Revival Times 2017 June 2017 | Page 5

keynote the life-giving spirit Everything God touches comes alive. Water turns into wine. Dry bones live. Dead sons come back to life. Salt water becomes fresh. Stony hearts become soft. By contrast, lives separated from God are dead. Born into death. Living in death. Spreading death. Ending in death. Six weeks after Easter, the Church celebrates Whitsunday. Easter is about the life of the resurrection. Whitsunday is about the life of the Spirit. Without the Spirit we could never have life. The deeper we live under the control of the Spirit, the more of his life we enjoy. Pentecost is about power. The power to live, the power to love and the power to walk in the truth. Life is on the side of truth and truth is on the side of life. The Christian faith embraces truth. Sometimes the truth hurts, but it is always resolute, uncompromising, and life-giving. When God’s truth cuts across our own ideas about life, we embrace his truth confidently. We know that the Spirit always leads us in the paths of life. But this life is not for us to keep to ourselves. The most obvious and immediate fruit of that first Pentecost was not only what the disciples experienced for themselves, but the effect it had in others. Crowds came to see what was happening and then heard the whole truth about it. Colin Dye Senior Minister Follow Colin Dye on: www.facebook.com/ colindye.org and his blog: www.colindye.com God grant us another Pentecost, in which not only the Church is blessed, but the multitudes also hear and believe. Revival Times June 2017 5