Have you ever tried to use a power tool or an electronic kitchen appliance, and nothing happens when you push the power button? If you are like me, you probably pick it up, shake it, and look at it oddly, trying to figure out why it won't work. Then you see it. It's not working because the plug fell out of the electric socket.
Electric devices do not function properly when they are disconnected from their power source. In the same way, men of God don't function properly when separated from their power source, the Holy Spirit.
One of the greatest concerns I see in today's world and the church is shying away from the works and actions of the Holy Spirit. On one level, I get it. Speaking in tongues and prophetic words in tongues looks crazy to the average onlooker. In reality, it weirds out a lot of believers as well. But it shouldn't.
The Holy Spirit is the greatest gift God gave us besides sending His Son to provide for our salvation. God knew we couldn't make it in the world after Jesus returned to Heaven without His Holy Spirit to guide us. He knew we needed it. So why has the church backed away from accepting God's gift to us?
We need to return to a place where we lead Spirit-led lives. What does this mean?
It means we allow the Holy Spirit to do His work of conviction. One reason many have abandoned the pursuit of holiness is that we have suppressed the work of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification and the ability to develop a holy life is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. He convicts us of areas of sin and compromise in our lives. He shows us areas that need to become less like the world and more like Jesus. Then, He shows us how to make changes and live a different life in the future. The Holy Spirit inside us allows us to live holy lives.
Suppressing the idea of the Holy Spirit also leads to a lack of hunger for God. When we don't allow the Holy Spirit to bring the Bible to life, it becomes just a good book we have to read. But when we let the Holy Spirit shine His light on areas of our lives as we read the Bible, it becomes alive in our lives. We will hunger and long to get back to the Bible daily to see what God has for us in His Word today.
Backing away from the working of the Holy Spirit also weakens our prayer lives. Speaking in tongues allows us to pray in a Heavenly language.
Romans 8:26-27 says, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.” (NIV)
This verse says the Holy Spirit helps us pray. If we are not allowing the Holy Spirit to influence our lives, it will affect our prayer lives.
We have tremendous power in our lives when we live a Spirit-led lifestyle. Throughout history, the darkest periods of time spiritually are when the Holy Spirit and His power are downplayed and suppressed. However, the greatest times of revival and works of God happen when believers allow the Spirit to live, operate, and flow through them and use them to do the will of God. I don't know about you, but I think the one thing the world needs more than anything else is a mighty move of God.
We need to become men who are filled with the Holy Spirit. We need to allow Him to work in us and through us. We need to allow Him to stir a hunger inside us for more of God and His Presence. We need Him to shine His light of conviction on our lives so that we put off sin and compromise and put on the holiness of God. Only then can a new wave of revival break out. Only then can we become all that God created us to be and do what He called us to do.
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