01.02A. The Importance of Spirit-filling.
A. The Importance of Spirit-filling. The Scriptures record, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self…holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:1-7). A careful reading of 2 Timothy 3:1-7 reveals that the passage does not describe the wickedness of the world in the last days but the degree of unrighteousness which will be rampant in the church. The catalogue of vices listed in this passage (for example, lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers) sounds like the universal failings of mankind since the days of Adam. Surely it must be an exaggeration to attribute them to the church! It is only in the church, however, that you will find those who hold to a form of godliness and at the same time are always learning and never able to come to the full knowledge of the truth about God’s Word. So it is extremely serious to find such an evil situation in God’s holy institution. This passage in Second Timothy is a vivid description of many individual churches and entire church organizations that outwardly seem alive but inwardly are spiritually dead. What is puzzling, however, is that it also describes many churches (started by true Christians and often pastored by capable ministers) who claim to be pure in the faith and fundamental in basic doctrine. Unfortunately they too know only how to maintain a form of godliness, while denying its liberating power. They either have forgotten, or have never learned, how to obtain power from above by faith. For instance, every Sunday many stand behind the pulpit trying to entertain the listeners in a frivolous way rather than being concerned about preaching God’s Word with power. They are orators with good sounding words but with little content or spiritual life in their messages. Many times they make unreasonable interpretations of Scripture just to appeal to the prejudices of their congregations. As a result, many messages from the pulpit have no life-giving power nor do they edify and build up the saints in the faith. The noted evangelist D. L. Moody spoke of the need for God’s spiritual life and power to be upon pastors:
What we need specially is power. There was another man whom I have in mind, and he said, “I have heart disease, I can’t preach more than once a week,” so he had a colleague to preach for him and do the visiting. He heard of this anointing, and said, “I would like to be anointed for my burial. I would like before I go hence to have just one more privilege to preach the gospel with power.” He prayed that God would fill him with the Spirit, and I met him not long after that, and he said, “I have preached on an average eight times a week, and I have had conversions all along.” The Spirit came on him. I don’t believe the man broke down at first with hard work, so much as using the machinery without oil, without lubrication. It is not the hard work breaks down ministers, but it is the toil of working without power.
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Few of the flood of self-help books rolling off today’s printing presses (even those by Christian authors) would have helped this pastor preach the gospel with liberty and power. In other churches they consider essential for fellowship such questionable activities as drinking, smoking, dancing, card playing, bingo, and so on. Some churches approve divorce and others even ordain homosexuals. The leaders of some denominations favor doing the latter but fear that not enough of the laity are yet willing to accept such an action, and that their membership would decline and the collection box would suffer if they did so. All these evils exist because of darkened spiritual understanding and a dearth of the power that comes from above. When there is a drought in the land and the population must get their water from polluted wells, a weak and infirm citizenry is the predictable result.
Well-meaning pastors who know the Lord, have a tender heart, and great Scriptural knowledge, yet do not know how to appropriate God’s power for preaching, are like a luxury sedan sitting idle in the garage with an empty gas tank. What good are they in God’s church? Pastors certainly should work to improve their skills in human relationships, learn how to prepare a worthy sermon and develop administrative skills in order to “bring forth out of [their] treasure things new and old” (Matthew 13:52). But an even higher priority than improvement in the craft of preaching and church management should be for pastors to learn how to receive power from above and to utilize it in life and ministry, for “the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV). When I was a young man preparing for the ministry, we ministerial students would hold services in surrounding towns. The group of which I was a part regularly drove 65 miles southeast of our school to a town of about 20,000 to hold services in the city hospital, two city jails, and a county jail. The student who was to preach one particular Sunday asked God to bless His Word in a most unusual way. He did not prepare a evangelistic sermon, but a simple explanation of “I am the vine, you are the branches” in John 15:1-27 -definitely not the usual message for the prisoners.
About five minutes after the speaker began his low-key homily, one prisoner began to weep aloud. Soon all eight were weeping audibly. One said, “I’m not puttin’ on,” and another sobbing prisoner cried, “Me either.”
Later that day the 23 prisoners in the lower jail and the 6 in the county jail listened respectfully to John 15:1-27 with no outward display of emotion. The following Sunday when we arrived to check in with the officer on duty at the city jail, I heard the steel gate on the second story of the jail creaking as the sturdy March breeze alternately opened and closed it. “Are there any prisoners up there?” I asked.
“Nope, not a one,” he replied.
“How about in the lower jail?”
