The Vital Necessity of the Holy Spirit

The Easter holiday and celebration of the Lord's resurrection and ascension into heaven are barely over when I start anticipating the next 'big day' in the Church's history, Pentecost; the day when God fulfilled His promise to send the Holy Spirit to empower the newborn Church for it's world-changing work of advancing God's kingdom.  The Church was born on the Day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit of God was given so that he could indwell every follower of Jesus from that day forward.

I will probably write often about the Holy Spirit for the next several weeks.  Not just because this is the season to recall the sending and the work of the Spirit but because I am profoundly moved by the person of the Spirit, by reading about him in the Bible and by meditating on his power and influence.  I am personally moved because I know first hand the difference his presence and power make in the journey through life of any follower of Jesus.  And I long for every follower of Jesus to have that same experience and to recognize it for the supernatural influence of God that it is.  I pray for every church body to know that difference.  Here's why:

The Presence of the Spirit is vital and central to the work of the Church. Nothing else avails. Apart from Him wisdom becomes folly, and strength weakness. The Church is called to be a "spiritual house" and a holy priesthood. Only spiritual people can be its "living stones," and only the Spirit-filled its priests. Scholarship is blind to spiritual truth till He reveals. Worship is idolatry till He inspires. Preaching is powerless if it be not a demonstration of His power. Prayer is vain unless He energizes. Human resources of learning and organization, wealth and enthusiasm, reform and philanthropy, are worse than useless if there be no Holy Ghost in them. The Church always fails at the point of self-confidence. When the Church is run on the same lines as a circus, there may be crowds, but there is no Shekinah (from The Way to Pentecost by Samuel Chadwick, page 7).

COME THOU HOLY SPIRIT!