“But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
“But the Comforter, Who is the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26) A Christian should never feel alone. Jesus promised to be with us until the end of the ages, and He gave us the Holy Spirit to assure us of this. The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is the presence of the Holy Spirit. We cannot underplay or underestimate the difference that His presence makes in our lives. It is from the Holy Spirit that we receive the power needed to serve God in a world that does not comprehend Him. We have the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and we should use that power. First, in order to use the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we need to be aware that He wants to use us in Christian service. The Bible speaks of the gifts of ministry that the Holy Spirit has given us. (You can read about these gifts in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12.) He is not in our lives to just give us “holy thrills.” The problem in the Corinthian church was that they were stressing the more public demonstrations of the Spirit above allowing the Holy Spirit to use them in His service. The Spirit’s presence in our lives is practical, meaning that He wants to lead us into the service for which He has gifted us. I do not mean to downplay the demonstrations of the Spirit’s power, but He more often uses us to quietly use His gifts. Second, just before Jesus ascended to the Father, He told the disciples what He wanted the power of the Holy Spirit to do in their lives. They were empowered to be witnesses for Jesus to the world. Jesus said that this power would be comprehensive. The power of the Holy Spirit would extend far beyond where they were at that time. As the story of Acts goes forward, we see the power of the Spirit at work in the lives of Christians, winning people and growing Christ’s church. The first Christians did not have nearly all of the resources that we have to be witnesses, but they surely did an effective job under the power of the Holy Spirit. (They didn’t even have a New Testament.) We need to use the great resources that have been given us to witness to this world. Third, we need to understand that the power of the Holy Spirit is the power to live for Jesus on a daily basis. It is this power at work in our daily lives that makes us effective witnesses of Jesus. In other words, if we want to be effective witnesses for Jesus we need to “walk the walk,” and not just “talk the talk.” If we are not living the Christian life effectively, our witness will not be as strong. The world is aware of how we live and what we say; therefore, we need to be careful what we do and say. If we pay attention to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives, He will lead us to live so that our lives will reflect His presence. Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men that they might see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” That light is a reflection of the presence of Jesus in our lives through the Holy Spirit. Fourth, in John 14:26, Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives: “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Among a lot of other things, this means that we will not have to depend upon our mental acuity to live and share Jesus with the world. The Holy Spirit will lead us in how to live, what to say to people and how to treat people – for example. If you are a believer, you have the power of the Holy Spirit. Let Him use you in His presence and power. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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