demonstration of the Spirit's power
February 12, 2012
Not treasuring and seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit affects the quality of our service to God and our relationships with God. The Holy Spirit was shown in Acts to have been given to equip God's people for their service - the Holy Spirit provides us with the power, the wisdom, and the words to speak. How can I serve without asking for a filling with the Spirit if even Jesus began His ministry with a filling of the Spirit (Mark 1:10)? If Jesus saw it wise to be filled with God's Spirit, how much more should I be desiring that in my own relationship with God and my serving Him? The last thing I'd ever want is for my serving to come out of my own knowledge, out of my own understanding and convictions, rather than God's almighty and eternal purpose and through the power, wisdom, and leading of the Holy Spirit.
I pray for all God's servants and people that we'd seek after and treasure the promised Holy Spirit, that we'd seek to be filled wholly and continually by the Spirit, that our service would be rooted in Christ, and empowered by God, and that as we serve, it'd be true of us that we decrease as God increases. That we don't just ask God for His help and His blessing in our ministry, but that we'd ask Him to take charge, to lead us, to lead the ministry, and for us to wholly surrender and submit in every little detail to God, and that in our ministries, it is not us leading, but God leading, and us following.
The deadest thing on earth is dead orthodoxy! It is not enough that we preach the gospel, not enough that we preach it in its simplicity, its purity, its fullness, but we must preach it in the power of the Holy Spirit. And we can do this only insofar as we are definitely baptized with the Holy Spirit, and insofar as we are definitely filled again and again with His glorious power for each new emergency of Christian service. (RA Torrey - The Holy Spirit; Who He Is and What He Does, pg. 160)The quote above has really stuck to me.
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power (1 Corinthians 2:4)This has been my prayer and hope as I've served at church and as I seek to grow in my own walk. That in everything I say and do, it is not with human wisdom, with charming or eloquent words, but that it is with the Spirit's power. I do not want to teach or preach the Word just in truth and fullness, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. I've been praying a lot to be both Spirit filled and Spirit led, and for the ministry that I'm involved in to be Spirit filled and Spirit led. It's a process in learning to be sensitive to the Spirit's leading and conviction, to be vulnerable and transparent with the areas that God may be prodding me to reconsider and repent of if they are not completely in line with His will.
Not treasuring and seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit affects the quality of our service to God and our relationships with God. The Holy Spirit was shown in Acts to have been given to equip God's people for their service - the Holy Spirit provides us with the power, the wisdom, and the words to speak. How can I serve without asking for a filling with the Spirit if even Jesus began His ministry with a filling of the Spirit (Mark 1:10)? If Jesus saw it wise to be filled with God's Spirit, how much more should I be desiring that in my own relationship with God and my serving Him? The last thing I'd ever want is for my serving to come out of my own knowledge, out of my own understanding and convictions, rather than God's almighty and eternal purpose and through the power, wisdom, and leading of the Holy Spirit.
I pray for all God's servants and people that we'd seek after and treasure the promised Holy Spirit, that we'd seek to be filled wholly and continually by the Spirit, that our service would be rooted in Christ, and empowered by God, and that as we serve, it'd be true of us that we decrease as God increases. That we don't just ask God for His help and His blessing in our ministry, but that we'd ask Him to take charge, to lead us, to lead the ministry, and for us to wholly surrender and submit in every little detail to God, and that in our ministries, it is not us leading, but God leading, and us following.
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