POWERED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT
Pastor Jim May
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."
On the home page of our church’s website there is a small animated graphic that says “Powered by the Holy Spirit”. (Some of you may not know that we even have a website. It’s called victorytemplepcg.org) The graphic starts out as a solid black box, then the words “Powered By” appear, then there are several bolts of lightning that flash, and the next words that appear are “Powered by the Holy Spirit”. When I found that graphic posted, and saw that it was free to use, I quickly made use of it because, in my mind, I believe that we, as a church here at Victory Temple, must always remind ourselves that we must be empowered by the presence and anointing power of the Holy Spirit if we are to be the church that God intends for us to be.
As I thought of that graphic and what it really says I was impressed by the fact that we go through the same process as that graphic. We begin by being nothing more than an empty soul, lost in the utter blackness of sin, with no hope, no power to deliver ourselves, and only our own devices to help us get through this life, only to face an eternity of separation from God. Our future was bleak indeed – for we were lost sinners, on our way to the blackness of the pit.
Then, out of that blackness and hopelessness, there came the mercy and grace of God. It was God that moved upon us. He had to make the first move, because we were dead in sin, and there was no power in us to do anything.
Paul said the same thing in Ephesians 2:3-8, "Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God…"
Thank God for His grace. Thank God for His mercy. Thank God that He loved us when we could not love Him! How wonderful is our God. We could never praise him enough for the wondrous blessings of salvation and the precious infilling power of the Holy Spirit.
Suddenly, out of the empty blackness there came power – power to see the light, power to hear the word of the Lord, power to understand that God is, and that He will reward those who diligently seek Him. The lightning flashed from Heaven, coming from the very throne of God, as the Father let the light shine upon us. In the very beginning of the story of the Creation, there was nothing but empty darkness, but God spoke light and let His power fill the universe. Wherever God is there is light. The Bible says in 1 John 1:5, "… that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."
First there came the light, to illuminate the hearts of men and open their eyes to the darkness around them, and to give man a choice, on whether he would enter into and live in that light, or remain in outer darkness.
I’m so glad this morning that I can live in God’s light. I’m so glad this morning that all of you, who have been born again by the power of the Holy Spirit and washed in the Blood of the Lamb, are also living in that light. Those who are still living in outer darkness can’t even see how dark it is. They don’t realize the power of darkness that has them in its icy grip of death. They are oblivious to the eternal darkness that lies beneath their feet and they must be awakened. They must be given some light and that light can only get to them by the preaching of the gospel, because that’s how God ordained that it should come.
None of us came to God without hearing the gospel first. We did not discover God on our own. God had to take the first step and bring the gospel to us. It came through some preacher, somewhere, whether it was a friend operating in the office of the “preacher” sitting at your dining room table, or a “preacher” standing behind a pulpit, that’s how the gospel came to you. The scripture lays out the pattern for how a soul can become empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 10:14-15, "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!"
Then, after the light has come, and we have accepted Jesus Christ and surrendered our lives and hearts to Him, the Holy Spirit enters in to empower us for service. Every born again Christian receives the Holy Spirit if they will let him come in. Do you believe that it is possible for a soul to be born again, and then not allow the Holy Spirit to indwell them? Of course it is. Jesus gave us a warning concerning this very thing.
Matthew 12:43-45, "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation."
Here we see a man who has been delivered and set free from the power of Satan. That’s a clear picture of a man who has been saved from sin. But that man will go no further and will not allow the Holy Spirit to come in and take control of his life. His heart is empty – the Holy Spirit doesn’t fill it with His presence. The love of God does not take root. The heart is just empty, but something must fill it eventually. The cares of life and the power of sin soon over comes him once again, and now his heart is hardened against the gospel. He will think that he has seen what it was like to serve the Lord when, in fact, he never really experienced living for God at all. He just experienced that euphoria of being set free for a while and thought that was all there was to being a Christian. But there’s more to it than that – much more. Until that soul allows the Holy Spirit to live inside of Him, and develops a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ, his heart remains empty. Jesus won’t move in until He is asked to. The Holy Spirit won’t empower us until we seek for Him to come in. The gifts of God are free for the taking, but they must be desired and appropriated before they will operate in us.
