The Power of the Spirit
Jesus gave the Great Commission to the Church, as well as clear instructions about how He has equipped us with power to fulfil the Commission.
Note: I am currently teaching a series live online every Tuesday about the power of God to raise our confidence in what God can do and also show how to get His power working and active in our lives. You can watch this series on the Facebook page and YouTube Channel.
A Church Equipped with Power
Acts 1:1-5
:1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
:2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,
:3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
:4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;
:5 “for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
The book of Acts shows the start and development of the church from the resurrection of Jesus onwards. It shows how Jesus followers, initially numbering 120, took the Gospel message to the known world in a relatively short period of time. Christianity grew from hundreds of people into thousands spanning across many countries.
Christians today would love to have the kind of church growth experienced in the first few centuries of the church.
The Key to Power in the Church
I believe the book of Acts teaches us the key to this vast spread of Christianity in these early years. We see the key right here in these first five verses of the book of Acts: The Holy Spirit.
Many know that as Christians we are commanded to preach the Gospel to the World. (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15). Jesus gave us this commission shortly before His ascension into heaven. However, there was more to Jesus’ instructions than ‘Go preach…’
In the opening verses of Acts we see Jesus clear instructions to His disciples to WAIT before they GO!
Don’t go without being equipped
Some have used this to teach a doctrine of ‘tarrying’ (waiting) to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Some people have ‘tarried’ for years. This is not the point Jesus was getting at.
They were waiting for the Holy Spirit to be poured out for the first time. Ever since then He has already been poured out. Now, no one has to wait any longer to receive the Holy Spirit. However, the principle we see from Jesus here is that He told His disciples:
You are to ‘go’, but don’t go without the Holy Spirit!
Jesus says, ‘Yes you must go, but you are not to go alone in your own strength or power’. Many hear the instruction ‘Go’ and rush out improperly equipped for the task and end up being very unsuccessful.
God is as much interested in people being EQUIPPED to go as He is in them actually going!
Ephesians 4:11-12 :11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
These two verses both show ways we are to be equipped.
’Wait’ to be equipped properly
The Disciples had a task to do, but they were not yet totally ready. They had been through about 3 years of ‘one on one’ training with Jesus. However, Jesus said, ‘There is one more thing you need to reach the world with the gospel’. He said, ‘You are to wait for the Holy Spirit’
I believe Jesus was telling them that they would not be able to get this task done without the Holy Spirit. He was an essential part of their success.
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The Holy Spirit is Essential
Don’t even try to do this job without the Holy Spirit. Take the time to get properly equipped and you will be more successful.
The Book of Acts is commonly called ‘The Acts of the Apostles’. However, it should probably more accurately be called ‘The Acts of the Holy Spirit through the church’. Without the Holy Spirit there would have been no ‘acts’ occurring through the Apostles!
The Apostles never walked in power because they were anyone special in and of themselves. They had power because of the Holy Spirit and they yielded to Him.
The Holy Spirit is essential in the life of a Christian. The Word of God shows this.
The Holy Spirit is not a ‘side issue’ nor a ‘non essential subject’. Rather, every Christian must have a thorough understanding of who the Holy Spirit is and how He is to be involved in our lives.
The benefits available to the Christian who understands the Holy Spirit and what He offers our lives are well worth finding out about and walking in!
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Jesus Taught them about the Holy Spirit
This was not the first time that the disciples had heard Jesus speak of the Holy Spirit.
In His last few days the cross, Jesus spent a large amount of time talking to them about the Holy Spirit. Jesus emphasised the Holy Spirit, and taught His disciples about who He is and what He does in our lives.
It is important that we do not neglect to find out why Jesus wanted us to know about the Holy Spirit.
If He was not important, then why did Jesus make such a point of telling them to wait and not go until they got the Holy Spirit?
If they needed the Holy Spirit then, do we today need Him any less? I do not believe so!
If they needed the Holy Spirit then, do we today need Him any less?
In truth, Jesus was telling the disciples to do exactly what He did. When Jesus first started ministry, He took the time to receive the Holy Spirit. It was this anointing of power that He received that enabled Him to perform miracles and heal the sick.
Luke 3:21-23
:21 When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.
