Copyright © 2019 Michael A. Brown
New
life through the Spirit of life
God’s design is that our
lives in Christ should be filled and overflowing fruitfully with his presence,
life and power. Without the infilling
and empowering of the Holy Spirit, the Christian life is a life in which we are
spiritually alive, but in which we often tend to try to please God and live up
to the standards of his word in our own human strength, striving and often
struggling, but inevitably knowing the repeated frustration of failure and
defeat. It can be a powerless, barren,
fruitless and even a very dry life...
The picture given to us in Scripture of a Spirit-filled life
which is consistently overflowing with God’s presence and power, is that of a
fresh, well-watered and fruitful garden.
When the Holy Spirit is poured out upon us, the dry ground bursts into
life and we become like a fertile field:
‘The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will
rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it
will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.’ (Isa. 35:1-2)
Channels of the life of the Spirit
Jesus made it plain that, in and of ourselves, we are unable to
do the work of God and to produce the fruit of his kingdom: ‘...without me
you can do nothing.’ (John 15:5). We
do not have the power to do this. So
Jesus gave us a promise that, after he returned to heaven, he would send
another Person, the Comforter, a Person just like himself, who would come and
fill us and abide with us forever, with the specific intention that, through
his presence with us and his empowerment of our lives, he might make us into
fruitful channels in the work of God’s kingdom:
‘And I will ask the Father, and he will
give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither
sees him nor knows him. But you know
him, for he lives with you and will be in you.’ (John
14:16-17)
The Holy Spirit is a divine Person, and he comes into our lives
not simply to bring us his wonderful, strengthening presence and blessing; he
comes as a Person. He comes into us and
fills us so that he can then live within us and express his life through
us. One of the expressions used in the
Old Testament of when the Holy Spirit came upon someone, literally translates
as ‘he clothed himself’ with that person (Judg. 6:34). In other words, this Person lives within us
in order that he can then live out and demonstrate his own life, purposes and
power through us, bringing forth much fruit for the kingdom of God.
Many believers miss the significance of this vital point. Although they enjoy the wonderful atmosphere
and uplifting blessing that his presence can create in meetings, particularly
during powerful times of free worship, and although they know and love the
inward strengthening that he often brings to them as they meditate quietly on God's word, yet they often miss the fact that he is a Person. So they do not live their daily lives in the
consciousness of the fact that a divine Person is living with them. They do not treat him as a Person and they do
not learn to live with him as such. The
Holy Spirit is not a feeling or an atmosphere or some kind of spiritual
power. He is a Person. His powerful presence does indeed create an
atmosphere in meetings; his presence and power within us does indeed create
subjective feelings, and he can and does indeed demonstrate his power through
us. So as we enjoy living a
Spirit-filled life, we should often remind ourselves of this fact, and learn to
live and relate to him as a Person who dwells with us, rather than merely
enjoying the atmosphere and feelings his presence creates.
So the Holy Spirit is not given to us merely so that we can enjoy some kind of self-centred subjective pleasure deriving from his presence
with us. Neither is it God’s intention
that we continue to live a life which is essentially self-oriented, in which we live simply for the comforts and security of human life, for
financial and material gain, for the carnal appetites of our body, or for the
love of life in this world, while at the same time saying that we want the
fullness of God’s blessing and purposes for our lives. No, in sending the Holy Spirit to abide with
us forever, God is seeking for people through whom he can express and
demonstrate his own life, grace, presence and power. The Holy Spirit comes to abide in us and
to fill us, with the specific intention that his life-giving presence and power
might then begin to overflow from us to reach and influence those around us.
In his vision, the prophet
Ezekiel saw the river of living water flowing out from the temple of God and
bringing new life wherever it went:
‘The man
brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from
under the threshold of the temple... So
where the river flows everything will live.’ (Ezek. 47:1,9)
This
is a picture of the life of a Spirit-filled believer,
intended by God to become a channel of his presence, grace and power, and it
certainly reflects the lives of the early believers in the book of Acts. These believers had been filled with the Holy
Spirit and they lived lives which were surrendered and freely abandoned to the
will and purposes of God for them. God
was therefore able to demonstrate his life, grace and presence through them in
powerful ways, as the narrative tells us.
