'Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it,' (John 14.12-14, NIV).
Where is the Power in the Church? I am concerned that the Church has lost sight of the power and effectiveness of the Pentecost experience. We all need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Christian who wants to be effective in ministry first needs to be filled by the Spirit.
The more I study the life of Christ, the more I realise the influence and the Power of the Holy Spirit working in Him, in His life and ministry. Just as the disciples had to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came before they could begin their ministry, so Jesus Himself did not begin His powerful public ministry until after He had received the Holy Spirit! Matt 3.16-17; Mk 1.9-12; Luke 3.21. That same Holy Spirit who was in Christ should be in us! And the Holy Spirit who has begun working in us, will continue until the Day Christ returns!
I was first filled with the Fire of the Holy Spirit over 80 years ago. But His Fire and Anointing in me now is not diminished or lessened, and I sense the Holy Spirit is going to continue with me – and will increase – until the Lord comes. I hear of people retiring, slowing down, stopping. But I have no desire to slow down or stop, because exactly as Paul says, He who began to work in me will continue to work in me right to the end! Whatever that end may be – if the Lord calls me Home, or if by His Grace, I am here when He returns.
I burn with the Fire of the Holy Spirit. But why do I desire the Spirit so much? When I was a teenager, my father said that it is not just preaching which brings people to repentance. He said you’ve not yet received the Holy Spirit; he told me, the Bible says Jesus taught His disciples the first lesson in evangelism when He said, “When the Holy Spirit is come, He (not you, David), He, will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement.” My father said, you need the Holy Spirit. So immediately, sitting on my bed, I asked him to lay his hands on me and pray. But nothing happened. Even though he had received the Holy Spirit himself in the early days, I did not receive this blessing from him.
I was now totally obsessed. I went everywhere asking people to pray with me. Nothing. I spent more than a year searching, asking people to pray, no one could help. I started fasting and praying, I KNEW what I wanted. In prayer I was asking the Lord – fill me. Even though I was an ambitious, competitive teenager with my life in front of me, I tried to empty myself of everything, so that when I received, I would be 99 percent Holy Spirit and only 1 percent me, 1 percent myself.
The early disciples only waited fifty days after the Resurrection, only ten days after the Ascension. I waited over a year for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. But it was worth it.
The day after I received the Holy Spirit, in my home church there was a prayer meeting – everyone there knew what had happened the day before – but I now felt empty. But I knew that after such an experience there HAD to be some evidence. I stood up and the Power began to flow – and it has never ceased to flow, whatever my feelings. When I need Him, the Holy Spirit responds in Power – even after almost 80 years. I must have been 14 years old back then. But the older I get, the stronger the Power in me becomes.
We have to seek to know what God’s Plan and Purpose is for us. I’ve known almost from birth, from my earliest conscious days, that God had a Plan and a Purpose for my life. And all I’ve tried to do, all my life, is to be OBEDIENT – to hear the call and to go out and do it. It takes an enormous amount of faith, that’s why I seek the Holy Spirit! There are nine gifts of the Holy Spirit – but the gift that I asked for above all others is the gift of faith in order to be able to do what God says! In my life, going to Ukraine, going to Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Poland – is only in OBEDIENCE to what God is calling me to do.
I am determined, TODAY God will pour out His Holy Spirit on ALL flesh, and ALL who call on the Name of the Lord will be delivered. He has promised, He HAS to do it… This is why I can go to any country where there has been no revival and EXPECT God to fulfil His Promise to pour out His Spirit on whoever, on ALL flesh.
'The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid,' (John 14.26-27, NIV).