Praying, witnessing, and living in His energy
I believe it is safe to say that those who are in fellowship in New Testament assemblies have an excellent understanding of the guidance of the Holy Spirit in worship. This is because it is our practice to set aside an hour each week, without prearrangement, to let the Holy Spirit guide us in the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. In doing so, we come to understand and experience the guidance of the Spirit. That is not to say that our sense of His guidance is infallible, or that our attempts at worship are always Christ-honoring; sometimes self intrudes. But with regard to the Spirit’s guidance in worship, we experience it on a regular basis.
Hindrances
Where we often suffer is in our understanding of the power of the Holy Spirit. There are exceptions (praise God for the exceptions!), but most of us have little understanding and little experience of how the Holy Spirit moves with power. There are two basic reasons for our weakness. First, our brethren in the charismatic movement have talked so much about the Holy Spirit that, in an effort to avoid their excesses, we sometimes go too far the other way. Since they often speak about the power of the Spirit and the explicitly miraculous, we seldom speak of such things. But the response to error should not to be a withdrawal from the truth, but a clearer presentation of the truth. We can believe that the Spirit will move powerfully among us without our going to excess.
The second reason why we ignore a consideration of the power of the Spirit is because we live in a technologically sophisticated society and the church is taking its cues from the lost. Doubtless it is different for our brethren in developing countries, but in Western nations, the church has bought into scientific rationalism. We give mental assent to the idea that the Holy Spirit could move among us with great power, but we don’t really think He will. We believe that God will always act using naturalistic processes. So for example, if we want to be more effective witnesses for Christ, the obvious answer in our society is education; we will read a book on evangelism. Now that’s not to say that reading a book on evangelism is bad! Knowledge is necessary, but it isn’t sufficient. Yes, read your book on evangelism but also pray continually and specifically that God would give you the opportunity and wisdom to share your faith. It is the same with health issues. We pray for the sick, but in our heart-of-hearts, we believe that all the healing will be done by the doctors. Again, we must repeat that there is nothing wrong with going to a doctor. God does often use doctors to heal. But we ought to pray fervently that God will heal, either through medicine or through a miracle.
Results
One outcome of a refusal to believe in the power of the Spirit is a weakness in all that we do as Christians. Yes, we should pray that God will heal the sick among us, provide employment, and meet a host of other needs. But in our prayers, we should be specifically praying that God will give strength and enablement in the ministries we have been given. If the Holy Spirit is the giver of gifts (1 Cor. 12:11), then we should pray that we will be able to use those gifts powerfully in the service of Christ. The work of the Spirit is not something that can be accomplished in the power of the flesh. Yes, we might occasionally show mercy or demonstrate faith or be a help to others because that is our personality. But what we do through our personality is not enough to make a lasting difference. Without the enablement of the Holy Spirit, mercy will be exhausted; faith will turn to fearfulness; and the helper will become resentful. Therefore, we must pray and ask the Father to have the Spirit help us use our spiritual gifts.
It is also important that we pray for others in the exercise of their spiritual gifts. When we look around the assembly, it is not too hard to see weaknesses. But for every weakness in the assembly, Christ is working on a plan of resolution. He has big plans for His bride! This plan involves the power of the Holy Spirit unleashed in the assembly as believers identify, develop, and use their spiritual gifts. Each of us has a personal responsibility to be strengthening the assembly through prayer for each other. For example, if you feel the teaching in the assembly is not strong enough, don’t complain about it to your fellow believers. Instead, pray fervently for the teachers in the assembly that you would see the power of the Holy Spirit demonstrated in their teaching.
A second outcome of a refusal to believe in the power of the Spirit is a lack of Christ-likeness. We read in Luke 4:14, “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.” It is futile to try to understand when the Lord Jesus Christ exercised His own power and when He was specifically empowered by the Holy Spirit, for the godhead is one. And yet if we desire to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, we too will seek to be walking daily in the power of the Spirit. For us to walk in the power of the Spirit doesn’t mean we will always know how God will act. And it most certainly does not mean that we have supernatural power to compel God to do what we want! To be walking daily in the power of the Spirit means we know that God is working in us and through us. It means that we face each day with a joyful and curious expectancy as to what God is going to do that day. How will His purposes be worked out? We don’t know at the start of the day; but we know that by the end of the day, we will be changed and so will the world around us.
A third outcome of a refusal to believe in the power of the Spirit is a lack of effective witness. In Romans 15:18-19, we read that Paul would dare not speak of anything except what Christ accomplished among the Gentiles by the power of the Spirit. Paul’s declaration was, “I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” Whether you are an evangelist by gift or whether you simply have good news to share, is it your desire to fully preach the gospel of Christ? I certainly hope so! But by ourselves we are insufficient for the task. And that is where we need to see the power of the Spirit. For example, before we share our faith we need the Spirit to convict the lost of sin and righteousness and judgment (Jn. 16:8). This is where we should pray for the lost by name, that the Father would send the Spirit to provide conviction, and that we would see opportunity to share our faith.
Power
To be open to the power of the Spirit is not something to be afraid of. To acknowledge that the Spirit can and will move among us with power should be the expectation of each believer and each assembly. To do so means we will need to avoid the excess of some of our precious brethren and it means we will need to overcome Western rationalism. But a Bible-believing, truth-teaching, and Christ-honoring assembly must have the power of the Holy Spirit.