The Evangel Dean School - Developing Wisdom

A ppendix • 95

We Can Do It?! The Viability of Church Planting in America , continued

God led the Apostles and the Early Church directly through the wisdom, power, and presence of the Holy Spirit of God , and He was sufficient.

• He taught them in God’s way, John 15.26. • He guided them in the truth, John 16.13.

• He filled them with God’s power and strength, Acts 2.4ff. • He confirmed the preaching of the Word of God with miracles and signs of the Kingdom of God, Acts 3.1-26. • He empowered them to be witnesses of Christ, Acts 1.8. • He selected men and women to join missionary teams, Acts 13.1ff. • He endows believers with gifts (charismata) that allow the Church to build itself up numerically and spiritually, 1 Cor. 12.1ff. • He directed the affairs of the Christian community, Acts 15.28. • He provided untrained, unlettered men the gifts to minister boldly in the name of Christ, Acts 4.13. • He appointed overseers to lead and shepherd God’s people, Acts 20.28. • He increased the effectiveness of prevailing, intercessory prayer, Rom. 8.26.

IV. As Men and Women Called of the Living God, We Can Do It, Too . . .

A. But only if we are called by the Lord , Gal. 1.10-11

B. And only if we make ourselves unconditionally available to him to carry out that call to the full, 1 Cor. 9.15-23

C. And only if we refuse to rely on our own wisdom and resources (i.e., “the arm of flesh”), Phil. 3.4-16

D. And only if we trust confidently in the Lord’s provision through His indwelling Spirit, 2 Cor. 1.18-22

E. And only if we are filled with the mighty power of the Holy Spirit , Eph. 5.18, John 7.37-39

1. Each of us must repent from any known sin , both of omission and commission, of the heart as well as the hand.