How many people have I seen born again, truly saved, but it isn’t long until they are backslidden! The gospel feel upon their fertile heart, but because they didn’t allow the Holy Spirit to move in and occupy their heart and life to the fullest, the devil came and stole the seed of salvation right out of their empty heart. At that moment, the light went out, the power of the Holy Spirit was gone, and the only thing left was for them to revert to the darkness once again. Only now, they are in darkness that is worse than before because they have seen the light and rejected it. Jesus also told us that the seed of the gospel could be lost when He told us the “Parable of the Sower” in Luke chapter 8.
That’s why it is so much harder to reach a backslider with the gospel. That’s why its so much more of a struggle for them to repent and come back to Christ. They are in darkness seven times worse than before. But thank God, the light of the gospel and the Blood of Jesus can still break through even that gross darkness if they will only hear and respond when the Holy Spirit moves upon their hearts once more.
But for those who will allow Jesus to come in, and allow the Holy Spirit to take control of their lives, there is a power that permeates their soul. That power invades every part of their lives. It helps them to control their thoughts so that they can think upon the good things and cast aside the thoughts of sin and temptation, so that sin has no power over them anymore. It helps them to walk in paths of righteousness so that they are not snared in the pits of sin that Satan lays before them. They are given power to desire, to seek after, and to know God in ever-greater capacities. Their whole being, heart, mind, body, soul and spirit, become engulfed in the power of the Holy Spirit as He leads and guides them into all righteousness. He fills every corner of their hearts and there is no room for darkness, or for the powers of hell to enter there. All he has to do is keep his heart right before God and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit.
What a wonderful life we have when we allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us! What a wonderful peace we can have to know that Jesus dwells on the inside!
The salvation experience and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit are so wonderful, but it doesn’t end there. God is a great big God and the power and presence that He can place into the hearts and lives of His people is only limited by our ability to accept it and let God use us.
I know that God wants us to have more of Him. I know that He wants to dwell in each of us in a greater measure than He does right now. I know that the Holy Spirit in you wants to lead you and guide into deeper things in God. I know that Jesus wants you to be changed, line upon line, precept upon precept, day-by-day, into His own image. That’s what living for God is really all about – to become more like God in holiness, in sanctification, in knowledge and in power with every passing hour.
I believe that all of us, who have been born again and serving the Lord, for any length of time, can say that God is taking us somewhere that we have never been before. You know Jesus and have a better relationship with Him today than you did in the beginning. You have a better understanding of the Word of God today than ever before. You can sense that the Holy Spirit is there, leading and guiding you every step of the way. Every day you are changed just a little more, almost imperceptible at times, but then when you look back after some time has passed, you can clearly see that the power of God has brought you a mighty long way already, but that only allows you to see more clearly that there is still a mighty long way to go before you can be like Jesus in every way.
As a natural part of this growing in God, the Bible tells us that there is such a thing as the “Baptism in the Holy Ghost” that is signified by speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance. There are many denominations, and many born again Christians, who reject this anointing. For them I feel sympathy because they are limiting their own growth and limiting the power of God to move in their hearts and lives.
But for me, I want all that God will give to me. If its there, I want it. If it’s a free gift, then God, give it to me. If it will give me more power to live for God then I definitely need it. If it will empower me for service, empower me to cast out devils, pray for the sick and see them recover, and empower me to preach under the anointing of God, I surely need it. I have to have all of the power that the Holy Spirit can give in order to carry out the duties that He has given for me to do.
If we, as a church, and as a people of God and a Body of Christ, are going to carry out the great commission and accomplish the work that God has assigned us to do, then we need all the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit that He is willing to pour out in our midst! We need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, just like that little graphic on the web says.
