God responds to the fervent, desperate prayer of the church by pouring out his Spirit on those with hungry hearts. He is already doing this where his people are hungry enough.

Being refreshed is wonderful. However, we must avoid three mistakes:

  1. We must not mistake refreshing with the fullness of the Spirit. Refreshing is not the totality of what God is doing. He sends refreshing to revive those who are weak, to restore their strength and to make them hungry for more. God's refreshing should inspire to cry out for more.

  2. We must not keep the Holy Spirit to ourselves. God sent him into the world, because he loved the world. The Holy Spirit is waiting to go into the world. If we do not take him into the world into the world, he will go without us. In previous times of refreshing the church kept the gifts of the Spirit to itself. This will not do. We must take him into the world and release his power.

  3. We should not think that times of refreshing will catapult us back into a position where we can dominate our culture. Even if the church were to double in size (most Christians would be delighted and would be hard-pressed to cope) we would still be an insignificant minority. The church would be nothing more than an annoying pimple to the world. If the revival is inward looking the world will ignore it. Even "signs and wonders" will be seen as nothing more than a curiosity. Signs and wonders can be a trap to the church

Acts 2:1-3; 3:19

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