Power

The power of the Holy Spirit is one of the most misunderstood and misapplied subjects of the entire New Testament. It is not something that you harness like the “force” from Star Wars. It is the Holy Spirit in action and without reservation from His host (you).  Making sure we get our theology correct from the get-go— The power of God is the power of the Holy Spirit. So for you to have the power of the Holy Spirit or be able to show the power of the Holy Spirit… is only a way of saying you have gotten more out of the way than you have before. You are at this point, more dependent upon Him, than you. When you are out of the way, He can shine like He hasn’t before. 

The Spirit’s power is simple, unless you confuse it. When a person receives Christ as their savior, they are indwelled with the Holy Spirit of God. He is also known as the “Spirit of Truth” and the “Spirit of Christ”. At salvation— You have all the power you will ever have from God. That doesn’t mean there will be some fluctuation in your faith or in the need for more grace in the moment; but there is a received power to do all you need to do in this life, for God. One passage that states that is Acts 1.8— “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 Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

The real question then is— Now that you have Him, does He have you? Who is in control? If you are power-hungry and demanding, by nature, then you are a human. All humans seek control. It may be at the job, in the kitchen, or within a relationship. Most simply seek control of their own life. We need to release full control if we are to be able to see God work. Not to a human, but to the person of Christ through the Spirit He placed in us. He demonstrates His power in us as He deems necessary, in the moment, to be an effective witnesses, for instance. We are simply to let go and let God. We must not allow ourselves to be caught up in trying to harness Holy Spirit power in some spectacular way. We do not in any way have the right to manipulate this, and we aren’t able to. God is not a magic wand. We are the servants and a willing vessel…He is the Master. 

In John 6.28 Jesus warns the people to not be so enamored with Holy Spirit power as if it was a tool for us to employ at our will.  In verse 29 He points them away from the spectacular and back into focus— “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” Signifying, of course, the point of the Holy Spirit is: Jesus. This fact of Jesus living in us through the Holy Spirit is essential. In John 6 though, that didn’t satisfy them. They wanted to see more miracles. So they tried persuading Him to do another miracle in verse 30-31— “They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” They are baiting Him. We get too easily sidetracked by the unusual, to the point, we would manipulate to see it. Humanity gets either bored easily, or methodically does the mundane— both extremes are unhealthy. Jesus would not allow Himself to be reduced to a circus act as you can read further in the text (John 6.32-35).

Disciples need to stop focusing on ‘harnessing the power’ and let the power harness us! He manifests Himself as He wills and not as we will.

There is a great need to understand the correlation and relation between the power of the the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Holy Spirit. This is the power over sin and worry and all other forms of the flesh (Romans 8). The fruit of the Spirit is not for the purpose of making us good people. Any fruit is simply a healthy by-product, but not the purpose.  God’s power is manifested every time the fruit is shown. Remember it is His fruit. Therefore shown or manifested when He takes over and we demonstrate these qualities of His. Kindness and self-control, for instance, in circumstances we normally wouldn’t in our flesh.  Every act is a miraculous power act of God on, in, and through us.  It has a purpose though (Galatians 5 and Romans 8):

1. It attracts nonbelievers to the gospel.
2. It provides the relational qualities we need to work together in our churches.
3. It protects believers from the destruction of sin.  

We will dive into the concept of number 3 next post, but for now here are the first 2 purposes:

We are to be an attractive vessel for God to use to bring people to Himself. If you act like the world in showing the fleshly opposites of the fruit-list, then you hinder your ability to be heard when giving the gospel and glorifying God.  Jesus said this in Matthew 5.16— “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” The power of the Spirit-filled life is better than 10,000 effectively delivered sermons. Our light isn’t primarily the words we say, it is the life we live. This lifestyle change silences the ignorance of flesh-driven people (including christians). Peter said such in 1 Peter 2.13-15— “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:”

Jesus drew an interesting parallel between the power associated with the Holy Spirit and the unsaved in Acts 1.8. This is what makes us effective witnesses. His power and therefore His moving in and through us as we yield, walk, and follow Him.  

The Spirit’s power working through us in fruit can also be seen as oil in the machinery of the church. When believers who are not walking in the Spirit come together to carry on the work of the church, it is like running an engine with no oil— friction and eventually breakdown. On the other hand, when a group of Spirit-filled believers get together, there is a supernatural dynamic. The whole thing is supernatural because it is of Him. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts you see. You should walk into the midst of believers and feel the anticipation and excitement. Should, I said. It is the tangible power of God. It is being released as a result of their willingness to allow Him to produce His fruit in their lives. Conversely, this is the reason it isn’t tangible. When we are unyielding and unwilling… then His fruit will not flow. Our God loves to draw attention to the fruit bearing process in a believer’s life— why? Because when men see our fruit, they glorify God! Therefore when it isn’t being manifested, there is nothing left but to glorify self and seek our own preferences.

I want to see God work. I want to see what God can do and not what man has been attempting to do. I want more of Him and less of me. I’m willing to yield; trust; let go; forsake; and submit… are you?