Been a talk presented by Elechi Udochi Alegua during
the 1st Semester Executive Council/Leaders Mandatory Retreat of the Anglican
Students Fellowship, ASF RSU on Saturday 14th October 2017 at
Ethnosreach Missions Center, 1 Calvary Close,
Rukpokwu. Ph.
Text:
Luke 24:49, “You are
witnesses . . . but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on
high.”
Acts 1:8, “And you
shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my
witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the
earth.”
Acts 2:4 That
they were “filled with the Holy Spirit.” And after receiving this
power, they came back to God for a refreshing against the new threats that they
were facing.
Acts 4:31 “And when they
had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they
were all filled with the Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.”
Ephesians
3:14–21 “For this reason I bow my knees before
the Father, from Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that
according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with
might through His Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have
power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and
height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who by the
power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations,
forever and ever. Amen.”
INTRODUCTION:
In
Acts 1:8 we see this promise, "But ye shall receive power, after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you." This relationship is when the Holy Spirit
comes upon you. The word is 'epi' in the Greek, which means 'upon'
or 'over.'
I prefer the translation of 'overflow' because I believe that
this experience allows the Holy Spirit to flow forth out of our lives. Our
lives then are not just a vessel containing the Spirit, but they become
channels by which the Spirit flows forth to touch the world around us. I also
believe that this is the objective work of the Spirit.
This
'coming
upon' experience provides objective evidence of the dynamic power of
the Holy Spirit, allowing us to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. That
is God's ideal and plan, that my life be the instrument through which He can reach
the world around me as the Spirit flows forth, as the dynamic of the Spirit
goes forth out of my life.
The
Broad Clue
Jesus
told His disciples that they were to wait in Jerusalem until they received the
promise of the Father which He had been talking to them about. "For John truly baptized with water;
but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
(Acts 1:5). He also said, "But ye
shall receive power (dunamis), after
that the Holy Ghost is come upon (epi)
you," (Acts 1:8). They needed that overflowing of the Spirit to
effectively serve the Lord.
We
believe that this is the experience that Jesus was referring to in John 7 when,
on the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, He stood and cried to the
assembled multitude, "If any man
thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."
(John 7:37-38). And John, giving the observations, wrote, "(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him
should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was
not yet glorified.)" (John 7:39). This 'coming upon' has been referred
to as the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or the overflow of the Spirit. What kind
of overflow would that be? It would be like a torrent of living water
flowing out of the life of the believer.
So
it's one thing to be filled with the Spirit, and it's quite another to have the
Spirit flowing out. The inlet of the Spirit is powerful and dynamic, but
there has to be that flowing forth of the Spirit from my life to affect and touch others around me.
The Three
Promises:
Jesus
made three promises to us about the Spirit:
1. He is with you,
2. He shall be in you, and
3. You will receive the power when He
comes over you, or upon you.
THE MANDATE:
The
Holy Spirit is with us prior to conversion. It's the Holy Spirit that reproves
the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. It's the Holy Spirit who
brings conviction of sin to your heart. It's the Holy Spirit that draws you to
Jesus Christ and points out that Jesus is the only answer to your sin. It's the
Holy Spirit who, once having drawn you to Christ, when you open the door, comes
into your life and begins to indwell you. The power of the Holy Spirit
indwelling you conforms your character into the image of Jesus Christ. The Holy
Spirit helps you to live the Christian life and conforms you into His image. He
does for you what you can't do for yourself.
As
Paul said, "But we all, with open face
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (II Cor.
3:18). He also said, "What? know ye
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye
have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (I
Corinthians 6:19-20). Through God's work of salvation my body has become the
temple of the Spirit. He's dwelling in me. He has the power to change me in
order to conform me into the image of Jesus Christ.
It's
the Lord's desire that He flow forth out of my life. It's one thing to pour water into a cup, but
it's another thing to pour it out of the cup. It's one thing to have the
Holy Spirit poured into your life and another thing to allow the Holy Spirit to
pour out of your life. That's the necessary dynamic for the ministry. Even the
disciples were not permitted to engage in the ministry until they had received
this dynamic of the Spirit. "Being
assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from
Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have
heard of me." (Acts 1:4). The "promise of the Father" is
this dynamic of the Holy Spirit. It's the 'epi' experience, the coming upon.
This
experience is usually separate from salvation, but it can be concurrent with
salvation, like in the case of the house of Cornelius. As Peter was speaking,
the Holy Spirit came upon them, 'epi', and they began to speak in tongues. So
the apostles decided that if God would baptize them with the Spirit, the
apostles should also allow them to be baptized with water. (Acts 10).
HOW TO RECEIVE POWER FOR SERVICE:
1. Consume the Word of
God:
God equips you with His power to enable
you to proclaim His word successfully. Therefore, it is important that one must
soak himself in His Word, which is life in itself. John 6:63 Jesus said, “It
is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have
spoken to you are Spirit and life.” The Bible is the Word of God and when
you read it, you are reading the life-giving power of the Spirit. By soaking in
God’s word, we activate our faith that helps us walk in the power of the Holy
Spirit.
2. Pursue God’s Face:
We need to seek the face of God diligently and pursue His presence
relentlessly. The more we wait on God, the more we renew power to walk
this life in the Spirit. Acts 1:13
“All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer.” It was only
when the disciples devoted themselves to prayer in Jerusalem during the ten
days of waiting in the Upper Room that the power of the Holy Spirit fell on
them.
We must also take time few hours in
every day, few minutes in every hour, and few seconds from every minute to
withdraw from the world around us to seek His face. Bible says Jesus came with
full of power after His 40 days of fasting. Extended fasting and prayer with
undivided devotion is certainly a key to receiving God’s power. Those times
that we seek God should be a time of surrendering and learning to yield to the
plans and purposes of the Holy Spirit.
3. Believe the Promise
in the Word of God:
Galatians 3:5 Paul says, “Does
he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works
of the law, or by hearing with faith?”
“It is impossible to please God without
faith.”
(Hebrews 11:6). We cannot
walk in the power of the Holy Spirit if we do not walk by faith. We need to
develop a child like faith to walk in the power of God.
Luke 11:13 Jesus says to
his disciples, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good things to
your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
those who ask him!” Start by asking today! Ask God to increase your faith.
The Lord desires to fill you with His power.
4. Abide in Him:
Here’s an important phase that we tend
to forget. It is not enough that you receive God’s power once. We need to
continue to dwell in Him. You need to take time to study the Word and abide in
it. John 14 is a chapter that you should take extended time to meditate, pray
and believe.
John 14: 12-
23 explains how obeying God and keeping His commandments is
essential to having a life filled with God’s power. It is that unadulterated
life that has access to God’s power.
Jesus says in John 15: 4,5 “ Abide
in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it
abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches.
Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart
from Me you can do nothing.”