What does the power of the Holy Spirit give us power to do? Does it give us power to get to Heaven, and be all that we can be in the Lord, without us having to take an active roll in allowing that power to develop in us? Does it make us stronger in the Lord, even if we aren’t following the leading of the Holy Spirit? No! It just doesn’t work that way. The Holy Spirit will only empower us to do mighty exploits for God, as we allow Him to have the full leadership and control of our lives. We will only be empowered by the Holy Ghost in direct proportion to our willingness to surrender to His will!
But just look at what the Holy Spirit “will” empower us to do if we will only allow Him to work in us to the fullest!
When you look at the life of Peter and how the infilling and indwelling power of the Holy Spirit changed his life and enabled him for service, in a greater measure than ever before, then you will see just what kind of power the Holy Spirit brings to your life.
In Acts 2:14-40, as we have noted several times recently, Peter is transformed from a man filled with fear and sorrow, to a powerful preacher of the gospel. In that one sermon, under the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, Peter preached a message that convinced 3000 people to get saved.
That’s the kind of anointing I need right now. I want to preach messages that aren’t just sermons, but messages that reach down into the hearts of men and women and shake them to their very core and force them to make a choice about Jesus. Don’t you get tired of dead sermons, preached by barely alive preachers to a congregation that isn’t listening? I’m ready for some fire of the Holy Spirit! I’m longing for the Holy Spirit to come in and to do the preaching. I’ve tried it on my on a few times and I can’t accomplish anything. I have to have that indwelling, anointing and empowering Holy Spirit! Only then will lives and hearts be changed!
The power of the Holy Spirit in you will give you a Boldness and Courage to speak out for the Lord where you didn’t think you couldn’t do it before.
In Acts chapter 4, verses 13 - When Peter and John were under the gun before the High Priest of Israel and the council, it was the Holy Spirit in them that empowered them to speak with courage and boldness before a self-righteous bunch of men who held the power of life or death over the body of the apostles. Peter had denied Christ before a little girl at the crucifixion, but now they stood in front of the highest court in the land and spoke the truth. The Holy Spirit did the talking now and even those old hard-hearted council members noted that there was something different now.
You can see the empowering Holy Spirit speaking through Peter and John when they stood there that day and, in Acts 4:19-20, "… answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."
God we need that courage and boldness to speak for you. We need that empowering Holy Spirit to speak through us and give us the words to say to silence those who would try to stop the spreading of the gospel. It’s God’s words that matter, not mine! Its His voice that will make the world and hell tremble, not mine! I must be anointed and empowered by the Holy Spirit if I’m going to make a difference!
In the 5th chapter of Acts we see where the Holy Spirit empowers Peter for the healing of the sick. We can pray for the sick, and pour a gallon of oil on their heads, but without the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and moving through faith in our prayer, all we will accomplish is messing up someone’s hairdo. It’s not the oil that heals. It’s now the laying on of our hands of flesh that heals. It’s not even our faith that heals. It’s the power of the Holy Spirit, moving through faith and obedience to the Word of God that heals – and we need that power!
Peter was so empowered by the Holy Spirit that people were laid in the streets just to catch a part of his shadow. It wasn’t the shadow that healed – it was the anointing power of the Holy Spirit moving through the faith of the people, as they trusted in God! They saw the power manifested in Peter. They knew that he had been with God. And they knew that God could do anything, so they just laid there hoping and praying for a miracle. Peter’s shadow was nothing more than a channel where the power of the Holy Spirit could flow into the lives of the people.
I want to be that kind of channel. I want to be a conduit, a channel, a pipe if you will, that will allow the power of the Holy Spirit to flow from inside my heart where He dwells to flow out into a lost and dying world and touch them for Christ. I want to be a channel of healing, of deliverance, of salvation, and of every blessing that God will allow to flow through me.
That’s what we are church! That’s what Victory Temple is! That’s what every church and every born again Child of God really is! We are all nothing more than a channel for God’s power to flow through. That’s why we can “do all things through Christ who strengthens us”. It’s because we are just a channel for Him to move through, that we can be a blessing and great ministry for the Lord!
