Soaking Or Serving?


I asked someone who was moving to a town where "ongoing revival" was reported, "why?"  They looked at me like I was crazy. It was same look I received back in the 1970's when someone asked me why I wasn't getting in a prayer line at a service to "get slain in the Spirit", and I asked, "Why?"  The person chasing the revival said, "just to soak in the Presence"! You are moving to a town just to "soak"!?  As I walked away I thought, "what a selfish thing to do".  Now, understand my thinking here.  It is selfish if the end result is soaking.  Jesus was baptized in the Holy Spirit but afterward He served.  At Pentecost the church was empowered and blessed with such wonderful experiences that the people who saw them thought they were drunk yet the result was that they served.  Paul experienced the presence of Jesus and actually talked to him.  Later he received the Holy Spirit and his life there after was not a life of soaking but serving.  Mary Magdalene enjoyed the extravagant love and forgiveness of the Lord and the result was, she served.  As the people of God may we daily be seeking His Presence in order to Serve at His pleasure.