Rekindling the Fire of the Holy Spirit - by Jim Tharp

Suffering alone in Rome’s Mamertine prison, the apostle Paul had more to be concerned about than his own soon-coming execution by the wicked Roman emperor Nero. The apostle Paul was deeply concerned about the spiritual needs of the important spiritual leader whom he had chosen to succeed him in his vital ministry of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In II Timothy, chapter 1, verses 3-8 (NKJV), we have Paul’s call to Timothy to get a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit: “I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.”

For a number of years Timothy had traveled with Paul and demonstrated the power of the Holy Spirit both in personal living and his public ministry. On several occasions, he had served as Paul’s envoy to the churches. In Berea and Thessalonica, he had been left to follow up and strengthen the believers. And Paul’s latest confidence in Timothy had been to trust him with problems in the Corinthian church.

But, in Paul’s praying and correspondence with Timothy he senses that the fires of the spirit were burning low in his trustworthy comrade. Paul remembered how the Pentecostal fires had exploded at different times in the hearts of both him and Timothy to keep them alive spiritually, just as they had in the apostles on the First Day of Pentecost. Paul also remembered how he himself had needed to pray for fresh outpourings of the Spirit. Paul realized what General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, would often urge his soldiers to do: “Stay aflame! For it is the tendency of fires to go out!” General Booth read often to His soldiers from I Thessalonians 5:19 (NKJV): “Do not quench the Spirit.”

It has not been God’s plan for the fires of His Spirit to go out, or even burn low, in this 21st century. Of course, the devil’s plan is to steal the power of Christianity in all churches and in all individual believers. His evil ways are planned carefully to distract us in many ways from our need to pray; to bring along some critical conversation to discourage us, causing doubts about one’s ability to ever live the Christian life; and to substitute times of worship with time off for recreation. Another trick of the devil is to find disappointment in another Christian, or even a spiritual leader, and try to get us to forget about prayer, worship, and Christianity!

  

The experiences of prayer and the renewing of the Holy Spirit are so interrelated that sometimes we are confused about the cause and the effect. The truth is that only praying believers are full of the Holy Spirit. And it is also true that only Spirit-filled believers can prevail in prayer.

Education, personality, and sincerity can go a long ways in promoting the Christian faith and growth of the kingdom of God, but even these cannot set hearts aflame with holy fire, promote the gospel with power, or set a nation aflame with a revival of repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ. But Spirit-anointed prayer can sweep an entire nation with a mighty glorious revival of spiritual power!

Prayer warriors today must become as determined, shameless, and faithful in their praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit as that persistent widow was for justice from her adversary (Luke 18:1-8). Sooner or later, the winds of the Holy Spirit will begin to blow. Cold hearts will begin to thaw. Scales will fall from blinded eyes. More and more powerless believers will be given an ear to hear the call to open their hearts and plead for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. With that, obedience to the Word and the will of God will become the order of the day, and revival fires will once more impower God’s people to come alive to worship God in Spirit and in Truth!