Life Action

Having entered a new millennium, it is vital for us to take a fresh, unbiased look at what God intended for the church. Church services today in many places are like cemeteries-totally predictable, timed to the minute, devoid of any spontaneity, and with little or no sense of the Spirit's presence. On the other side of the spectrum, many more are like insane asylums with bizarre abuses going on in the name of the Spirit of God.

In the meantime, the world we live in is increasingly antagonistic to our beliefs about Jesus Christ. Our Christian values are rejected out of hand. But instead of proclaiming the gospel of God's love with supernatural power as we find in the Bible, the church is generally running away from the world, saying, "Isn't it horrible the way people are living out there?" or letting the world "evangelize" us with their value system to the point that there's almost no distinction between us and them.

We can blame tough neighborhoods, New Age thinking, and immoral entertainment all we want. But when has the environment not been difficult for the gospel? Think of what the early church faced in hostile Jerusalem and the pagan Roman Empire. Yet they received power from on high and did exploits for God. Their preaching and witnessing had a dimension of supernatural ability that we are sadly lacking today.

The key to all of this is the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The church cannot be the church without the Holy Spirit empowering it. The degree to which we understand and experience the Spirit of God will be the exact degree to which God's plan for our churches will be accomplished. If we downgrade the Holy Spirit-worse yet, if we ignore him . . . and even worse than that, if we grieve or quench him-we end up with a modern church that is totally foreign to the New Testament.

The Power We Need Most

Imagine that by some time-warp technology you could zoom back two thousand years to the upper room in Jerusalem a week after the ascension of our Lord. As you stand there in a corner, I want you to take a close look at the men and women sitting in this place. Scan the crowd and look into their faces. What do you see?

Jesus could have chosen gifted orators who could sway thousands with their powers of speech. Instead, you see fishermen. You see a former tax collector. You see a former member of the Zealots, a radical political group. You see ordinary men. These are the last people you would pick to launch a religious movement.

Of course, Jesus did this on purpose. He recognized that all too often the more educated people become, and the brighter they are, and the better their connections to human influence, money, and power . . . the more they tend to look away from the power of God. They trust in God's grace less and less.

And then came the day of Pentecost and "all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:3). I think we have lost the wonder of that because we are so familiar with the passage.  Frail men and women were not just given help around the edges, but were filled with God himself! Something supernatural came from heaven and invaded men and women on earth, changing them forever.

Who can deny that this is the great need in our churches today? This is what all pastors desperately require, starting with me. We need something with the mark of heaven upon it.

Power for the Present

The God who empowered the disciples is the same God who is waiting to empower us. Without getting into the debates that have arisen about speaking in tongues, let us focus on the main point of this passage: God by his Spirit enabled ordinary men and women to do and say things beyond their natural abilities. There was no human explanation for what was taking place. This is the story, in one way or another, of every man, woman, or church that has ever been used in great ways for God's glory.

Praise God for his ability to lift us above ourselves! Otherwise, where could all of us be? The Holy Spirit is still greater today than all our shortcomings and failures. He has come to free us from the restraints and complexes of insufficient talent, intelligence, or upbringing. He intends to do through us what only he can do. The issue is not our ability but rather our availability to the person of the Holy Spirit.

The Cry of Our Heart

It is not enough to talk and study about the Spirit. We must experience him personally in new depths, or we will accomplish little. Without the Holy Spirit there is no quickening of the Scripture. Worship is hollow. Preaching is mechanical, never piercing the heart. Conviction of sin is almost nonexistent. Faith is more mental than heartfelt. Prayer meetings fade away. Church meetings become routine. And Christian people stay lukewarm at best.

The wind of the Holy Spirit in the upper room that day wasn't just a little breeze; it was "violent," according to Acts 2:2. In many of us, we need just such a strong wind to blow out the rubbish that has accumulated. Many of our churches need a typhoon-like visitation of the Spirit of God. We need a major renovation of our spiritual lives, not just a rearrangement of the furniture. Think how whole cities and towns would be affected if Christian churches began praying for the wind of God to blow upon them.

What Christian here in the new millennium cannot agree that we desperately need a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit? How long has it been in many of our churches since God worked in supernatural power?

Maybe it is because we have not done what the last line of the verse suggests, in waiting before God as they did in the upper room. We must balance all our activities for him with time spent with him, waiting in expectant prayer and worship. We must avoid the idea that well-intentioned Christian service and doing things for God will ever amount to much without fresh infillings of the Spirit's power.

What stops us today from drawing a line in the sand and setting our hearts toward God in fervent prayer that He will come and revive His work in us as well as in our churches? Soon our lives will be over, and it is better to live a few years full of the Spirit, seeing God work in and through us, than to go on for decades with little or no experience of the great things God has promised.

In a world as tormented and confused as ours, we desperately need God's wind to energize us. With sin on the rampage and demonic powers controlling more and more of our culture, we need an enduement of divine power similar to what God gave the early church. Why don't we stop rationalizing and justifying the spiritual impotence all around us? Why not rather humble ourselves and seek God with all our hearts for "something from heaven?"

Dear Father, please stir our hearts to reach out for all that you have promised us. Forgive our carnality, our indifference to the spiritual realities around us, and our dependence on human resources rather than your power. Teach us to pray and wait upon you in humility and faith; send the wind and fire of your Spirit upon us. Transform us into men and women who bear powerful witness in word and deed to the reality of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Taken from Fresh Power by Jim Cymbala and Dean Merrill. Copyright © 2001 by Jim Cymbala. Used by permission of Zondervan, www.Zondervan.com.