“None there either,” he answered and reflectively continued, “That preaching is getting to these men.”
“What happened to the prisoners?”
“They all made bail and left.”
Deeply curious, I continued to talk with the officer who told me that he had been a member of the police force for fourteen years and never once during that time had the jail been completely empty. The prisoners in the lower jail had no idea of the wailing for sin that occurred in the upper jail the previous week, yet the Holy Spirit’s presence and power so pervaded the building that to a man every prisoner, both upstairs and down, found the means to make bail and leave-either because of contrition or the fear of God. The following Sunday the two city jails were still empty. The third Sunday they held a single prisoner, a stranger from out of town. During this period the county jail across town was unaffected by the Holy Spirit’s work in the city jail.
While the speaker was not inwardly aware of the Holy Spirit’s working as he spoke, he did see the wonderful objective manifestation of the Spirit’s power upon men who, as a group, were hardened by sin and usually indifferent to the gospel.
It is only by the mighty power of God that sinners will realize their wickedness and willingly humble themselves to turn from it to receive the LORD as Lord. Only this mighty power will cause backsliders to realize their rebellion and return to God’s love.
Only by God’s mighty power can believers be edified and built up in the truth so that the young Christians will not walk the wrong path and the aged will be constantly strengthened. From Genesis to Revelation the only effective work ever done for God was by the proclamation of the Word of God in the power of the Spirit of God. The initial chaotic elements of the earth were prepared by the Spirit of God in Genesis 1:2 (“and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters”) to respond to God’s creative life-giving words, “Let there be…” throughout the remainder of the chapter. Christ “who went about doing good, and was healing all who were oppressed by the devil” was empowered to do so because “God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power” (Acts 10:38). In appropriating the mighty power of the Holy Spirit for fruitful service, Christ was an example for every believer to do God’s work with the same authority that their Master did.
D. L. Moody was a person with a nature just like ours. The only difference between him and us is that he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and most of the time we are not.
William Moody told of his father’s experience. The year 1871 was a critical one in Mr. Moody’s career. He realized more and more how little he was fitted by personal acquirements for his work. An intense hunger and thirst for spiritual power were aroused in him by two women who used to attend the meetings and sat on the front seat…at the close of services they would say to him:
“We have been praying for you.”
“Why don’t you pray for the people?” Mr. Moody would ask.
“Because you need the power of the Spirit,” they would say.
“I need the power? Why,” said Mr. Moody, in relating the incident years after, “I thought I had power. I had the largest congregation in Chicago, and there were many conversions. I was in a sense satisfied. But right along those two godly women kept praying for me…I began to cry out as I never did before.”
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After Moody had been filled with the Spirit, he said, “I went to preach again. The sermons were not different: I did not present any new truths and yet hundreds were converted.”
4 This testimony alone provides adequate proof of the importance of Spiritfilling for effective service, but there is more evidence. The importance of Spirit-filling for effective service is seen in the seventy men who helped Moses judge the Israelites, Bezalel and the tabernacle artisans, the judges of Israel, the prophets, the New Testament apostles, the disciples at Pentecost, and the Lord Jesus Christ-all were filled with the Holy Spirit to do God’s work with power and fruitfulness.
Unfortunately, the truth about Spirit-filling has been misunderstood and abused so often that many who have great love for the Lord and earnestly desire His power are afraid to properly investigate it. However, that we “be filled with the Spirit” is still God’s desire and one of His great promises to us. As Scripture says, “how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:13). We would never dare to stop eating just because one time we choked on our food. Likewise, we must ignore the past abuses concerning Spirit-filling and go immediately in prayer to Christ to receive what He has prepared for us to be His effective servants.
E. M. Bounds writes of the absolute necessity of the pastor’s being Spirit filled and of his receiving it by prayer:
Without this unction on the preacher the gospel has no more power to propagate itself than any other system of truth. This is the seal of its divinity. Unction in the preacher puts God in the gospel. Without the unction, God is absent, and the gospel is left to the low and unsatisfactory forces that the ingenuity, interest, or talents of men devise to enforce and project its doctrines…This unction is not an inalienable gift. It is a conditional gift, and its presence is perpetuated and increased by the same process by which it was first secured [at Pentecost]; by unceasing prayer to God, by impassioned desires after God, by estimating it, by seeking it with tireless ardor, by deeming all else loss and failure without it.
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Yet, contrary to Bound’s admonition, church growth seminars abound in the land, with little to no emphasis on the necessity of prayer and the Holy Spirit’s presence and work to give success to our endeavors.