I don’t care how much charisma a preacher may have. I don’t care how much talent a singer or musician may have. I don’t care how much education, knowledge or understanding a teacher may have. Without the power of the Holy Spirit moving through you to make those things become effective in reaching into the heart of those who hear you, you won’t accomplish anything but to make yourself look important in the eyes of men. I don’t want them to see my talents – I want them to be touched and changed by the power of the Holy Ghost.
In Acts Chapter 9 we see that it is the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in Peter’s life that uses him to raise Tabitha from the dead. (Acts 9:36-41)
I don’t know about you but I haven’t seen many dead people raised to life recently. Is the power of the Holy Spirit weaker today than it was in the early church? Is God’s power limited so that He will not, or cannot raise the dead any more? No! His power is still the same! He still has power to raise the dead – you better believe that or your hope for a resurrection one day will be destroyed and your hope for eternal life will vanish.
God is still in the resurrection business. It’s not God who is weaker – it’s the people of God who don’t have enough of the power of the Holy Ghost in them to raise a flea. We need that kind of power. I see too many people dying before their time. I see too many that are leaving this world and going to hell because we lack the power to bring them to resurrection.
Whether God chooses to raise a body of flesh back to life or not is His business. But all of us are called to bring the words of resurrection life to every soul that is dead in sin. They need to be resurrected, but before that can happen, we need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak life into them and then to present them alive to a lost and dying world, and to our Savior as a new member of the family of God. The power of the Holy Ghost in us is the only way that will ever happen.
Finally, let me say that Peter, through the power of the Holy Spirit in his life, became a medium by which the Holy Ghost could fall on other people. I don’t mean a medium as in the occult, but a medium as in a method, or a way, that God could use to send the Holy Spirit upon those who listened.
Has God used you as a medium to reach other people? God desires to reach this world with the gospel and with the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon mankind. Can He use you? Has He used you?
In Acts 10:44 after God had shown Peter that he wanted to save both Jews and Gentiles, and Peter realized that God was no Respecter of Persons, he began to preach the gospel to the gentiles. The scripture says, "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word."
There are two points here. Number one – don’t ever limit whom God can speak to. He can reach the alcoholic, the drug addict, the prostitute, and He can reach the judge, the lawyer, the doctor and the ordinary man on the street. God is no respecter of persons, so neither should we be. He said to preach the gospel to every creature.
Secondly – if you want to be used to bring the power of the Holy Spirit to others you must be full of the Holy Spirit yourself. You can’t give what you don’t have. You can’t teach what you don’t know. You can’t share what you haven’t experienced first!
We pray for revival, but do we surrender our hearts to Jesus first? We want to be used by God, but how can that be if don’t allow Him to take control of our lives? We want to see a mighty outpouring of the Holy Ghost and fire in our midst, but how can that happen if we aren’t first filled with the power of the Holy Ghost?
I want Victory Temple, I want you and I, to be conduits of the power of the Holy Spirit. I want people to walk into this church, or wherever we go, to sense and feel that power. I want people to notice that something is different about us. I want people to know that it is Jesus in me; it is the power of the Holy Spirit in me that makes the difference. And I want to be able, through the anointing power of the Holy Spirit, to let the Holy Spirit flow on them as well.
I long for the day when the Holy Spirit will fall upon the congregation every time the Word goes forth. I long for the time when sinners will fall on their face in repentance long before the altar call is given. I desire to see the Holy Spirit in our church bring even the hardest of hearts weeping upon the altar in repentance.
Are you full of the Holy Spirit this morning? Have you been baptized, anointed and called for service unto the Lord and allowed the Holy Spirit to take control?
Folks, if we get full of the Holy Spirit – then revival will come; then we will see souls being won to the Lord; then we will see God’s power in our midst; then our witness will be more effective; and then we will see the Kingdom of God grow and God will add to the church daily, those will hear and be saved.
