AN UPPER ROOM REALITY

I Was Just Thinking About - - -

It is obvious that we live in a day and time where true religion is being sacrificed on the altar of secularism and self-indulgence. As the Gospel narratives drew to a conclusion, Luke continued writing a transitional history of what Biblical Christians desired and practiced. They were unwilling to surrender to the inevitable of making choices between the lesser of two evils. Truth must be preserved. The Gospel must continue to be declared regardless of the cost. Commitment to Christ, crucified and risen, who ascended into heaven was required. Would there be a personal cost? Yes. Would there be suffering and persecution? Yes. Would the power of God be thwarted? No.

Before the ongoing effort, ministry and message, there had to be the important moments in the Upper Room. We get a glimpse of the upper room where they had been staying (Acts 1:12-13). We also learn two things immediately about this upper room gathering in Acts 1:14, they were all with one mind and they were continually devoting themselves to prayer. These two upper room principles are needed in personal lives as well as in The Church as it exists today. There is a drift away from being of one mind. Similarly, prayer can appear to be a religious ritual we tack onto our Church worship agendas. If the professing Christians could arrive at the one mind point and continually devote themselves to prayer, the result would be positive and remarkable. Emerging would be a corps of Biblical Christians and the development of the Biblical Church. The enemy (that old serpent, the devil (Revelation 20:2, 9) is relentless in his effort to disrupt and destroy the Upper Room reality. It appears that the enemy has made inroads into organized religious organizations. Some of the clear truths that the inspired Word of God condemns, churchmen are intellectually and in the name of relevancy are condoning.

Do you ever long for a gathering of likeminded Biblical Christians in an Upper Room atmosphere and experience? I remember fondly a family in a church startup situation who opened a room above their garage where we were able to have an Upper Room Bible Study and Prayer Time. There was a spirit of oneness. Camaraderie (mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together) resulted. It was a friendship and fellowship that does not often occur. It is sorely missed and is absent from several places where it should be present. It is a situation where people don’t just talk religion but who walk and practice true religion. Do you belong to a Church or group where such camaraderie is both natural and present? If only God’s people would fully return to doing God’s word in God’s way, we might actually experience that for which David longed for when he wrote, Psalm 85:4-7 (NASB), “Restore us, O God of our salvation, and cause Your indignation toward us to cease. Will You be angry with us forever? Will You not Yourself revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? Show us Your loving-kindness, O Lord, and grant us Your salvation.”

Are you ready and eager for a God-sent Revival in your life, your Church, your community? Is God still able to bring it to pass in amid the secularized twenty-first century? Was God’s power limited to just the Upper Room group? Are you willing and available to meet with like-minded brothers and sisters who are 100% committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and God’s will – and cry out to God to accomplish great and mighty things in our contemporary world? Are you willing to run any risk and pay any price for the Lord to work in and through you to reach this generation with the Gospel truth?  If so, the message would begin with John 8:31-36 (ESV), “So Jesus said…If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” To and for a people who are in the grip of the enemy, bound and enslaved to him, the message that will break through by the power of God remains, “The truth will set you free…if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Can you be counted on to make that truth known? Come to the Upper Room and be empowered by a Great God to do His Great work in and through you! Prayerfully – Consider these things with me