Streams of living water flowed out from them bringing new life wherever
they went. So if we ourselves desire
that God should fulfil his purpose of bringing forth much fruit from our lives,
making us like well-watered gardens in which there is an abundance of life and
growth, then we need to consecrate and surrender ourselves to God in the same
way that these early believers did. It
is only a surrendered life, and consequently an obedient life, which can bring
forth abundant fruit in the kingdom of God.
The Holy Spirit will then be able to ‘clothe himself with us,’ and be
free to demonstrate the life, grace and power of God in us and through us:
‘Do you not
know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you?’ (1 Cor. 6:19)
‘Therefore,
I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of
worship. Do not conform any longer to
the pattern of this world, but be transformed according to the renewing of your
mind. Then you will be able to approve
what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.’ (Rom. 12:1-2)
‘Whoever believes in me…, streams of living water will flow from
within him.’ (John 7:38)
God’s
intention: to produce fruitfulness
‘When the divine
owner takes possession of a property, He has a two-fold objective: intense
cultivation and abounding fruitfulness.
But if the land is fallow, He can only till it acre by acre.’[1]
So
God’s intention in filling us with the Holy Spirit is so that he can then
transform our lives through the inner presence and power of his Spirit, making
us like well-watered gardens and producing the fruit of his kingdom in and
through us. Fruitfulness is his aim. Jesus taught his
disciples that, when the Holy Spirit came to indwell them, this would create a
dynamic, life-giving union within them of his life with theirs, much as the
organic union between a vine and its branches allows the life-giving sap of the
vine to flow into the branches and to produce fruit:
‘I am the vine; you are
the branches. If a man remains in me and
I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.’ (John 15:5)
‘I in them and you in
me… that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in
them.’
(John 17:23,26)
We have
been grafted as branches into Christ the Vine, so that we might bear much fruit
as the sap of his divine life flows in and through us:
‘I am the true vine and my Father is the
gardener. He cuts off every branch in me
that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that
it will be even more fruitful... No
branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain
in me. I am the vine; you are the
branches. If a man remains in me and I
in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing... This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear
much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples... You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed
you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.’
(John 15:1-8,16)
So it is our privilege –
and God’s design and purpose – that we learn to live out of the life-giving
power of this inner spiritual union.
Fruitfulness is the practical outworking of what it means to have been
filled with the Holy Spirit, to have the nature of Christ being formed within
us through our inner union with his life, and to be maturing in our walk with
God. In the
Parable of the Vine, Jesus made it plain that fruitfulness depends on the
branch ‘remaining’ in the vine. The
Greek verb menein which is used in these verses means ‘to abide,’ ‘to
remain,’ ‘to live with,’ ‘to stay in a given place or relation,’ ‘to continue,’
or ‘to dwell.’ These meanings all
underline consistency of relationship and therefore also imply growth and depth
in relationship. So becoming fruitful in
Christ is brought about through consistency in our relationship with him, and
growth and deepening of this relationship.
The deeper our inward union with Christ the Vine becomes, the more
fruit can be produced on the branch.
To develop consistency in our relationship with the Lord, we need
to maintain regular quality times with him.
Spending a set time every day with him keeps us close to him and helps
us to develop intimacy with him, keeping his life within us fresh and our love
for him warm. As we spend time
prayerfully in his presence, God can speak to us through his word, feeding our
faith, warming our heart, creating inward peace and guiding our life. He can make us consciously aware of any sin,
failure, wrong attitude or wrong motive that needs to be confessed and cleansed
away, and he can show us any areas of our life which need to come into
conformity with his word through obedience.
Sin and self-centredness block the channel through which the living
water flows, or, to put it another way, it prevents the life-giving sap from
flowing into and through the branch, so it must always be dealt with and
removed through confession and repentance.
The failure to develop and maintain consistency in a close walk with
the Lord in this way over the long term of our life, is one of the most common
causes of lack of spiritual growth and consequent fruitlessness in a believer’s
life.
Preparing
the channel that it might produce fruit
When
I was a young teenager, I used to spend a lot of my spare time on a chicken
farm not far from our home. It was a way
of earning a few extra pennies, and to do this my jobs were mainly collecting
the eggs, cleaning out the hen coups and helping with baling hay in the fields
in summer. However, one day the farmer
came to me and said he wanted to start using a new plot of spare land to
produce vegetables. This plot of land
had not been used for many years and lay fallow. It was covered in large weeds and there were
many small stones scattered around on the soil.
