Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS THE LORD TOOK HOLD OF BUGBROOKE
same wavelength. They actually loved one another. This wasn’t
formal religion or even the type of evangelical Christianity
she had known. ‘For we were all baptised by one Spirit into
one body... and we were all given the one Spirit to drink,’ she
read (1 Cor 12:13). She looked at the ‘intoxicated’ teenagers
and smiled. That was what she was seeing before her very
eyes.
A few weeks later she was in the manse again. ‘Some of
you will be baptised in the Spirit tonight,’ Noel announced.
Carol wept again as God’s love bubbled within her and she
spoke in tongues. Immediately her barriers went down. She
wanted to go around the room and hug everyone.
They often spoke of the ‘body of Christ’. The church was
not an organisation — it was a living organism. All over the
world, believers were discovering this, and were meeting in
their homes as a ‘family’. In Scripture the manse group read
of the body ‘building itself up in love’ (Eph 4:16), of the members
having ‘different gifts’ (Rom 12:6) and of rejoicing and
weeping together (Rom 12:15). All who experienced the Spirit
felt this sense of unity, of being part of one another. But others
in the chapel weren’t finding God in such a way and some
felt a little excluded. Not everyone wanted such an experience.
Quite a few clung to the old ways. Some were confused
or a little fearful. Others could be proud and quite rude!
It seemed that belonging to the ‘body of Christ’ and chapel
membership were not exactly the same. The Spirit was a blessing
and a trouble-maker. Jesus had warned against sewing a
new patch on an old garment, and the chapel was feeling the
strain. It was a heartache for those who sought to bridge the
widening gulf. Some had already left.
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