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It is natural for you as a Christian leader to long for God's power to rest upon you and be evident in your ministry. You have often longed for more power in prayer, in your speaking, and in your touch upon the lives of those to whom you minister. This is a God-given longing. It was placed in your heart by the Holy Spirit because He wants you to ask and trust God for more of His powerful ministry through you.
God is a God of power.
He demonstrated this in creation. Throughout the Old Testament God demonstrated His power in leaders of Israel, in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and in godly kings and prophets. He still bestows that power upon His people. "The LORD gives strength to his people" (Ps. 29: Il). He himself is the strength, the power of His people (Ps. 28:7). God's power and strength is a major theme of the praise of God's people: "Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength" (Ps. 29: l;
God is a God of love and power; He gladly and graciously manifests both.God's Christian leader is to demonstrate God's love and God's power through the enabling of the Holy Spirit. To lack either love or power is to have an incomplete seal of the Spirit upon your ministry.
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During Old Testament times perhaps a greater emphasis was placed upon God's manifesting His power on behalf of His people than manifesting it within and through His people, although that was also very definitely present. We who live in New Testament times live in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. God is still as much for us as He was for His people in Old Testament days (Rom. 8:31). This is our constant experience and strength. But in a special new sense God now desires to manifest His power within us and through us.
THE "UPON-NESS" OF THE SPIRIT
This emphasis of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon God's chosen leaders is frequently mentioned in Bible history. 'The Spirit of the L0RD came" upon" Othniel, and he became Israel's judge, went to war, and a forty-year peace resulted. Why could he overpower the enemy even though he had no trained arrny? Because of God's power upon him.
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Today we have not only the spiritual powers of darkness arrayed against us (Eph. 6:12; Col. 1:13), but in addition often we face forces within our secular culture, vested interests, and the unrighteous media. How dare we conclude that we can defeat and rout the forces opposing God's will without His repeated special empowering of our efforts? We must not just take it for granted. We must request it of God, if we would receive it. Just because this is the dispensation of the Spirit does not assure that the Spirit will always automatically undergird, empower, and manifest God's triumph to the maximum.
We are in constant danger of relying too exclusively upon our human efforts and wisdom. The secret of the manifestation of the Spirit is our asking for it (Luke 11:13; James 4:2). These promises were recorded long after the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. This is the Spirit's dispensation, but His working is often dependent upon our special asking.
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The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and he blew a trumpet and rallied the tribes (Judg. 6:34). Perhaps we at times have inadequate success in rallying God's people to worship, witness, give, and pray because the Spirit of the Lord has not come upon us in power. We try too often to do .God's work without earnestly seeking God's powerful enabling.
