Responsibility
I remember several years ago a young man had come to a meeting where we were praying for folks to receive the Holy Spirit. He asked Jesus to come into his heart and prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He received the Holy Spirit with the manifesting of the gifts and with peace and joy. A week or two later he came back and asked: “How do I get rid of the Holy Spirit?
We asked him why he wanted to do this. He said; “I have been so miserable I can’t stand myself. I guess there were things in his life he had to deal with.
Hebrews 10:31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
There are certain times in our spiritual journey where God expects some changes in how we speak and act. A time to leave behind our childish behavior and function as spiritual adults. We can no longer say: “The devil made me do it!” or: “what do you expect I am just a human being!”
We are Ambassadors for Christ and as such we are in a position of responsibility. We want peace, joy and love; forgiveness of our sins; miracles and healing; a wonderful church to be involved with; we want God to answer our prayers, and watch over our children.
I expect the people under Moses all wanted the same things. One of the things these people complained about was that God only spoke to Moses. As a result, God told Moses to bring all the people to the holy mountain and He would speak to all of them. When the time came to go they would not go. I think they realized the responsibility that went with it and did not want it.
Many Christian people are sitting in the church every Sunday that should have gone out into the world years ago, illed with the Holy Sprit doing the things that Jesus did. They are like the ones spoken of in Hebrews 5:12
For thought by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and have come to need milk and not solid food.
We say we are following Jesus and being lead by the Holy Spirit when we are really following Moses and the law and practicing religion. We are doing our duty instead of assuming the responsibility of being lead by the Holy Spirit.