Too many in the church refuse to drink of the Holy Spirit.
Strangely I am a teetotaler when it comes to alcohol. I don't want it, don't need it, and don't like the abuse of it. But my preferences do not make drinking of alcohol wrong.
When I once preached that drinking was not a sin, a dear sister met me at the back of the auditorium lividly upset. She explained to me that just one sip could make a person an immediate alcoholic. Whether her view has any backing, I don't believe the Word agrees with her.
Yet, this is precisely how the Holy Spirit teetotalers in the church talk. If we allow it to be said that the Holy Spirit lives in and operates directly in a Christian's life, then we have opened the flood-gates for speaking in tongues.
Really?
That's the way it will be?
Well, it isn't the way it will be. I've been distributing books referencing what little I know about the Holy Spirit's direct involvement in a believer's life. In those 27 years, not one person has told me that because of such studies they now have people speaking in tongues.
That threat is a fear factor which the teetotalers love to whip out, but has no backing.
The Holy Spirit is given to a newborn when baptized and lives within to bear His fruit. He is our power.
The reason so many congregations are dry is they refuse to drink of the Holy Spirit of God. On the other hand, those who gain momentum in life seem to drink from the refreshment of the Spirit of Christ.
3 comments:
I am reminded Jesus said we must be born of water AND SPIRIT, I think we understand the water part, its the Spirit part we continue to struggle with. My prayer every day is that I allow God's Spirit to flow in me! Thanks brother.
Philip Sims
Haskell
I would suggest that the Spirit is given when one believes, but regardless...without the Spirit, we have no Comforter, no Helper, no conviction of our sin (John 14-16)....no fruit in us(Gal 5).
Jay
I have long wondered why it is that Christians insist on interpreting the passages that teach that the Holy Spirit is "in" the children of God today inconsistent with the way they interpret the passages that teach that Jesus is "in" the children of God.
I mean, Jesus plainly told his disciples (before Pentecost even) that he was "in" them. Why do so many deny that Jesus was actually and personally "in"them (and us) but when we read the same language with regard to the HS, they insist that THAT is different. That when the Bible says that the HS is "in" us, it means literally and personally?
Why the inconsistency?
Does that make sense?
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