Acts 1:8 (NIV) 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Many Christians lack power. They fall into every sin. They speak of Christ without conviction. They never lead a soul to Christ. They just go to church ans live wimpy Christian lives. They don't know that it doesn't have to be that way.
Jesus promised that His followers would receive the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit guarantees power for the Christian. So, why do so many Christians live like they have never heard of the Spirit?
Many Christians resist the Spirit. Some of these have heard that those who hear the Spirit speak lack authenticity. They have heard that these people are making a mockery of their faith because they act emotionally without their minds.
Surely, an act of the Spirit is often very emotional but it is not emotions that define the act. The Spirit fills the believer, gives him faith and sends him to do His will. The response to the Spirit is a release of the person to the will of God. It is abandonment to God's will which brings the response. The person is no longer afraid of what others think and will do things that their own reserved nature would not have done. The exhibition of emotion may be the reaction of many who receive the filling and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Those watching from the outside often look upon someone full of the Holy Spirit as strange. They determine that they don't ever want this to happen to them. Many preachers support this resistance by telling their congregations that God is not a God of chaos and this appears to be chaos to them. Yes, they are correct; God is not a God of chaos but this is not chaos if you understand that God has empowered this person to forget the world and simply obey Him.
Of course, there are congregations who try to create the emotion and say that it is a work of the Holy Spirit. They encourage people to act outside of their character rather than allowing the Spirit to enter on His own. They promote the presence of the Holy Spirit as they would a celebrity who has been paid to entertain the crowd.Those who fall into these fits of emotionalism have no more power than the Christian who resists the Spirit. They are plagued with sin, powerless in their witnessing and inconsistent in their living. They roll on the church floor to be seen and to feel like they have faith.
The Holy Spirit wants to fill the Christian. Therefore, the Christian waits until he is filled. He removes the barriers to that filling. He is content to act in a calm manner if the Spirit wills it. He is content to act upon the word of the Spirit. The Christian wants his will to be the same as that of the Spirit. He is content to work quietly when the Spirit wills it.
The filling of the Spirit should not be rare. It should be normal for the believer.
The work of the Spirit will be characterized by power. The believer, full of the Spirit, will not necessarily have a booming voice but no one who hears it will be able to ignore what has been said. The hearers of the one filled with the Spirit will listen even if they choose to resist what they Spirit has said. The witness cannot be ignored.
So, what about you? I believe that anyone reading this blog is here because the Spirit has led them here. He is wanting to fill those who are reading these words. So, what about you?
Will you accept the filling of the Spirit right now? Will you obey Him in whatever He says? Will you proclaim Jesus as your Lord to someone right away? Will you renounce your sins (even those that are doubtful)?
The Spirit fills us to receive His power. Where is the Holy Spirit in your life?
1 comment:
Quite well written, I must say, with much right emphasis.
The word, "power" there in Acts 1:8 is the Greek word, "dynamis" (G1411), from which we get the English word, "dynamite". When we picture what dynamite is, the power from the Spirit is more than that of a puny firecracker. So what are you? A tiny firecracker, or worse still, you are a pop pop snapper - "a fun, trick noisemaker that everyone will enjoy" (if you do not know what a pop pop snapper is, go here - http://www.allsparkfireworks.com/products/Pop-Pop-Snappers.html)?
No, I am NOT suggesting you go blow up some twin towers somewhere; no, that would be violence, and the Christian faith does NOT exhort violence. Then what kind of power are we talking about? Principally, the power to:
1. glorify God
2. lead godly life
3. do the will of God, which
includes
a) worship Him
b) witnessing
c) be vessel of God
to love and bless.
The power from the Holy Spirit can give you:
1. courage to do the right things
2. strength to go through
difficult situations
3. mercy (mercy more than grace)
to forgive the "unforgiveables"
4. grace to be sacrificial
5. even faith, in hope against
hope situations
6. even miracle-performing unction
7. even "firepower" against
dark principality
You do NOT experience any of these in your life? Maybe your posture towards the Spirit of God is amiss.
For example, some believers do this to the Holy Spirit: treat Him like a visitor coming to stay at his house, signaling to the guest that He cannot bring this or that, including His bag of spiritual gifts, with Him into the house, and that He, the Guest, is NOT to meddle into the affairs of the household. If you were the guest, what would you do? I know what I will do, "You desire that I only be a guest, and that I meddle NOT, in your affairs, ok, I will NOT say anything or do anything; I will just MYOB (mind my own business). Don't allow me to bring in my bag of gifts; ok, no gifts then." Maybe, that is me. Holy Spirit, any different? You think about it.
Or it may well be that, you are "just wanting to bask in grace", all the time, and then you wonder why your Christian life is so wimpy! God does NOT draw you into salvation to do nothing, and for you to forget about His will or desires for you, the very next moment onwards. Again think about that.
Post a Comment