So, before we could think of ploughing it and sowing seeds to produce a
crop, the first job we had to do was to clear it of all its weeds, old roots
and stones. This job took us several
days to complete, but once it was finished the land was ready to be ploughed
over and then sown.
This
little episode from my life has significant spiritual parallels. When God takes up our lives with the
intention of producing fruit through us for his kingdom, the first thing he
does is to begin to deal with the weeds, old roots and stones in us. If he does not do this, then any seed sown
into our lives will not produce much fruit, because these things prevent the
growth of the seed.
In
the Parable of the Sower, for example, Jesus said that there are several things
which prevent the seed of his word from growing and producing fruit in someone’s
life. Their heart might be hard and
closed, or they might be like rocky ground with only a little soil, or they
might be like soil which has been taken over by thorns. The hard ground cannot give any place to the
seed, so the seed is taken away and eaten by birds. The rocky ground does not have much soil, so
the seed of the word cannot take root properly there and eventually withers
away. The thorny ground allows some
growth of the seed, but this growth is soon choked and stunted. Jesus said that the thorns represent such
things as the
worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, desires for other things and
the pleasures of life (cf. Matt. 13:22, Mark 4:18, Luke 8:14). These things in the lives of believers
prevent growth to maturity of the seed of God’s word, and hence result in
fruitlessness:
‘The one who received the seed that fell among thorns is the
man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of
wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.’ (Matt. 13:22)
So
if our lives are to produce much fruit for the kingdom of God, then God has to
cultivate the soil of our hearts.
The first thing that he needs to do is to deal bit by bit with the
fallow ground of our hearts and to remove any stones, old roots and weeds that
have accumulated there during our lives, just as he said through the prophet
Jeremiah:
‘Break up your unploughed ground and do not sow
among thorns.’ (Jer. 4:3)
As
it is dealt with in this way, ground which had become thorny, for example,
becomes good ground which can then be ploughed over and sown to produce a crop:
‘But the one who received the seed that fell on good
soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty
or thirty times what was sown.’ (Matt. 13:23)
All believers who follow
Christ wholeheartedly invariably find that God takes them through a process
(often in the early years of their Christian life) in which the foundations of
personal discipleship are established in their daily life, and in which God
begins to deal with and remove any hard ground and weeds in them. In order to transform us and make us capable
of bringing forth lasting fruit, he has to deal with the hard areas in our
lives which sin has caused. He has to
remove our stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh (cf. Ezek.
36:26). We have to learn to put to death
whatever belongs to our old nature, so that we can live out of our new nature
in Christ. Our old life is not
grafted into the vine. It only ever blocks the channel and the flow
of the life-giving sap into the branch:
‘Put to
death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature... since you have
taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which
is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.’ (Col. 3:5,9-10)
Similarly, old roots which have remained in our lives from the
past such as bitterness, hurts and unforgiveness, for example, need to be
removed so that we are healed and freed from these things and our hearts
softened:
‘Get rid of
all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of
malice. Be kind and compassionate to one
another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.’ (Eph. 4:31-32)
Furthermore, God has to teach and train us to surrender
ourselves completely to him, so that his good, pleasing and perfect will can be
fulfilled in our lives (Rom. 12:1-2). In
terms of the specific thorns mentioned in the Parable of the Sower, he has to
train us to seek first the kingdom of God, rather than money and material gain
in life (Matt. 6:24,33; 1 Tim. 6:6-10); to walk with him, praying and trusting
him in all situations in life, so that we live in his inward peace, rather than
allowing ourselves to be overcome by worry and anxiety (Ps. 55:22, Phil.
4:6-7); and to love him first and foremost, rather than being distracted and
consumed by the pleasures of life (1 John 2:15-17).
These lessons, of
course, are not mastered in a day and they have to be re-visited from time to
time to prevent any ground in our hearts from becoming hard again, and so that
weeds and thorns are not allowed to grow unchecked in our lives once more. If our lives are to produce fruit, then we
have to learn to become gardeners who will turn the ground over from
time to time, and will remove any weeds from the soil of our hearts when we
become aware that these are beginning to grow within us. As any home-owner knows, flowers cannot grow fully and properly in one’s
garden if they are surrounded by weeds! The
unwillingness to allow God to put his finger on hardened, weedy or thorny areas
of our life and to uproot, clean and remove whatever needs to be dealt with, is
one of the main causes of fruitlessness in a believer’s life.
