Does it strike you as odd to read of the power of the Holy Spirit throughout the New Testament? Do you ever wish you had a healthy dose of the same spirit today? The same Spirit that permeates the pages of the New Testament, and indeed all of history, is alive and active in our world today. The reason we miss Him is we aren’t looking for Him.
We’re so wrapped up in our own world and busyness we wouldn’t recognize the Spirit of God if He visibly showed Himself in front of our faces. Somewhere throughout the centuries, we’ve lost our sensitivity to the Spirit. Or is it perhaps we have lost the desire to truly see Him?
A.W. Tozer put it this way: “The average Christian is so cold and so contented with his wretched condition that there is no vacuum of desire into which the blessed Spirit can rush in satisfying fullness.” We leave no room for the Spirit amid our hurried and harried lives. Lost among the job, the friends, the kids, and the social commitments is our Lord. We’ve allowed life to crowd out our King. Do you see the absurdity of the previous statement? Welcome to modern Christianity in the Western world.
We’ve become too civilized. The Spirit of Christ is a wild and raging force seeking to spread God’s love and redemption to all mankind. A love as fierce as that of our Savior’s cannot be tamed. How tragic his Church is one of the most timid and tame organizations on the planet. When did we lose the fire that descended upon us in the moment of our salvation? When did we excuse ourselves from the battle and push the Spirit of God to the background of our lives?
I can’t believe it is the intention of any believer In Jesus to deny Him, ignore Him, and spit in His face. Yet, somehow, we manage to do all these things almost daily. We are not living in the freedom, victory, and power of the Spirit of God. We are losing battles Christ has already won on our behalf because we neglect and refuse to access the power He has placed inside each of us.
The Spirit of God – the living, all-powerful God – is inside each person who accepts Jesus to be their Lord. It’s not power we lack, it’s commitment, discipline, and focus. We dream small dreams, expect small results, and end up living lives of quiet desperation. This is not the way of the warrior of God. We are His ambassadors, His emissaries to a dark world full of dark motives and desires. Jesus is the light of the world and His love must shine through us to expose the darkest places on earth. But we don’t seem to care about that. We’d rather pursue comforts and security. We’ rather avoid the pain.
There will be a day when this life we’ve wasted will come to an end. There will come a day when we face Jesus eye to eye. What will we say then? Will the way we’ve lived our lives have been worth it? The Spirit of God is alive and burning inside you. Unleash His power and live the life He created you to live.