So tonight I have the absolute joy of speaking on receiving the Holy Spirit.

And in a few moments we're going to invite his presence to invade this room in greater

measure. And we're going to see what Holy Spirit does. And it's going to be fun and

it's going to be holy chaos I'm sure. He kind of does that. I was thinking yesterday

as Pete preached and he said revivals are marked by two things. Prayer and holiness, absolutely

true. I want to suggest that there's a third which is a willingness to give up control.

You see as you study revivals again and again this willingness to get out the way, a willingness

not to dictate how he should come or what that should look like. And it's also true that

if you study revivals the more human wisdom and scaffolding is applied the shorter the

lifespan of the revival becomes. I want to encourage us this evening as we think on this

wonderful incredible subject of receiving the Spirit, this invitation to each of us.

Really one of the big questions for us to ask is do we want to maintain control? Do we

want it to be neat and tidy? Do we want to be able to understand all of the parameters?

You know the Bible in the book of Proverbs invites us to trust in the Lord with all our

hearts and lean not on our understanding. The reason is your understanding can only take

you so far. Trusting in the Lord with all your heart is an invitation to let go of the

right to have figured him out. To let go of the right to have weighed up all of the

parameters and have approved of his decision making. Trust or understand. It's a choice.

So many of us are wanting to do both the problem is you can't. Trust or understand. And

this evening I really want to invite all of us to enter again in a journey with him where

we relinquish all of the things that we we feel we need to understand and instead go

on an adventure of trusting him of believing him and of allowing him to do what only he

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