GOD’S PROMISE
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.
—Acts 1:8
I have a bargain for you to consider, a really great deal on a new tripod. It is top of the line, weather resistant, and lightweight. It folds up to fit in a backpack. It adjusts to secure any type of camera. This tripod can be a treasure that you pass down to all future photographers in your family. Interested? I’m offering it one-third off the regular price. It’s only fair that I do since this tripod is missing one-third of its legs. Yes, this is a two-legged tripod. Imagine the convenience of one fewer legs to fold up and pack. No wonder it is so lightweight. Besides, who needs all three legs?
What’s that? You do? You’re unconvinced of the value? You’d rather wait for a three-legged tripod?
Well, okay. Then let me move on to bargain number two, a tricycle. Just think of the joy your youngster will have riding up and down the sidewalk on this spectacular trike. Fire-engine red. Tassels that dangle from the handles. And, listen to this, a little bell that sits on the handle bar. Again, a great bargain. I’m offering it at one-third the original price. With these savings you can take the entire family out to dinner! There is, however, the small matter of one missing wheel. But the trike still has two. Little Johnny will eventually need to ride a two-wheeler anyway. Might as well start him out right. Buy him this two-wheeled trike.
You’re giving me that look again. You’re rolling your eyes at me the way Denalyn does. Now you are sighing. Come on, don’t walk away. Okay, the two-legged tripod is no good. The two-legged tricycle falls short of your expectations. But I have one more bargain for you to consider.
Have you ever seen a prism? Nothing captures the radiance of sunlight like a triangular prism. You’ll spend hours caught up in rapt fascination with the refractions of this simple tool. Entertain the kids. Impress your date. Get a good grade in science class. No home is complete without a triangular prism. This one is particularly suited for the budget-minded consumer. A slight factory defect has left one side of the triangle opaque. The other two sides work fine, mind you. But one third resists the light rather than refracts it. Granted, the flaw is a slight disadvantage, but on the other hand who else on your block owns a two-sided prism? Of course, I’ll lower the price by one-third to compensate for the defect.
Don’t be so quick to shake your head. Think about it. One-third off the price for a tripod that is missing a leg, a trike that is missing a wheel, or a prism that is missing a side. Do you not see the value here?
Of course you don’t, and I don’t blame you. Who settles for two-thirds when you can have the whole?
Many Christians do. Ask a believer to answer the question “Who is God the Father?” He has a reply. Or “Describe God the Son.” She will not hesitate. But if you want to see believers hem, haw, and search for words, ask, “Who is the Holy Spirit?”
Many believers settle for a two-thirds God. They rely on the Father and the Son but overlook the Holy Spirit. You wouldn’t make that mistake with a tripod, trike, or prism. You certainly don’t want to make that mistake with the Trinity. Your Bible refers more than a hundred times to the Holy Spirit. Jesus says more about the Holy Spirit than he does about the church or marriage. In fact, on the eve of his death, as he prepared his followers to face the future without him, he made this great and precious promise: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:8).
Imagine all the promises Jesus could have made to the disciples but didn’t. He didn’t promise immediate success. He didn’t promise the absence of disease or struggles. He never guaranteed a level of income or popularity. But he did promise the perpetual, empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is central to the life of the Christian. Everything that happens from the book of Acts to the end of the book of Revelation is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit of Christ. The Spirit came alongside the disciples, indwelled them, and gave the early church the push they needed to face the challenges ahead.
Perhaps you could use a push.
Several years ago when my legs were stronger, my belly was flatter, and my ego was bigger, I let my friend Pat convince me to enter a bike race. Not just any bike race, mind you, but a race that included a one and a half mile climb up a steep hill with a gradient of 12 percent. In other words it was a tough, climb-out-of-the-saddle, set-your-thighs-on-fire, and prepare-to-suck-air-for-ten-minutes section of the race. Appropriately called the Killer Diller, it lived up to the hype.
I knew its reputation. Still, I signed up because Pat, my riding buddy, told me I could make it. Easy for Pat to say. He is fifteen years my junior and has competed since his elementary school days. He was riding in pelotons before most of us knew what they were. When I balked at the idea of completing the race, he assured me, “Believe me, Max. You will make it.”
I almost didn’t.
In quick fashion the riders who belonged there left those of us who didn’t far behind. We, the barrel-bellied laggards, made jokes about the upcoming ascent. But we didn’t joke for long. It takes wind to talk. We soon needed all the wind we could muster to climb. I pushed and huffed and puffed, and about that point the ascent began. By the time I was halfway to the top, my thighs were on fire, and I was having less-than-pleasant thoughts about my friend Patrick.