:22 And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”
:23 Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,
Verse 23 starts, ‘Now Jesus began His ministry…’
In other words, He took the time to make sure He received the Holy Spirit before stepping out any further.
If Jesus and the disciples needed the Holy Spirit, can we neglect Him in our lives today?
Not if we want to get the same kinds of results they got!
Follow their Example
I believe Jesus and the early church are good examples to follow. They got results. They knew how to get people healed. The miraculous flowed through their lives. They knew how to follow God and His leadings in their lives. They knew how to make Spirit Led decisions and to fulfil the plans and purposes of God for their lives.
So any key that they took advantage of is well worth us understanding if we want to follow their examples. The Word of God shows that the Holy Spirit was vital in the lives of both Jesus and His disciples.
The effects of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ life were immediately evident from the time He received and He entered a supernatural ministry with miracles and healings following.
The same was true for the Apostles who’s lives were completely transformed on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
The Key to the Miraculous
Miraculous healings began to occur immediately through them as the Holy Spirit’s power manifested.
Peter, quoting Joel, spoke of the outpouring of God’s Spirit, resulting in the supernatural occurring in people’s lives:
Acts 2:17-19
:17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. :18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. :19 I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
Even a study of the Old Testament shows that the influence of the Holy Spirit transformed people’s lives.
God took ordinary men, anointed them with His Spirit and transformed them into mighty Prophets of God. The Spirit of God would come upon these men and enable them to accomplish things not possible to mere natural man.
We can walk in the same Power
Some people believe that God stopped doing miracles after the first couple of centuries of the church.
We as humans love to blame God when things don’t go the way we think they should. I am convinced that the problem was not on God’s side. It was not God who stopped doing the miracles, rather there was a lack of humans who knew how to yield to and flow with The Holy Spirit to enable Him to do through them what He wants to do.
If people today will learn to yield to the Holy Spirit and tap into the resources that He brings into our lives, we too can begin to experience and walk in the amazing benefits God has made available to us through His Holy Spirit in our lives.
The Holy Spirit and Power
There is a direct Bible connection between the Holy Spirit and the supernatural manifestation of God’s power.
There is a supernatural demonstration of the Holy Spirit and people who learn to yield to the Holy Spirit will begin to experience Him and what He offers.
1 Corinthians 2:4
:4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, :5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Let’s take the time now to study what the Word of God teaches us about the Holy Spirit – who He is and His role in our lives today. However, we don’t just want to get ‘information’. Our goal is not primarily about getting knowledge.
Technical Knowledge Alone
You can have information and knowledge yet have no experience of God in your life at all.
Getting knowledge is a good start but if that is all you get, you are missing the point. That knowledge has to become something you walk in, something you apply in your life to a point that it affects and changes you.
Just because someone can quote all the technicalities of the Bible does not mean they know God. Knowing Who the Holy Spirit is and all the Bible emblems and symbols for the Holy Spirit will not change your life unless you begin to walk in these truths and apply them.
The Holy Spirit is not just a Being to be studied! He is A Person we are to relate to, commune with and experience.
The Truth about the Holy Spirit
Following God is not a matter of, ‘this is my opinion and that is your opinion’ but rather a matter of, ‘what is truth’?
Truth is found in the Word of God. The truth about the Holy Spirit, who He is and what He does today is found in the Bible. This is what we are interested in. Our foundation and final authority is the Bible, The Word of God.
There are always those who like to prioritise Bible subjects and even try to minimise the importance of some subjects.
This has been done with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is Important
Some people have tried to indicate that we do not really need to emphasise the Holy Spirit, and they criticise those who do. Others have tried to say that Bible truths like the Baptism in the Holy Spirit are not important and that we can quite adequately get by as Christians without this experience.
There are some who place little importance in their own lives upon learning about the Holy Spirit, thinking that it is not important that they know about Him.
I do not believe this is so.
You can certainly get saved and go to heaven without having the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, but once saved, there is nothing in the Bible to show that you should continue the Christian life WITHOUT receiving the Baptism in the Spirit.
A study of the book of Acts will quickly show that the early church placed a very high importance upon the Holy Spirit and the Baptism in the Spirit, which we will show when we study that topic in other articles on this subject.
In order to fulfil the Great Commission given to the Church we need to be equipped with the power of the Holy Spirit.
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