transform society, it is not It is a church that can cause intrigue and concern on the part of society.

The society around them doesn't even know to some extent that they exist, they are locked up and hidden praying and waiting for something to happen. They are potentiality but that potential has not yet been unleashed.

Imagine a revolver loaded with bullets placed on a wooden table. That gun is there, it has the capacity to kill and destroy in very powerful ways. It has the bullets it needs to do what it was built to do, but it's just potential. That potential doesn't become actual until a hand grabs it and pulls the trigger. And so it happened with the primitive church, they were there, they had within them all the potentiality that Christ had been accumulating in them through his earthly ministry. They were the weapon of God laid out on the table but the Lord knew that before they could be used to fulfill their potential the Holy Spirit had to come and ignite the spark so that what was inside of them could be triggered.

I am not an expert in firearms, but I understand that in everything that has to do with firearms, fire is needed, be it a spark to unleash the potential that is in the projectile. When a trigger or gunpowder in a barrel ignites, that fire, that spark that comes out when the trigger hits the metal of the bullet, that unleashes the gunpowder and then releases the bullet, the metal part of the projectile. It is interesting that even an atomic bomb with all its complexity needs that initial fire to unleash the power of the atom within it.

The same happens in chemical reactions. Every chemical reaction needs what is called a catalyst, that is, it is the infusion of energy from outside that enables the reaction between two or more elements. And I'm not going to go too deep because I know there are scientists here who might ridicule me if I go any deeper than this. So I'm going to leave it at that in general terms. But the idea is that for the potentiality of things to be unleashed, for reactions between different elements to take place and mix at the atomic level, you need the infusion of, so to speak, fire that adds pressure...

And it is interesting that something like this happens on the day of Pentecost. And it's interesting to me because I always see that God works supernaturally but also respects the principles of nature. It occurs to me that this is simply because for God there really is no such thing as supernatural and natural. The principles that we call natural in science are simply the mind of God poured into time and space. But when God wants to work in the spiritual realm, he also uses the same general principles of his mind.

So for the potential that was within the disciples to be unleashed, an infusion of energy from the outside was needed, a fire that came from the outside, that would enter them and in a sense pull the trigger. They lit that spark of fire that would set fire to the wood that was on the altar. And all of that, I believe, that is implied in this passage.

Actually, it had never occurred to me in the way that I have explained it this afternoon, but I think that is exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost in spiritual terms. God wanted to start his church, God wanted to release what Christ had put in them. For them to move from the potential to the actual, they needed the Lord to touch them with fire from on high, for God to set fire to the holocaust that was there on the table.

And that is why the Lord Jesus Christ told them, do not leave Jerusalem until they receive that power, that infusion of energy from on high, because if they had moved to do the work that God had entrusted to them without receiving that updating of the power that was inside of them, they would have been like a revolver that simply gets up from the table by itself and pretends to do the work that he has to do without there being a hand behind him pulling the trigger.

So it occurs to me that many times we, the servants of God and the churches of God, try to do the work that God has entrusted to us without first making sure that we have received that activation of the power of God that is in us, in potential.

There is a false controversy among Christian theologians today. There are theologians who say, well, when I receive Christ as my Lord and Savior, I have already received and have the Holy Spirit and therefore I no longer need anything because I have the Holy Spirit and that's it, because Christ says that when I receive Jesus the Holy Spirit enters me, and then these types of people using that argument say, I don't need a second experience of a baptism of the Holy Spirit. And there is the Pentecostal, charismatic world that says, yes, you receive Christ but you need a second, like an infusion of power, an immersion in the power of the Holy Spirit, an activation of the power of God that is in you, a turning on the spark, a pull the trigger. Because in reality, in the Pentecostal feeling there is the idea that yes, we do have the Holy Spirit within us when we received Jesus Christ and what the disciples had when they were there in the room waiting for the visitation of the power of God, they already they had the Holy Spirit within them.

The Lord is described to us in a passage, I think it is the Gospel according to Saint John, and I think it was after his resurrection that he appeared to the disciples and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. I think, if the Lord Jesus Christ said, receive the Holy Spirit, do you think they have received it or not? Because when he says something that comes true. So if they received that Holy Spirit when the Lord tells them to receive it, why does the Lord tell them not to leave Jerusalem until they have received power from on high? It was because the Lord was referring to an experience qualitatively different from the first.

Until we are burned by the Holy Spirit what we have within us is simply the potential of God. And let me tell you, like Juan, we can do many things with just that reservoir, those reserves of power that are within us, but how much more can be done when that reserve of water becomes a powerful moving waterfall.