Furthermore, once the
ground of our hearts is being prepared and the seed of the word of God is being
sown in us, then, in order for this seed to grow properly, it has to be fed and
watered regularly, and exposed to air and sunlight. The growth of our spiritual lives has to be
continually fed on the nutrients of the word of God; we have to be able to
breathe the air of the Holy Spirit’s presence and be continually watered, again
by his presence; and our Christian lives have to be continually exposed to
real, daily life in this world in order that our spiritual growth becomes
life-applied and therefore real. Real
spiritual growth cannot take place in a vacuum.
Believers who are starving and spiritually
emaciated for want of the word of God (because they are not being fed on it
regularly), or who are dying of thirst for want of the Holy Spirit’s dynamic
presence in their life (perhaps because the Holy Spirit’s place in the life of
their church is not being honoured in the way it should be), or who are easily
overcome by the temptations and distractions of the world (because they fail to
learn how to put the teaching of God’s word into practice in daily life), are
believers whose spiritual development will inevitably be delayed and stunted,
clearly leading to lack of fruitfulness.
Furthermore, the fact that God wants to
continue to produce fruit in us throughout our lives is also clear from the
Parable of the Vine. As we saw above, in
this parable we are seen as branches in Christ the Vine. The sap of his life flows through us to
produce growth and fruit. However, God
is not satisfied simply to harvest one crop of grapes from the branches of his
vine, just as the farmer does not aim to use the good ground of his land only
once. The vine-dresser and the farmer
both have the same intention, vis. to produce many crops of fruit over
many years.
To do this, the vine-dresser has to prune the
branches of his vine. So every year
after harvest, he cuts back its branches, in order that in the following year
there might be another crop of fruit. The main aim of pruning is to produce
the maximum amount of fruit without delaying the growth to maturity of the vine
year on year. To maintain fruitfulness,
healthy new shoots must be produced every year.
Fruit on a vine is only produced on shoots which grow from canes (one-year-old
shoots from which the leaves have fallen off).
Therefore, healthy new canes must be produced every year to maintain
fruit production. Other canes (which
previously produced fruit) must be pruned off.
So we
should expect that God will from time to time take us through pruning
processes, with the intention that our lives can then bring forth even more
fruit:
‘...every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so
that it will be even more fruitful.’ (John 15:2)
Channels
of God’s love and compassion
Our spirits were made alive through union
with the power of God’s life when we were born again (Eph. 2:4-5), but it is
God’s purpose that we should ‘become
mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ… [that]
speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the
Head, that is Christ.’ (Eph. 4:13,15).
So God intends that Christ’s life within us should grow, blossom out and
mature, through the working of his Spirit within us, bringing us into growing
conformity with himself. In this way,
the vitality of Christ’s life can increasingly be brought out, developed and
manifested in our own soul and character, so that, as he increasingly becomes
the life of our life, we are made more like him day by day. Then other people will be able to see or
sense Christ and his life in us, and perhaps be drawn to it:
‘I
pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through
his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by
faith...’ (Eph.
3:16-17)
As we do away with the sins of our old
nature, as we move on from immature carnality in our spiritual life, and as we
live increasingly out of the intimacy of the loving union that we have with the
Vine, then our inner being becomes increasingly energised by the heart-warming
presence, grace, affection, peace, calmness, tenderness, purity, beauty and
love of Christ.
Developing a life of consistent intimacy with God allows his life-giving
presence and power to produce godliness and the fruit of the Spirit in our
character:
‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’ (Gal. 5:22-23)
As a consequence, our character becomes
more Christ-like, and our habits, our speaking, our behaviour and our actions
towards other people reflect the fruit of the Spirit and become increasingly
conformed to those of Jesus. His
life, his love and his character increasingly manifest themselves and overflow
through us towards others. We begin
to see other people through God’s eyes, and other people begin to see Christ in
us. Our hearts want to express the love,
care and compassion of God to them, both in word and deed. So God reaches out to other people through
us, influencing them and ministering into their lives. For example, Luke said that great grace and
willing generosity from the heart characterised the community life of the early
believers as they freely gave of their possessions to help one another (Acts
4:33-35). It is such practical
expressions of Christ’s life within us which are the basis of the many unspoken
acts of kindness and generosity performed by Christian believers every day,
and they are the foundation of the many philanthropic ministries which God has
historically raised up through his Church.
