I don’t know why it is that you can be ministering along a line of people with no apparent result or perceptible release of God’s power — when suddenly it’s there and someone is healed or baptized in the Holy Spirit. Thereafter that same power comes upon others along the line. I’ve given up on trying to work out why, but this surge — this sudden release of power — doesn’t last long.
Those who respond immediately to a call forward are often healed on the spot. Those who delay, who think twice, miss their opportunity. My body is unable to continue for long in the power of the Spirit of God because my physical strength is soon depleted. We need to respond quickly when the Spirit of God is moving in our midst.
There’s an old 1950s movie on YouTube called “Suddenly”. At the beginning, a motorist asks the town cop why the name of the town is Suddenly. “That’s a funny name for a town” the motorist says. “That’s always been its name,” the cop says, “but sometimes I think we should call it Gradually because nothing much ever happens here.”
Then it does, dramatically, and the movie ends with another motorist asking the cop the same question. Watching him drive away, the cop says to himself: “Oh, I dunno, it seems a pretty good name to me.” (Acts 2:2).
That’s the way it is in ministry. Things happen gradually. Then the Holy Spirit moves in a meeting and things change suddenly. Well, they do in Pentecostal meetings. Some churches have strange names these days. but none I know of are called “Suddenly”. Maybe they should be because they would then be more aligned with Acts 2:4.
First a strong gust of ‘wind’ enters, and then tongues of fire appear and sit on the heads of all present. Then everyone gets filled with The Holy Spirit. They speak in unlearned languages and go out among the people.
Their leader explains to a gathering crowd the scriptural validity of the phenomena and then attributes the entire, amazing happening to the resurrection, ascension and glorification of the Lord Jesus! More of this, please God!