The ACTivate adventure continues in Acts chapter 6… have you read it yet? yes, then here goes, by Greg Albreght, pastor of our Slough congregation on the west edge of London.

Serving tables ‘Spirit-filled-style’

Spiritual Living is often a lot more practical than we think.

The apostles had a problem. They were spending so much time doing the seemingly ‘spiritual’ stuff that they had no time for the seemingly ‘practical’. Some of us read this and think that the apostles had a bit of an attitude problem. The truth is that the apostles were gifted to teach the Bible. So they looked around to find some other people to take care of the rest.

One of the ‘lucky’ ones was Stephen. He was chosen! Chosen… to serve tables. Stephen was chosen for a reason, though. He was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit! Maybe the apostles knew that there was a big difference between just serving tables and serving tables ‘Spirit-filled-style’. If they didn’t, they found out soon enough! Verse 8 says that full of faith and power, Stephen did great wonders and signs among the people.

Sometimes we expect to have the greatest spiritual experiences in church on Sundays. We often think that those who are preaching the Bible are the spiritual elite. Some of us believe that going into full-time ministry will take us to the next level spiritually.

We forget that it’s the Holy Spirit Who enables Spiritual Living. It’s not what we do that determines how spiritual we are. Whoever said that those preaching are more spiritual than those serving coffee? If the one preaching is doing so without the Holy Spirit, while the one serving coffee is doing so full of the Spirit, guess who’s living more spiritually? Guess who’ll see a greater impact for God’s kingdom?

The simple point is this, we all need to do what we do full of the Spirit… ‘Spirit-filled-style’!   That way each part of the body comes together and forms a mighty soldier on the frontline of Jesus’ mission – making disciples of all nations. We see this so powerfully in today’s chapter. Its starts off by saying that the disciples were multiplying (or increasing), but quickly changes to multiplying greatly (or increased rapidly), after others took their place and started doing the everyday things full of the Spirit.

What things have you written off as everyday or mundane that can be used by the Spirit to turn into Spiritual Living? The Body is depending on you…