This message has to do with why many of our Christian churches are so weak—weak in worship, prayer, winning others to Christ, and reaching out to their communities. The real problem is that many Christians have not paid attention to what is to happen once they have trusted in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. As we read in the above Scripture, we receive the Holy Spirit when we trust Christ for our salvation. But the Spirit is a Person, a Member of the Triune Godhead, who is as divine as are God the Father and God the Son. The Holy Spirit is the invisible Agent (representative) of God the Father and God the Son who indwells believers to give them the power to live the Christian life. The Holy Spirit is within us, a Spirit, making our human body and mind His dwelling. All three members of the Godhead are one in thought, authority, and love for the entire human race.
Becoming a Christian is more than getting religion. It is more than praying a prayer. It is more than joining a church. It is more than learning a set of Bible doctrines or committing to a certain set of church doctrines, rules, or pledges to do or to be. God’s plan of salvation was to sacrifice His one and only righteous Son, Jesus Christ—the Star of Heaven—to come to earth as the God-Man, take on Himself our humanity. Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary, who agreed to allow the Holy Spirit to breathe on her and she would conceive and give birth to the Christ-child (Matthew 1:18-23). Unlike any other human being, Jesus was not born with Adam’s virus of sin. Yes, Jesus was born of a woman but He was sinless. His sinless birth as the Son of God qualified Him to pay the debt of sin for anyone who would believe in Him as the Son of God risen from the dead. God’s law is “The wages of sin is death!” Jesus suffered and shed His blood on an old rugged cross so that we might believe in Him and be saved.
In all too many churches there has been an absence of information from pastors and Bible teachers on the Scriptures promising the power of the Holy Spirit. I will repeat something I have already written—Becoming a Christian includes more than making a confession of faith, joining a church, and promising to abide by the pledges and standards of that church. We are called to live the Christian life by becoming sensitive to the Holy Spirit who will guide us into all truth. We need to study the Scriptures and trust the Holy Spirit to help us understand how to live out our faith.
Christian believers must realize that while the Holy Spirit lives within us to help us, there is an enemy who tries to defeat, discourage, and distract us and destroy our faith. We have good wisdom from the apostle Paul warning us “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (I Corinthians 10:12-13) Speaking of the power of the Holy Spirit, this same apostle goes on to tell us how to overcome in Ephesians 6:10-13: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
Living the Christian life not only takes the power of our determination to be strong, but also requires the help of the Holy Spirit, which we are given in the new birth. But we are called upon to be “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Jesus trained His disciples to give all believers an example of how the Christian life is to be lived. He promised that He and the Father would send the Holy Spirit to them after He had died, had risen from the dead, and had ascended to the Father. Then, they were to gather and pray for a “filling of the Spirit.” They were not to go out into the world to share the Gospel until they had been filled with the Spirit’s empowerment for prayer, for resisting temptation, and for defeating the powers of darkness that sought to pull them away from their commitment to Christ. Only Spirit-filled Christians are armed and prepared for defeating the opposition that will come about from the forces of evil let loose against the church of Jesus Christ and His individual believers.
The Holy Spirit comes into Christians when they are first saved. When they pray to be filled with the Spirit, He cleanses their hearts and enlightens their understanding, thus making them steadfast believers and enabling them to overcome in spiritual warfare. The Holy Spirit is their defensive armor, their girdle of truth, their breastplate of righteousness, their shield of faith, and their helmet of salvation (Ephesians 6:10-18). But let us not forget that this spiritual equipment is strengthened and reinforced by studying the Scriptures, prevailing prayer, and fasting along with prayer!
In closing, I want to add a few thoughts about the enemy we face in spiritual warfare. The enemy to be defeated is the devil and his entire host of demons scattered throughout the entire universe. In Ephesians 6:12 the apostle Paul makes it clear that we are not warring against “flesh and blood,” meaning human strength. Certainly, our enemies are under the rulers of this present darkness in these last days; Satan is organized, and we are up against demonic forces from the very headquarters of evil. These forces of evil are superhuman, but they are not all-powerful. Let us never forget that even those forces do not measure up to the force that we Christians look to, depend on, and trust and obey—our Divine Eternal Triune Godhead (our Heavenly Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and our indwelling and empowering Holy Spirit)! Our enemies are not omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent, but they are a demonic force to be defeated. This defeat can happen if more and more believers in our churches get filled with the Holy Spirit. Every believer should pray to get filled with the Spirit and pray for the greatest spiritual awakening ever known in all the history of the church. May this be so before it is too late!
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