The Power Of The Holy Spirit

As Jesus was preparing his disciples for his death, he told them he would not leave them alone. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world at large cannot receive him, because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. But you do, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.” John 14:16-17

Later in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit entered each of them and they received miraculous gifts to heal, change people’s lives and grow the body of Christ throughout the world. This all happened because these simple men surrendered to Christ’s authority and opened their hearts and lives to the power of the Holy Spirit.

I spent most of my life questioning the bible and claiming that it was written by man to control people. Then on Palm Sunday a few years back, as I listened to the importance of accepting Christ and confessing my sins to Him before I took communion, I was convicted to give my life to Him. In that one moment, I learned the power of the Holy Spirit. I sat and silently cried at having been such a fool for so much of my life.

Recently I have been listening to some archived sermons on the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan at Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley California. The sermons alone should have been an adequate reminder of what a small part of my life has been actually surrendered to God. But the Holy Spirit did not rest there. The following story was related to me as a further reminder of God’s promises.

The story is centered around a company car that was intended for personal as well as company business use. Company rules stated that personal miles were to be turned into the company and would then be charged back to the employee. With the current economic downturn, most all of the miles were now personal. Some employees continued to turn in a token personal use mileage. This employee began to increase his percentage of personal use miles, but for various reasons the percentage remained lower than he was actually using. That is until he attended a Christian financial seminar. At that point, he knew something had to change because he was not right with God. He decided to go to his boss and rectify the situation by either turning in the car, or if he could settle on a price he could afford, to buy it from the company. The man was just about to leave his office to talk to the boss, when the boss walked in and said, “I’d like to talk to you about the company car.”

You can imagine what must have gone through his mind at that moment. But in the ensuing conversation, it was made clear that due to the economic downturn, the company needed to get out from under the car, and for them the best way to do that was to donate the car to the employee. A short time later, after it had all sunk in, and it became clear that this was the work of the Holy Spirit, the man sat and cried.

When we pray “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven”, what do we really mean? Are we willing to let God’s Holy Spirit work in our lives as the apostles did? Are we willing to surrender it all? Or do we intend to keep some control for ourselves?

Although I am in my third bible reading plan, I still have not read every word in it yet. But I can say this: I have not found one verse that implies that God is willing to accept less than our full surrender to Him. I am convinced after reviewing Rev 3:15-16 that when I have completed the entire bible, I still will not find a verse implying that anything less than full surrender to God is acceptable.