That is when I felt the push. A hand was pressing against the small of my back. I turned and looked. It was Pat! He had already completed the race. Anticipating my utter exhaustion, he had hurried back up the hill, dismounted his bike, and scurried to give me a hand. Literally. He began pushing me up the hill! (The fact that he could keep up with me tells you how slowly I was pedaling.) “I told you that you would make it,” he shouted. “I came to make sure you did.”
The Holy Spirit promises to do the same. After Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit became the primary agent of the Trinity on earth. He will complete what was begun by the Father and the Son. Though all three expressions of the Godhead are active, the Spirit is taking the lead in this, the final age. The Spirit promises to give us power, unity, supervision, and holiness: P-U-S-H. Need a push?
He promises power to the saint. He is the animating force behind creation.
All creatures look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.
When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground. (Ps. 104:27–30)
Every unfolding flower is a fingerprint of God’s Spirit. “If God were to withdraw his Spirit, all life would disappear and mankind would turn again to dust” (Job 34:14–15 TLB).
The Spirit of God is a life-giving force to creation and, more significantly, a midwife of new birth for the believer. Jesus told Nicodemus:
Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. (John 3:5–8)
The Holy Spirit enters the believer upon confession of faith (Eph. 1:13). From that point forward the Christian has access to the very power and personality of God. As the Spirit has his way in the lives of believers, a transformation occurs. They begin to think the way God thinks, love the way God loves, and see the way God sees. They minister in power and pray in power and walk in power.
This power includes the gifts of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5:22–23).
These attributes appear in the life of the saint in the same way an apple appears on the branch of an apple tree. Fruit happens as a result of relationship. Sever the branch from the tree, and forget the fruit. Yet if the branch is secured to the trunk, nutrients flow, and fruit results.
So it is with the fruit of the Holy Spirit. As our relationship with God is secured and unmarred by rebellion, sin, or stubborn behavior, we can expect a harvest of fruit. We needn’t force it. But we can expect it. It simply falls to us to stay connected.
We will also enjoy some gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, teaching, healing, prophecy, and preaching (1 Cor. 12:8–10). After listing a sampling of possible gifts, the apostle Paul clarified, “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines” (v. 11).
The Holy Spirit knows each saint and knows the needs of each church. He distributes gifts according to what the church will need in a particular region and season. When gifts are active, the church is empowered to do the work for which it was intended. For this reason we do not begrudge the talents of another believer or the accomplishments of another church. Does the saxophone player envy the tuba player? Not when each musician is playing his or her unique part and following the lead of the conductor. When church members do the same, the result is power.
And the result is unity.
The Holy Spirit of God is the mother hen with her extended wing, urging the church to gather in safety. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). Saints are never told to create unity but rather to keep the unity the Spirit provides. Harmony is always an option, because the Spirit is always present. Gone is the excuse “I just can’t work alongside so-and-so.” Maybe you can’t, but the Spirit within you can.
Fellowship is not always easy, but unity is always possible. To say otherwise is to say that the Holy Spirit cannot do what he longs to do. Anytime a church experiences fellowship, the Spirit of God is to be praised. Anytime the church experiences conflict or disunity, the Spirit of God is to be consulted.
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. (1 Cor. 12:12–14)
The Holy Spirit unifies the church.
And the Holy Spirit supervises the church.
I used to know a fellow who supervised an apartment complex. When I asked him to describe his job, he said, “I keep the place running.” The Holy Spirit does the same and more for the church. Want to see his to-do list?
• Comfort the believers (Acts 9:31).
• Guide the believer into all truth (John 16:13).
• Reveal the things that are still to come (John 16:13).
• Offer prayers of intercession (Rom. 8:26).
• Bear witness that the saint is saved (Gal. 4:6–7; Rom. 8:16).
• Attest to the presence of God with signs and miracles (Heb. 2:4; 1 Cor. 2:4; Rom. 15:18–19).
• Create a godlike atmosphere of truth (John 14:16–17), wisdom (Deut. 34:9; Isa. 11:2), and freedom (2 Cor. 3:17).
The list of his activities is varied, wonderful, and incomplete without this word: holy.
The Spirit of God also makes us holy. After all, is he not the Holy Spirit? One of his primary activities is to cleanse us from sin and to sanctify us for holy work. Paul reminded the Corinthians: “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11).
I’ve seen images of women washing clothes by rubbing the garments on a washboard. Perhaps the image is a good one for the work of the Holy Spirit. He rubs us until the result is a state of spotlessness. Consequently, we can stand before the presence of God.
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4–7)
My bicycle story had a wonderful ending. Thanks to the push from Pat, I climbed the hill, relished in the downhill conclusion, and crossed the finish line. I finished in the back of the pack, mind you, but I finished. Suppose I had refused Pat’s assistance. Suppose—perish the thought—I had resisted his help. Can you imagine the folly if I’d come to a stop, dismounted, and told him, “I can do this all by myself, thank you very much.” Or imagine if I’d denied his ability to help me. “This is too great for even you, Pat. No one can climb the Killer Diller hill.” Worst of all, what if I had accused him of being the enemy. “You’re a fraud! Get away!”
