March 01, 2001 by Ken Fong

Excerpted from several talks at Urbana 2000.

We are like orphans, living as if we have no Father ... This is when sin enters the picture and makes us forget that we have ever been kissed And we forget God's mission. In fact, we make up our own missions. Missions of comfort, happiness, security and success. We live as if we have no Father, no family, no identity, no hope and no partnership with the divine purpose--which is the mission of God to keep pursuing all these orphans.

You know what it means to be a missionary? You catch God's character of pre-loving, and you begin to love a people you don't even know. You begin love a people that you haven't even seen. You begin to love a people that maybe you don't even like. How can we do that if not from the Holy Spirit supernatural power that comes from the Father?

The Holy Spirit is given not just for your own enjoyment and fulfillment. The Holy Spirit is given in cooperation with being sent.

The evidence of the Holy Spirit's annointing is when we lose our self consciousness. Our self consciousness stops us dead in our tracks. We won't do what God is asking us to do because we are still filled with all these thoughts about ourselves. And we have to surrender those and to lose or fears and inhibitions. ... Being fillled with the Holy Spirit, we are now ready and willing to go wherever that Spirit leads us.

pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles in Rosemead, California,. Excerpted from several talks at Urbana 2000.