THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE POWER TO CHANGE
When it comes to the things of the spirit, the Father initiates, the Son implements and the Holy Spirit empowers or capacitates the process. That’s why blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin, push Him away and you have no capacity to get back to God.
In this devotion, we are focusing on the Holy Spirit as the power to change. In Ephesians 3:20, Paul says “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us…” There’s a power that is at work in us, it’s the power of the Holy Spirit who is resident in us. Earlier in Romans 8:11, Paul had already told us that, “If the same Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, He who raised Christ from the dead would also give life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in us.”
You and I have a huge problem that stands in the way of change in our lives. We know we do not like where we are and the way things are around us. We know life could be different if only a few things were changed. We desire to see those changes and often we strive to bring them about, but somehow, we find ourselves climbing a treadmill or spinning our wheels like a car stuck in the mud and going nowhere fast! Paul faced that frustration in Romans. The barrier we face is called sin. The solution to that barrier is the blood of Christ but in simple language, this solution is ineffective without the agency and medium of the Holy Spirit. After Jesus had spent three and half years teaching His disciples, after He had died, been buried, and had risen from the dead, you would think the job was done! You would think the disciples were ready to hit the road with the good news of all that Jesus had accomplished on the cross. No, they still lacked one thing; being baptized in the Holy Spirit! Only after Pentecost were they totally changed to face a world that was hostile to their message.
It’s no different today. All our programs amount to nothing without the Holy Spirit. Asked where Christ is right now, many of us would say He is in our hearts. After all, we received Him at salvation. He dwells in us. True. But the Bible also tells us that He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He indwells our hearts through the agency of the Holy Spirit whom He promised when He said that He would not leave us alone. And so, without the Holy Spirit, our works are in the flesh and will not last. It’s the Holy Spirit who not only knows the mind of Christ and is able to reveal it to us and empower us to walk in His will. He takes the things of God and makes them a reality to us. He breaks the power of sin and darkness to bring the light of the knowledge of Christ to sinner and saint alike. The Christian life is impossible without Him. Lasting change occurs where He is allowed the room to apply the blood on our doorposts.
The time has come to return to the old-time religion where we emphasized the baptism of the Holy Spirit because true and lasting change can only come about when He is in charge of our lives! If you believe and I believe and we together pray. The Holy Spirit will come down and Afrika will be saved. Afrika must be saved! Let’s pray this into being. Amen!