We Need The Supernatural Power Of The Holy Spirit
By Fred D. Jarvis
We are living in a crisis-ridden age. The problems of the world are not just economic, political, social, ecological and educational. They are spiritual! It is high time that we ask the question, “What can turn this morally-bankrupt and sin-benighted generation back to God?” It is high time that we begin to search for the pathway to power, the secret to victory, the dynamic of faith, the more abundant life. Our anemic church needs to be turned to the old paths. It is time for the church to awake. Christ is coming soon. God’s countdown will soon be over.
It is time for us to seek God’s face, to hear His voice and to submit to His will. He is still seeking for a man among us to make up the hedge and to stand in the gap (Ezek. 22:30). He is seeking for men who can be clothed with His power and speak with His authority. We need men with an authentic touch of heaven to match the times in which we live. Our God is living! He is powerful!
We must learn how to cooperate with God’s moral and spiritual laws. We need men who will walk in one direction – God’s direction; men who will follow one goal – God’s will. The world is waiting and God is waiting for such a man who is willing to pay the price for power, buckle his spiritual armor and fully follow his Great Commander into a mighty fight to the finish for the glory of God.
There are no short cuts or spiritual bargains. We are going to have to humble ourselves, pray and seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways (2 Chr. 7:14). It will take a spiritual awakening to overcome our moral lapse.
A mighty moving of the Spirit of God is what we need above all else. Revival is the only remedy for the disease of spiritual indifference. The Holy Spirit’s outpouring is the key to blessing. Without this, we stand still and stagnant. We need a new quickening from God today. Nine times the psalmist in Psalm 119 asked God to quicken him. This is what he needed and what he sought. If he needed this, how much more do we today!
The Need for Spiritual Power
The great lack of our lives is more power. The Bible has much to say about power. Power belongs unto God (Psa. 62:11). Paul preached not in word only, but “in power, and in the Holy Ghost” (1 Thes. 1:5). The Lord said, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit...” (Zech. 4:6). Jesus “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee...” (Luke 4:14). “And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33). Like Micah, we must be able to say, “But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin” (Mic. 3:8).
Jesus said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Jesus said, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18); “...tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). How desperately we need this power today! The Holy Spirit’s power is the cure for our weakness, inadequacy, spiritual futility and debilitation. Sin can so easily clip our spiritual wings, immobilize and inactivate us. There is nothing like sin to throttle, strangle, and paralyze us. Through the Holy Spirit’s power, we do not need to be sterile, empty and helpless.
Overflowing Spiritual Life
God’s power is not only possible, but it is promised (Acts 2:38-39). We are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18). We must be linked to God’s great dynamo of power. We need the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He can give us boldness. He can make us witnesses. He can open our ears and eyes. He can loosen our tongues. He can give us love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal. 5:22-23). He can give us springs of living water (John 7:37-39). Our lives can be like an artesian well, bubbling over with blessing.
God does not want us to live insipid lives. We can be not only born of the Spirit, but filled with the Spirit. Soul-winning power is ours for the asking. We must know the deeper life in the Spirit. We must be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19). We can live the crucified life (Gal. 2:20).
The imperative need of the hour is for Spirit-filled Christians! God wants to pour out His power from on high and to deliver us from ourselves and from our sins. The missing element from the lives of many Christians is the power of the Holy Spirit.
We can relive the Book of Acts and experience the power of God. We do not have to be spiritually poor or spiritually bankrupt. We do not have to live beneath our privileges. We do not have to wander in spiritual darkness. We do not have to be spiritual lightweights.
We can be spiritual giants, full of vigor and vitality. May God give us a new encounter with Himself! The standards of His Word are exceedingly high. We can be giants for God, conscious of His power and blessing.
A Call to the Higher Life
The Holy Spirit is the only remedy for the disease of our spiritual paralysis and failure. Too long we have grieved, quenched and vexed the Holy Spirit. May God give us a new hunger and thirst after righteousness that we may be filled.
“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification...” (1 Thes. 4:3). “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness” (4:7). “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:23). We are to keep His commandments “without spot, unrebukeable” (1 Tim. 6:14). Again, Paul says, “...Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:19). Truly, it is time for us to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).
Call it what you will, there is a call to the higher life, the fuller life, the deeper life, the consecrated life, the victorious life, the Spirit-filled life. How desperately we need a fresh visitation from God, a new consciousness of God’s presence and power, a new anointing of His Holy Spirit!
Is it not time for us to cry out as never before, “Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?” (Psa. 85:6). It is time for us to pray, “...O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy” (Hab. 3:2).
Our greatest need is for more of God, more of the power of the Holy Spirit, more fasting and prayer. “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning...” (Isa. 58:8). May the dawn of this new day soon come upon us, and “then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isa. 58:10-11). May God send these blessings upon us today.
– Condensed.