Have you ever thought to yourself: “I read the Bible and go to church, why don’t I see any positive changes in my life?” “Why am I still struggling with a particular sin or sins even though I keep trying to repent and give it to God?” “Why am I not seeing healing whether physically, spiritually, emotionally, or relationally?” “Why isn’t God working in our church like he did in the book of Acts or like other places I hear around the world?” “Why do I feel spiritually parched, dry, or why does my relationship with God seem stale or non-existent?”
All of these thoughts are symptoms pointing to the same source, the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is often the most overlooked person in the trinity (three-in-one God). We talk about God the Father and we talk about God the Son, yet God the Holy Spirit is the agent of change in our world, he is the worker bee of God. God the Father and God the Son are in heaven, but the Holy Spirit is present here and now. When we say God is with us, we are referring to the presence of God through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us of our sin (John 16:8), He speaks God’s truth to us (16:15), and teaches us God’s word, He changes our hearts, attitudes, and actions, who gives us comfort and peace. It is the Holy Spirit who produces fruitfulness of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (the hallmarks of a Christian life) (Gal. 5:22-23). It is the Holy Spirit who brings healing, who brings spiritual refreshment to our souls. He is the power source of the Christian life. He is the spiritual energizer bunny to help us keep going and going and going in the face of adversity. Before Jesus ascended into heaven he told his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you: and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).” Yet for many Christians, their personal experience with the Holy Spirit is not one of power, healing, increasing spiritual fruitfulness, changed lifestyle including obedience to God and diminishing occurrences of sin.
Today is Pentecost Sunday, a significant day in the Christian calendar because it marks the day the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples like tongues of fire (which is why the United Methodist cross has the flame on it) and the church began. Without the filling of the Holy Spirit, Peter and the rest of the disciples wouldn’t have had the courage to testify to the Good News of Jesus. Without the Holy Spirit they wouldn’t have been able to heal a man born crippled. Their belief in the risen Christ, the Son of God, gave them the gift of salvation, eternal life with God, but the power of resurrection came to them through the Holy Spirit. No Holy Spirit, no power. If we aren’t seeing the power does that mean we are not filled with the Spirit?
1. Every Believer Has the Spirit
Peter was very clear on that Pentecost morning who receives the Holy Spirit, Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).” That promise is for every person. Every person who repents (turn from their sin), and is baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (which implies a belief in Jesus as Lord and Christ), is given the Holy Spirit as a sign of God’s promise. The Bible says he is God’s deposit guaranteeing our eternal inheritance (Eph. 1:14). You might say the Holy Spirit is God’s collateral, his down payment until we reach heaven. The Holy Spirit gives us a taste of God’s kingdom right now. For Christian believers, the question isn’t whether we have the Spirit of God living within us, the answer is clearly, yes.
If every believer has the Spirit why don’t we see the power? Why don’t we see changed hearts and fruitful lives? Why don’t we see large numbers of people coming to Christ? First, we need to realize that the Spirit works in powerful, instantaneous ways, and also in gradual, perhaps even imperceptible ways to some. God’s ultimate goal is that we would be in relationship with God (now and forever) and that we would be like him, to be Christlike, to have God’s character, which is a lifetime’s work. Obviously when the Spirit works in powerful instantaneous ways like he did in the Bible, it gets attention. He brought healing to the broken, he convicted people of their sin and brought them to repentance (3,000 on the day of Pentecost), he used people in their weakness in amazing ways (think of fishermen from Galilee changing the world).
We cannot demand that the Holy Spirit work in the way we want. For some he may choose to work instantaneously, for others it may be gradual. We don’t tell God what to do, we ask. If we demand miraculous signs we are no better than the religious snobs who demanded Jesus prove himself by providing a miracle. Jesus wouldn’t do it because they weren’t interested in trusting in Jesus, they just wanted to see miraculous signs and wonders. In Acts 8, a man named Simon made that mistake, he wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit so bad he was willing to pay for it so he could do miracles so everyone would give him glory and not God. The Apostle Peter gave him a tongue lashing for that.
Having said all of that, I believe we have a problem here in North America. The reason I say N. A. (I could include Europe as well) is because the Spirit is moving powerfully in other continents and countries around the world but not here. Don’t get me wrong, we see glimmers of the Spirit’s power here in the U.S., within certain churches, or cities, but no sustained movement. It’s not that the Holy Spirit doesn’t want to do a mighty work in our nation, but I believe something is preventing him from achieving his work. I believe we are quenching the Spirit.