To grow up and mature in Christ and to
have his life manifested in and through us, is to grow in our capacity to love
both God and people. The quality of our
relationships with others should be determined by living towards them out of
our new nature in Christ with its love and grace, rather than out of our old
nature with its petty jealousies and resentments, etc.
‘And I pray that you, being rooted
and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp
how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love
that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the
fullness of God.’
(Eph.
3:17-19)
‘A new command I give
you: Love one another. As I have loved
you, so you must love one another. By
this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ (John 13:34-35)
Channels
of God’s empowered truth
As well as developing our inward spiritual character and
demonstrating the fruit and life of the Spirit through us, it is also God’s
intention to use our lives as fruitful channels of the message of his word.
As far as our inward spiritual character is concerned, we all
need as a matter of personal discipleship to learn to relate and speak to other
people out of our new nature, rather than out of the old nature. We speak out of the overflow of our heart
(Luke 6:45), and so both life and death are in the power of our tongue (Prov.
18:21). We are exhorted to use our tongue to bless, encourage and build each other
up, rather than for cursing and destructive patterns of interpersonal
behaviour:
‘Out of the same mouth come praise and
cursing. My brothers, this should not
be.’ (Jas. 3:10)
‘A wholesome tongue is a tree of life…’ (Prov. 15:4 AV)
‘Do not let any unwholesome talk come
out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according
to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.’ (Eph. 4:29)
‘Let your conversation be always full of
grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.’ (Col. 4:6)
‘A word fitly spoken is like apples of
gold in settings of silver.’ (Prov. 25:11)
Furthermore, as believers we have embraced the gospel message
and received Jesus into our life, so as we grow in our faith we should
increasingly determine to practically live out the truth of God’s word and to
share it with others, as much as we have understood it through the regular
teaching ministry that we sit under every week.
It is God’s intention that we become channels of his truth in
communicating to others this gospel message and the truths we have received
from his word.
However,
it is particularly those who carry the God-given responsibility for regularly
preaching the word of God – whether in terms of evangelistic messages or the
teaching of his word – who are channels of God’s truth. God uses them to speak often into people’s
lives. So it is imperative that they are
filled with the Holy Spirit. Public
ministry of the word of God always needs to anointed and empowered by the Holy
Spirit.
To
speak publicly when we are filled with the Holy Spirit should never be equated
with the ability to captivate an audience with the power of human
eloquence. It is truth which is
empowered by the Holy Spirit that speaks deeply to people’s hearts, bringing
conviction and leading to change and transformation in their lives. Messages and sermons that are created merely
through study will only ever reach the head of those who listen and go no
further. Such messages can never bring
about the change or transformation of people’s lives that God desires, and they
are soon forgotten. It is when the preacher’s spirit and
heart are filled with the living word of God that the life of this word then
penetrates the hearts of the hearers and affects their lives for good.
The word of God becomes like a sharpened sword in the mouth of the
preacher which touches and awakens people’s hearts to either receive or reject
God’s word. It is empowered spirit that
reaches spirit, and overflowing heart that reaches heart.
The anointing of the
Holy Spirit is impregnated with God’s intrinsic authority, so when preachers
who are filled and overflowing with the Holy Spirit speak out the word of God,
whether in terms of Bible teaching or gospel preaching, the authority of this
word can be intuitively recognised and subjectively felt by those who are
listening. And because such messages speak
deeply to their spirits, the people give their full attention to the preacher,
drinking in every life-giving, faith-inspiring word that is flowing out of
him/her. The preacher speaks with
authority, and people recognise that God is speaking to them through this
person.
Such
spiritual authority was evident in Jesus’ ministry. As he spoke, people were amazed not simply by
the words he was saying, but also by the intrinsic authority which was being
communicated to them as he spoke. As
spirit spoke deeply to spirit, their attention was rapt and they recognised the
difference between this and what they regularly experienced under their
synagogue teachers:
‘All spoke well
of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.’ (Luke
4:22)
‘The people were
amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as
the teachers of the law.’ (Mark 1:22)
Similarly,
when Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, testified to those who were opposing
him, his words were so empowered that they could not withstand what he was
saying:
‘…they could not
stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.’