I believe that my meditation this morning is going to end, it is going to be limited only to an apologetics of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Let me look at it in another way, think of a calm lake, full of water, containing water, a reservoir of water, in a placid and calm lake as Samuel says, many things can be done, one can go…. One can take a little boat and a canoe and just be there listening to nature and watching the sunset. In a lake you can fish, in a lake you can bathe and swim, there are many things that can be done inside a lake, but its use is limited, its ability to unleash energy is limited.

And so it is with the church of Jesus Christ that has not had that transforming experience of the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the case of a believer who simply knows John's baptism and the experience of the Johannine evangelical church. That church can do many interesting, important and useful things. We must not excessively denigrate or criticize that church, it is very useful and does many things in favor of the Kingdom of God. But its usefulness is limited as the water in a lake is limited because it is enclosed.

Now, think of a great river, a mighty river, a river that is running at a great speed, that is gaining strength through its collision with rocks and its movement through the curves of the channel of that river, that river that it declines over long distances but gradually picks up speed as it heads out to sea. That river has a potentiality and a power to do things that the lake does not have, because that energy can even, man can take it and have it built in a reserve, and convert it, for example, into an electric dam that gives light to multitudes, that It moves motors, which makes possible all kinds of transactions within a society, things that give life, that transform, that move. There is a difference and that happens with that energy, that power of God when it is unleashed within us.

It is interesting that the Lord Jesus Christ did not compare the energy that he brings to his believers and his followers to a calm and beautiful lake to behold, but rather he contemplated it as the energy of a river that was running and jumping everywhere. That is why the Lord said, those who believe in me rivers of living water will spring from their interior. Because the energy that Christ incorporates into the life of the believer and that he unleashes is an energy that breaks, that changes, that transforms, that moves things.

And I promise you now brothers that I am going to finally land. We are right now at this point in the history of humanity in which there are great things that have to be moved, there are entire nations that have to be enlightened, there are railways, there are engines that have to be mobilized and moved, there are mountains that have There are rocks that have to be moved, there are powers that have to be defeated, there are revelations that have to be received, there are things that have to be declared, there are dead that have to be raised, there are people. sick that has to be healed, there are minds held captive by the devil that have to be set free, there are hearts imprisoned by Satan's lies that have to be opened with a key that only God has the power to give.

The energy needed to liberate the world in the 21st century will not come from the Johannine church. The energy that is needed will have to come from a church endowed with the transforming power of the river of life that only Christ can provide us.

After this trip that I just took to Spain, that I just returned last night, my wife and I, the day before last night, and we were there sharing with the pastors of a Spanish denomination and their leaders as well, if any of them are listening to me I bless you in the name of the Lord and thank you for receiving us and treating us so well. But one of the things that became abundantly clear during our stay there is that Spain and all of Europe is held captive by the power of secularism and modernism, and the entire European Union and all the nations of Europe are held captive by the same power.

In fact, it could be said that the entire industrialized Western world is in the grip of this power. That includes the United States, it includes Canada, it includes Australia, the big countries, the countries where military and economic power resides, as well as intellectual power are captives of this spirit. And our pastor brothers and the leaders of Spain were clear that there is no way for Spain, nor in Europe, this nation itself, I clearly see there is no way that we can break the confinement into which the devil has placed these nations.

In this nation of the United States, a merely evangelical church, with the general Johannine truth of God, cannot break the rocks and open the cells that have to be opened. Every day I am more and more clear that like those first disciples we have to concentrate on building up and strengthening the power of God within us until there is a burst of power.

I believe that the Lord is telling us, church, do not move, do not leave Jerusalem until you are endowed with power from on high. Because with the power that you currently have, you are going to be like that revolver moving but without a hand to pull the trigger.

I understand that's why we moved the way we moved this morning here during the time of worship. I understand that we have to learn to unleash, we have to learn the chemistry of the power of God, we have to learn to handle the substances of the power of God, the elements of the power of God. We have to learn chemists learn to combine substances and experiment until they find the perfect formula that can move the machine of the church, until the power of God descends upon us and we explode as the first disciples exploded on the day of Pentecost.

