Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - May/64

Contributor - Rev. J. Dykstra

Title - The Spirit of Power

Topic - Holy Spirit

BUT YE SHALL RECEIVE POWER AFTER THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT IS COME UPON YOU. Acts 1 :8

With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the early church was filled with power. The very same church which had been weak and timid and fearful, whose very future seemed in dire jeopardy, was suddenly filled with dynamic power. God's sovereign power had invaded human impotency, coming in from the outside, not from within themselves. It was the third person of the Trinity who fell on the early church and filled it with power.

But where is the Spirit of power today, that dynamic power so evident in the early church? What has happened to our congregations, denominations, the Church of Christ, when such words as "problem" and "difficulty" have usurped the place of such wonderful words as "faith" and "opportunity"? It appears today that the church is like Sampson after his hair was shorn, a sorry reminder of the power that once was.

And why is the Church so lacking in power today? Is the Holy Spirit lacking in power? No, for God is forever the same and His hand is not shortened that it cannot redeem. Has the Holy Spirit left us? Was He but temporarily on earth? No, for if the Holy Spirit were no longer in the world, there would be no church, no conversions, there would be no evidence of His working.

The blame for the weakness of the Church today certainly does not lie with God. It wasn't God's fault that Sampson lost his power either. It was his own fault, for he let the pagan Philistines cut his hair and thus lost his power. And we? The secret of our power is being filled with the Holy Spirit. Must we not confess that we have permitted other things to crowd the Holy Spirit out of our hearts, perhaps out of our churches? Have we not neglected Him, grieved Him, hindered Him, stood in the way of His working?

There never was a day when the church had more money, greater institutions, better programs, more learning and education. Yet we lack enthusiasm and power ... perhaps because we have relied too much on ourselves. We have trusted in our own arm to save us - human ingenuity, intelligence, and strength. We have asked His guidance while our minds were already made up as to our course of action. We have imagined that the Holy Spirit needed 500 family congregations with $100,000 budgets to do His work. We have supposed that He needs huge denominations of a million members. Cannot the Holy Spirit do His work through small, scattered congregations? He once did, according to the book of Acts. He doesn't need Apollos-tongued ministers to proclaim His Word. He can even speak through the testimony of an immigrant Iayman who speaks with an accent. He is not bound by human limitations and it is ever a marvel to us how much He accomplisher, through our blundering attempts. It is not that talent and outward appearance of strength must be done away, but we must not trust in them nor let their absence fool us into thinking that therefore the Holy Spirit cannot act.

As we reread the account of the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost and of the events which immediately followed, the vague notion arises that all is not well with the Church today. Not that the same display of power needs to be evident as it was on Pentecost. That was a special day with special signs just as on Christmas the angels sang and spoke and the star shone. The sects do wrong when they try to force the signs of Pentecost to reoccur. Yet they do remind us that the Church has too much neglected the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

The Church today doesn't quite parallel the group of disciples at Ephesus who had never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit, Nor can we entirely apply that description of the situation in the last days to ourselves, as those who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof, being lovers of self, lovers of money, proud.... disobedient to parents, ungrateful.... lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And yet we must think again of Sampson with his shorn hair and of the weakness and laxity of the Church, its failure to mold the world today and have an impact on it.

Well, what must happen? Should there be a new Pentecost, as some say? But the Spirit has once been poured out and a new Pentecost is about as unlikely as a new Good Friday. It is not that the Spirit has left the Church, but the Church must make room for the Spirit. Indeed, the Spirit makes room for Himself, which He does especially by the preaching of the Word. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Pastors must proclaim the Word under the guidance of the Spirit, and making it relevant to the world today. Hearers must become doers of the Word who pray ardently,

Come Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, With all Thy quickening powers;

Kindle a flame of sacred love In these cold hearts of ours.

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