This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. (Acts 2.32-33 NRSV)

Motivating people is a hard task. Teachers, pastors, business people and parents find the task to be head-banging frustrating. Every person seems to have their own button and no one method works every time on every person. People are born with a brain and then are socially and educated. The mix that makes of a person baffles the most behavioral scientists of our time.

One interesting aspect of motivating people is a shared danger. Say you have twenty soldiers walking across a field in one hundred-degree heat and a shot is fired in their direction. That would mean twenty very scared guys bent on digging in the dirt with all the energy they can muster. A sergeant on any other day could say, "Dig a hole as fast as you can and I don’t want to see no rumps in the air." No amount of threats or pep talks would be enough to motivate those twenty men into fast and furious digging.

The disciples were ordinary men with ordinary lives. Along came Jesus and they thought He was the greatest teacher and prophet that ever lived. All Jesus said and did wasn’t enough to motivate them to be willing to sacrifice their lives in His service. But then, Jesus was crucified and they went back to their old lives of fishing and working. Unexpectantly, Jesus did the most impossible thing – He rose from the dead. That changed a few minds. Forty days later they saw Jesus ascend upward into the clouds and heard angels speak directly to them. In an upper room they lost all doubts and became fully motivated when the Holy Spirit descended on them.

The excitement, the enthusiasm of that first Pentecost, made a permanent change in the disciples' lives. Why? Because it was real. It was not simply raw emotion. Rather, it was the coming of the Spirit which Christ had promised them.

When Jesus enters a life the power of the Holy Spirit comes as well. No pastor can ever motivate the way a personal encounter with Jesus can motivate. A church with members who have no doubts about their personal encounter with Jesus is a powerful, alive and growing church. Let us be motivated by Jesus and be HIS church.

God’s Wisdom: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him. Isaiah 55:7

Worldly Wisdom: "Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today." James Dean