Today's Passage - Luke 11:14-20

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Luke 11:14-20   "Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed.  But some of them said, 'By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.'  Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.  Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: 'Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.  If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub.  Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out?'"   Lord mentioned here the specific secret of letting the Kingdom of God come upon us.  Many Christians feel powerless in our daily life and ministry, because we have not experienced the power of God, which comes from the work on the Holy Spirit.  We often neglect the work of the Spirit and we don't understand how to depend on the power of the Spirit; we like to depend on our own power, talent and understanding to serve God.  In church we often just discuss things during meetings, and we serve with our own talent and rather than with the Holy Spirit, so our ministry often turn out to be ineffective.   When I was in university, I attended evangelism training conducted by Campus Crusade.  They used Four Spiritual Laws booklet to share the gospel with people, and then invited them to accept Jesus.  I was pretty excited after the training, because I thought preaching the gospel was really easy, so I started going around the dormitory with a Campus Crusade coworker.  After a few times, I didn't dare to go out with the coworker anymore.  Even though we did exactly the same thing - reading booklet with the prospects - but when he did it others would accept Jesus, but when I did it there was no response, so I was quite frustrated.  Later on, he told me that before he went out the share the gospel, he actually spends a long time to pray and ask the Lord to prepare him and use him, and he also prays for those he will meet as well.  Although he didn't know exactly whom he was going to meet, he always first prays for that person, and he depended on the work of the Holy Spirit to share the gospel.  I then realized that I needed to learn to pray, and to pray each time before I went out to share the gospel; afterwards, I experienced the joy of bringing people to Christ through the booklet.  The secret, therefore, is not in the booklet itself, but rather the dependence on the power of Holy Spirit.   Brothers and sisters, we need to depend on Holy Spirit in our ministry.  Jesus said that "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."  Let us learn to live and serve by depending on the Holy Spirit.     Pray with Pastor Tong           Dear Lord, please have mercy on us, because we often depend on our own body, talent and understanding to serve you.  Please let us see that we are meager and lacking, and let us turn back to you and start depending on the power of the Holy Spirit.  We want to work together with you through prayer so that our ministry will become more effective.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!