As you reach out to bring others to Christ, how much of what you do is happening by the power of the Holy Spirit…and how much is happening in mere human strength? For the most part, we tend to be mixed people. At times we know his empowering, then we slip back and walk in our own strength.
It’s possible to live a version of the Christian life in self-empowering for an extended time when we aren’t giving the Kingdom away, but when we begin to do outreach we quickly come to the end of our own abilities. It is the will of God that we walk fluently in his presence. Success is giving away the Kingdom in the power of the Spirit. This is the normal Christian life.
Evangelist Dwight Moody operated consistently in the power of the Spirit. That was the key to his amazing evangelistic ministry, but it wasn’t always that way. Early in his outreaches, he went through an extended time of not knowing the presence of the Spirit so he began to pursue the Lord – that he would be empowered. One day while walking the streets New York, out of the blue, God’s Spirit came upon him. He describes this in his journal:
“Ah, what a day! – I cannot describe it. I seldom refer to it, it is almost too sacred an experience to name…I can only say that God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay his hand.”
Our sense of God’s nearness will come and go. At times we will feel him – at other times we proceed by sheer faith. But as we walk in his empowering for the ministry we will consistently know fruitfulness. Let’s ask him for more.