(Acts 6:10)
‘...do not worry about what you will say, for the
Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.’ (Luke
12:11-12)
If we wish to
become effective and fruitful channels of the gospel message and the word of
God, and to deeply and regularly impact the lives of people with God’s truth,
then we need to recognise as John Hyde did that the preparation of the
messenger is just as important as the preparation of the message.[2] To
produce fruit, God needs men and women who have learned how to abide and live
consistently and deeply in union with Christ the Vine, and so through whom the
power of the Holy Spirit has free flow.
Put another way, if we wish to warm the hearts of those who listen to us
when we speak, then we must keep the fire of God’s anointing burning hot in our
own souls.[3] It is
Spirit-empowered men and women whose hearts are consistently filled with
the living word of God who become fruitful and faith-filled channels of his
truth. Such people are invariably
effective as evangelists and/or Bible teachers, and God uses them to produce
much fruit for his kingdom.
Channels
of God’s presence and power
Just as the life of God within us
transforms us and brings about the growth of the fruit of the Spirit in our
inward character, and just as we can become channels of the empowered word of
God (especially if we are preachers and teachers of God’s word), in a similar
way the very power of God can work through us in ministry towards those in
need.
There are many examples in Scripture of
the power of God working through his anointed servants, the greatest of which,
of course, is Jesus himself. His
ministry was permeated with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, and it
was this presence and power which gave rise to the miraculous and supernatural
nature of what took place in his ministry.
Because he lived in such deep, close and regular intimacy with his
Father, he could minister out of unhindered union with the life of the Holy
Spirit within him, and so the operations of the Spirit worked through him quite
naturally and freely. For example, the
power of God flowed through him physically to heal those who were sick. People came to him wanting just to touch him
(or even simply to touch his clothes), knowing that as they did this in faith,
they were going to be healed. On other
occasions, as he laid hands on sick people the power of God flowed through this
form of physical contact, and they were healed:
‘…and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming
from him and healing them all.’ (Luke
6:19)
‘…and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.’ (Luke 4:40)
‘But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone
out from me.”‘ (Luke 8:46)
In the book of Acts we can find many other
examples of and references to the charismatic power of God operating and
working in and through believers in different ways, such as by dreams and
visions, words of knowledge, miracles, healing, prophetic utterance, people being
filled with the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands, speaking in
tongues, and other gifts and operations of the Holy Spirit:
‘Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great
wonders and miraculous signs among the people.’ (Acts 6:8)
Such operations of the Holy Spirit are
normative for the Christian church, and it has always been God’s will and
desire to work in such ways through believers.
We are encouraged therefore to pray and expect them to happen through us
as well:
‘But eagerly desire the greater gifts...’ (1 Cor. 12:31)
‘Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts,
especially the gift of prophecy.’ (1 Cor.
14:1)
As we do God’s work, it should not be so much
that we minister for God, it should be that the Spirit himself fills and empowers
us, and then ministers freely through us as his channels. Although individual
ministries and callings will always differ, yet ministry which is done in the
power of the Spirit is invariably characterised by such things as those
mentioned above. The Holy Spirit operates
and works through us, bringing forth much fruit.
If we want to experience the Holy Spirit’s
presence and power working amongst us and through us, then we must determine to
honour his complete freedom to minister in any way he wishes, and we must give
him this freedom in our meetings. If we honour him and his place in our lives
and ministries, then he will honour us with his presence and power. As we keep our channel unblocked and free
from sin, and as we live consistently out of a warm, loving and intimate walk
with God, being completely open to the Holy Spirit, then his presence and power
can flow freely through us.
It is particularly in times of corporate
praise and worship (when his presence draws us into close spiritual union with
himself) that the Holy Spirit operates through us in gifts of revelation and
discernment. And as we lay hands on
believers who are open and seeking, we can expect his power to flow through us
and minister to them, just as it did through Jesus and the early believers. His presence, grace and power can come upon
them, filling them and refreshing their spiritual lives. In fact, the power of God may sometimes be so
strong and overwhelming that they cannot stand on their feet, or they may fall
prostrate, or they may tremble or shake as it comes upon them and flows through
them. They may experience physical or
emotional healing, and they can be released from oppression as evil spirits
leave them, and so on.
Jesus, fill now with
thy Spirit
Hearts that full surrender
know,
That the streams of
living water
From our inner man may
flow.
Channels only, blessed
Master,
But with all thy
wondrous pow’r,
Flowing through us,
thou canst use us
Every day and every hour.
Mary E. Maxwell
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THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978,
1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture
quotations from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized
Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s
patentee, Cambridge University Press.
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