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The Empowering Work of the Holy Spirit
A preacher
named George Duncan once went to visit some friends in the
 English
countryside. For years they had lived in an old-fashioned, rundown
building. To Mr. Duncan’s surprise, he discovered that the house had
been completely remodeled. The people had installed new lights, an
electric stove, and many other pieces of modern equipment. But, he was
even more surprised to see the lady of the house still using a kerosene
stove for cooking and oil lamps for lighting. After greeting him, she
said, "George, don’t look so confused. We’ve had a great change here,
but we just haven’t turned on the power yet."
Well, this ministry of the Holy Spirit is about
turning the power on in our lives! We come, finally, to the last
ministry of the Holy Spirit, in the life of the sinner-believer, which
is the empowering work of the Holy Spirit.
This work of the Holy
Spirit is probably best captured in Acts 1:5, Acts 2:4, and Acts 11:16.
For John baptized
with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many
days from now.
(Acts 1:5)
And they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
(Acts 2:4)
And I remembered
the word of the Lord, how He used to say, "John baptized with water,
but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
(Acts 11:16)
Since Acts 11:16 is a
reference back to Acts 1:5, we shall only deal with the first two
Scriptures. Let’s begin with the first Scripture. When dealing with the
Bible, it is important to take into consideration the context of the
verses one is studying. Although we have done this all along, we have
not printed some of the texts in this book, because of space.
Nevertheless, because of the importance and size of this text, allow me
to do so now.
The first account
I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach,
until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the
Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To
these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many
convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and
speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Gathering them
together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for
what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from
Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the
Holy Spirit not many days from now."
(Acts 1:1–5)
Luke is recapitulating
and rehearsing the history of the early Church for Theophilus. He begins
by reminding Theophilus of the first account. The first account was the
Gospel of Luke. Luke is now continuing what he began in the Gospel of
Luke, here in the Acts of the Apostles, which I like to think of more as
"The Acts of the Holy Spirit."
In the first
account...
From Denomination to
Reformation:
An Introduction to Biblecostalism™
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