"Ye Shall Receive Power"
By W. C. Moore
"Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me…." This Holy Ghost power is for all believers (John 7:37-39; Acts 2:37-39; Acts 8:15; Acts 10:44-45). The scriptural command to all believers is "Be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18).
An earnest, zealous Christian man who had been gloriously saved and felt so greatly blessed that he didn’t see how he could need the baptism with the Holy Ghost, was, nevertheless, convinced of this need in his own life and ministry when he read that Mary the mother of Jesus was among those 120 who tarried for the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14; 2:1-12).
Two Reasons Why Every Believer Should Be Filled with the Holy Spirit
(1) To give victory over sin; to enable the believer to live an overcoming life (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:16).
(2) To give the believer Holy Ghost power to perform that particular ministry to which that particular believer had been called. "To every man his work," Jesus says (Mark 13:34). "Now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him" (1 Cor. 12:18).
Not all are called to the same ministry by any means, but each saved person is called by the Lord to some one or more ministries or methods of "witnessing." "All these [gifts] worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will" (1 Cor. 12:11).
Charles G. Finney was an evangelist whose preaching was in the power of the Holy Spirit. He received the baptism with the Holy Ghost the very night after he was saved. He had the ministry of preaching (prophecy, 1 Cor. 12:10; 1 Cor. 14:3). But among those who labored with him were two men, Brother Clary and Brother Nash, who were not gifted so much with a preaching ministry but who were mighty in prayer.
We should not aspire to have a ministry like another if God has not called us to such a ministry. We should desire, with all our heart, to fit into the place and do the work God wants us to do, and seek until we find that place and that work. "Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17).
"The body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?.... And if they were all one member, where were the body?.... The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you…
"God hath tempered the body together…that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular" (1 Cor. 12:14-27).
The human body is compared to the Church, which is the body of Christ (Col. 1:12-18; Eph. 1:15-23). The human eye has one function, the ear another. So, in the Church, "…Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?" (1 Cor. 12:29).
We should not be discouraged on the one hand, simply because our particular ministry is not as outstanding as that of another, but at the same time, we should never rest till we know what God’s plan is for our life and until, in the power of His Holy Spirit, we are doing His will!
When your body is well and strong you can do effectively many things that you cannot do when you are sick. In the same way, when the Body of Christ, which is the Church, is revived, filled with the Holy Spirit, it does mighty works. The human body can be alive but so weak and sickly as to be almost useless insofar as any accomplishment is concerned. In the identical way, the Body of Christ can be alive but practically without any influence on society. God send a mighty Holy Ghost revival!
Pure Motives
We should desire with all our might and seek with all our heart to be what God wants us to be. But we must watch our motives. "Watch ye therefore, and pray always," Jesus says (Luke 21:36). To "desire to be first" (Mark 9:35) from a selfish motive, a proud wish to "be somebody" is wrong. A person acting from selfish motives, may even preach and cast out devils and be lost at last. The Bible says many will be (Matt. 7:21-23). "Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not" (Jer. 45:5).
A person can seek to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit that he might have power so people will think he is a little more holy than others, a little more mighty in faith than others. God commands us to be filled with the Spirit, but He wants us to have the right motives. Even Isaac must be put on the altar.
The evangelist, however great his faith, however mighty his ministry, should not despise those who follow with a teaching ministry, which is just as necessary but less spectacular. "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones" (Matt. 18:10).
"Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). "How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" (John 5:44).
"Love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt. 22:39). Be as vitally concerned in your heart, and be doing all within your power to have your brothers and sisters in the Lord fitting into their places in the Body of Christ, and doing God’s will – as you are about perfecting your own ministry. "Warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus" (Col. 1:28).
"For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
"Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness…. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good" (Rom. 12:3-8, 21).