To have reacted to Pat in such a way would have been foolish.
To react in such a way to the Spirit of God would be much more so.
Paul asked the Galatian Christians, “After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” (Gal. 3:3 NLT). The Christians in Ephesus relied on human strength as well. Paul assured them that they had received the Spirit. “God put his special mark of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he had promised” (Eph. 1:13 NCV). Even so, he had to urge them to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). Interesting. Can a person be saved and not full of the Holy Spirit? They were in Ephesus.
And in Jerusalem. When the apostles instructed the church to select deacons, they said, “So, brothers and sisters, choose seven of your own men who are good, full of the Spirit and full of wisdom” (Acts 6:3 NCV). The fact that men “full of the Holy Spirit” (NKJV) were to be chosen suggests that men lacking in the Spirit were present. We can have the Spirit but not let the Spirit of God have us.
A while back I purchased a new cartridge for my printer. But when I used it, no letters appeared on the page. It was half an hour before I noticed the thin strip of tape covering the outlet of the cartridge. There was plenty of ink, but until the tape was removed, no impression could be made.
Is there anything in your life that needs to be removed? Any impediment to the impression of God’s Spirit? We can grieve the Spirit with our angry words and rebellion (Eph. 4:30–31; Isa. 63:10) or resist the Spirit in our disobedience (Acts 7:51). We can test or conspire against the Spirit in our plotting (Acts 5:9). We can even quench the Spirit by having no regard for God’s teachings. “Never damp the fire of the Spirit, and never despise what is spoken in the name of the Lord” (1 Thess. 5:19–20 PHILLIPS).
May I ask a few blunt questions? Are you persisting in disobedience? Are you refusing to forgive someone? Are you harboring hatred? Are you persisting in an adulterous relationship? Immoral activity? A dishonest practice? Are you feeding your flesh and neglecting your faith? If the answer is yes, you are quenching the Spirit within you.
Do you want his power? Direction? Strength? Then “keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). He is the drum major; we are the marching band. He is the sergeant; we are the platoon. He directs and leads; we obey and follow.
Here is a cue that helps me stay in step with the Spirit. We know that the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23 NASB). These emotions are indicators on our spiritual dashboard. Whenever we sense them, we know we are walking in the Spirit. Whenever we lack them, we know we are out of step with the Spirit.
I sensed his corrective pull recently. I ran into a friend at a convenience store. It helps to know that my mind was on the hot political topic of immigration. I was listening to the radio as I was running errands. Every program was loaded with people and their opinions regarding a recently imposed federal ruling on border policy.
All I wanted was coffee and a breakfast taco. The Holy Spirit gave me more than I requested. I was glad to see my friend, shake his hand, and ask about life. He’s a cheerful fellow, always quick with a joke or a laugh. Today there was neither. He was solemn. He didn’t tell me why, and I didn’t ask, but then the Holy Spirit gave me a . . . What was that word? Push.
I was already out the door, coffee in one hand, car keys in the other, when I thought about his wife. Somehow I knew she was undocumented. How I knew I could not recall, but I knew. And I knew I needed to talk to him.
I did not want to do so. I had a busy day ahead for one thing. I didn’t know what I would say for another. Besides, what if he didn’t want to talk? What if the issue was personal? What if I found out something I did not really want to know? I had my reasons, but the Holy Spirit didn’t ask my opinion. The prompting was so strong that to disregard it would have been disobedient.
He was still in the store, so I walked back in. “Hey, I, uh, I was just wondering. All this stuff about immigration . . . You guys doing okay?”
Within a moment his eyes watered. He looked around to see if anyone was watching or listening. “Why do you ask?”
“Just curious.”
“Actually,” he said, “we’re in a bit of trouble.”
He’d been told to keep his wife indoors lest she be snatched off the streets and taken back to Mexico. He’d been hustled by an immigration lawyer. He was low on money, out of options, and increasingly convinced that the world was against him.
It just so happened I had a few ideas. Within a week he had honest counsel, resources to pay the bill, and reason to sleep well at night. All because the Holy Spirit gave me a push.
I do not know exactly how God does this work. The sequence, timetable, and pace are not disclosed to us. What we know is this: “God is working in you to help you want to do and be able to do what pleases him” (Phil. 2:13 NCV). The same hand that pushed the rock from the tomb can shove away your doubt. The same power that stirred the still heart of Christ can stir your flagging faith. The same strength that put Satan on his heels can, and will, defeat Satan in your life.
Make it your aim to sense, see, and hear the Spirit of God. Would you use a two-legged tripod? Two-wheeled trike? Two-sided prism? Of course not. Avail yourself of all God has to offer. Fix your heart on this promise: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:8).