2. The Spirit can be Quenched
How are we quenching the Holy Spirit? Here are several factors:
a. Sin Quenches the Work of the Spirit
Peter’s first invitation on Pentecost was “repent,” turn from your sin. Sin and Holy Spirit cannot coexist. The Holy Spirit cannot work in the areas of our life which we have not surrendered to God. If we continue to sin we continue to quench his work within us. It’s like a wet blanket thrown over the fire of the Spirit.
b. Lack of Obedience Quenches the Spirit
God has asked you to do something for him, but you haven’t done it. Perhaps there is a person God wants you to minister to, perhaps there is a stewardship issue of how you are prioritizing your time, your money, your gifts, abilities, and talents. God wants you to step up to the plate. The church has also ignored its responsibility to share faith. The first two times the filling of the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the Scripture it is followed by sharing of the Good News of Jesus. In places around the world where the Holy Spirit is moving there is great efforts to reach out to others with the message of Jesus. How can we say we are obedient if Jesus has told us our #1 mission is to help make disciples of Jesus?
c. Lack of Faith can Quench the Spirit
When Jesus’ disciples couldn’t cast an evil spirit out of a man’s son, and he turned to Jesus for help, Jesus’ response was, “you faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you (Luke 9:40)?” He gave them a little tongue lashing because they lacked faith. Do we truly believe in the power of God through the Holy Spirit or are we just giving lip service, saying one thing but believing another? Churches do this all the time, we say “with God all things are possible,” but then we never do anything big enough that it requires God’s help to succeed. We do safe things, which we think we can accomplish with our own abilities because we don’t want to be disappointed, but we don’t see the power of God either. We only see the results of what we can do rather than what God can do in his power through us. Look at what Henry Blackaby writes in Experiencing God,
“Our world is not seeing God, because we are not attempting anything that only God can do.”
“Our world is not attracted to the Christ we serve, because they cannot see Him at work. They see us doing good things for God and say, “That is wonderful, but that is not my thing.”
We don’t see the Spirit work because we never do anything which requires the work of the Spirit, which requires us to step out in faith, trusting God to make the difference. In other countries where the Spirit is moving powerfully, the people have nothing, and they depend upon God to move, and he does. Which ties into the next Spirit quenching factor:
d. Our Self-reliance Quenches the Spirit
When you live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world (although that seems to be shifting now), it’s easy to be self-reliant. We are capable of taking care of ourselves because of we’ve got money, power, education, (fill in the blank). So we put God in our back pocket at least until something goes wrong. We say, “God don’t worry about me take care of those poor people in Africa, I’ve got things handled here.” We only look to God when we think we need him, and therefore his power is quenched. Do you know what that is? Pride. In order for the Holy Spirit to move in our lives, our community, and our nation, we need to do what God said to Solomon:
NIV 2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Are we willing to humble ourselves, to set aside our arrogant self-reliance, our agendas, to seek God and pray? Are we willing to seek God ahead of anything else? The reason we don’t see the power of the Holy Spirit is because we do not pray and seek God, especially as a congregation.
Are we willing to look foolish to the world? Are we desperate for more of God, or do we just try to do whatever we think is the bare minimum to get by so God won’t be mad at us?
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire (Fresh Filling of the Holy Spirit)
I believe God honors the humble prayers of his people. In Acts 4 we read of the disciples humble prayer, they asked God for boldness in proclaiming the word of God, they asked for God’s power, that he would heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders in Jesus’ name. In response to their collective prayer, verse 31 says, “the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” Earth shattering, Spirit filling prayer. God poured out his Spirit once again. Isn’t it interesting they were already filled with the Spirit but they needed a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s work. Just because the Holy Spirit lives within us, doesn’t necessarily mean we are “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Just because I have a glass which has water in it doesn’t mean it is filled. Paul writes in Eph. 5:18:
Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless living. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
The word “filled” isn’t a one-time action, it is an ongoing action, “be continually filled with the Spirit.” The contrasting picture is of someone continuously drinking wine to get drunk, when instead we should be continually drinking at the well of God’s Spirit to be filled with more of him. One filling is not enough we need to be topped off, even bubbling over. We need ongoing fresh fillings of the Holy Spirit if we are going to continue to do his work with power. Paul expected people to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit, not just a few drops, or a gulps worth, but filled.
How does one get topped off with the Spirit? In the book of Acts the (re)filling of the Holy Spirit usually followed after one or more of these: 1) Repentance (turning from our sin) and humbling oneself before God, admitting a need for Him. 2) Obedience - Choosing to obey a particular direction from God (Acts 5:32). 3) Prayer, particularly during the collective prayers of God’s people. Every time the Spirit came, the Christian community was praying together. 4) Laying on of hands, the Apostles would lay hands on people and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Later that ministry was assigned to elders in the church.
I believe God is calling our church to prayer. If we are going to see God’s Spirit work powerfully in our families, in our community, we must pray.
Altar Call for Prayer for a Fresh Wind, Fresh Filling of the Spirit
In a moment we will pray together to ask God to receive a fresh filling of God’s Spirit that he would give us the power to live a holy life for him, that we can overcome recurring temptation and sin in our life, that he would bring inner healing in our life and our relationships. Perhaps we just want to have more of God, a passion for him. Perhaps you are spiritually parched, your relationship with God seems distant. Our prayer for a fresh filling will ask for refreshment from the Spirit. After the invitation we will close with singing, and we will invite you to come forward to receive a symbol of the filling of the Spirit, by being anointed with oil. Throughout the Bible oil was a symbol of God’s Spirit. Kings and prophets were anointed with oil as a symbol of the filling of the Spirit of God.
First let us confess any sin which might be quenching God’s Spirit.
Prayer to the Holy Spirit (From Emmaus Community)
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy Your consolations. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