I suffer, I die a little during services like this morning. Because? Because my intellect and my desire to control and to follow the program puts me in agony and in struggle with what God is saying to me. I think of the brothers who have prepared and rehearsed a good worship program and I wonder how they will feel, I wonder what you think of Pastor Miranda promoting worship and preaching, will the brothers think that Pastor Miranda thinks he is a great singer and that's why he's doing it; The brothers from the ministry in English will think that why don't they allow us to go to the services and continue with the part that is our turn, and while we are singing a song I am thinking, well, if I let them go now what are they going to do? because perhaps we have taken all the time from them, so I am going to leave them in the air and how they begin and match what I have left. And I'm thinking, well, ok, we sing this chorus so what comes next, what happens next and what if I run out of choirs to sing and then we're halfway through the service. The Lord tells me, look, sing this, and I say, but the only thing I have is one word and what happens if in the middle of the sentence I run out of nothing, the new song. And so I wonder, well, what if I ask John to come up here and then I put him in trouble, I put Enrique in trouble.

I want you to know that all those thoughts and many more were going through my mind as we drove here this morning. There is a part, and I speak to you this way because I want you to have access to the thoughts of a pastor and a man like me who likes control and who does not like to be a bad role in front of people. But in that process there is a part of me that says, no, but we have to learn to let ourselves be moved in the power of the Holy Spirit. We have to learn to move both in God's order and in God's creative chaos. We have to learn to navigate both the calm waters and the stormy waters of the Holy Spirit River. We need to gain experience in these things. We need to learn to unleash the gift of God that is already in us.

Paul tells Timothy, I advise you to fan the fire of the gift of God that is in you. I believe that God wants to do great things through the congregations at this time. I believe that many times the Holy Spirit comes and says, my children, I want you to adore me and exalt me as the prophecy said this morning. I want you to minister to me, serve me as a waiter serves someone in a restaurant. And when you have lifted me up and exalted then I will release my blessing upon you and my power. But you have to let go of the appetite for control, you have to let go of the spirit of the program, and Roberto Miranda may be the first to learn how to do that. Because many times we pastors are the first to give up our desire to keep our congregations orderly and happy, we repress that death that has to occur so that through the cracks the power of God opens the way. We have to be broken first, the intellect has to be broken, our appetite for control has to be broken, our inclination to put ourselves in the place that only God should occupy has to be broken.

That is what grieves the heart of God at this time in the history of humanity, the desire of man to have control over determining programs, and we have to do prophetic actions and say, Lord, we give you control and if we perish we perish

One last illustration, a Spanish shepherd with whom we spent a day there in Spain about three days ago, after one day, it was not just a trip that we took and on the return trip at the end of the day he would tell me that he had started a series of sermons on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and that that first sermon that he was going to preach on that Sunday, last Sunday, there was a wonderful time of worship and God was moving powerfully in the time of worship, but as already the time of the sermon was passing he decided to stop the time of worship and start his sermon, but what happened was that when he began to preach his sermon on the baptism of the Holy Spirit he says that he ended with a total sense of failure and we got to discuss and we came to the conclusion that possibly not having reached the goal, the target of his sermon was possibly due to the fact that the Holy Spirit was saddened. Because maybe all the Holy Spirit wanted on that first day of that series of sermons on the Holy Spirit is for them to let him take control. And the Holy Spirit wanted to speak about himself through that free prayer, but as the program took control then the Holy Spirit said, well, I can't bless you in the proclamation of the word.

I wonder how many times we talk about the Holy Spirit only with a theory, but without having experience about the mystery and the secret ways of how the Holy Spirit truly moves. So, brothers, the Lord tells us, my people learn to move in my power. Learn to respect my priorities and my prerogatives. Know when I give way to you and when you have to give way to me. And then I believe that a more powerful move of God will begin in our lives and in our congregations.

I know that I have taken much more time than we have planned but that is what happens when the Holy Spirit takes control, that is the lesson that the Holy Spirit wants to give about himself, an object lesson, it is a drama that the Lord is working out in our midst. Let's learn to flow in the energy of the Holy Spirit.

Let's stand up. Hallelujah! Thank my Lord. We adore you, we bless you. Praise the Lord for a moment. Give the Lord the excess time, give the Lord the plans you had, give the Lord the expectations you had. Thank the Lord that the Holy Spirit is pleased to take control of your time, which is not your time, it is the time of this church and its program and do things as he wants. And tell him, Lord, I want to live my life that way. And tell him Lord, I want you to teach me, to take me to places where I don't want to go, to talk to me and tell me things that I don't want to hear, to send me to do things that I don't want to do, that you change my life, that you transform my life and that you make me something different from what I want to be.

Let us tell the Lord that we want to be a church that moves in the unpredictable wind of the Holy Spirit. The wind moves where it wants to go. The wind does not control you, the wind controls you. Give control to the Lord. Give control to the Lord, tell him, Lord, pull the trigger, pull the trigger. Pull the trigger, Lord, pull the trigger on my life, unleash the potential. Oh Lord, we adore you, we bless you.