The Pendulum of Power

The last several years have seen a pendulum swing of churches and ministries moving away from the manifestations of God's power in their meetings. This pendulum swing has only served to give the enemies of the cross and of the church more room to maneuver and placed the church in a position of impotence – unable to assert its purpose in the earth and unable to reproduce itself. However, I have GOOD NEWS! I have GOD NEWS! The pendulum has begun to swing back in the other direction – toward the reception and willing acceptance of the power of God and of the move of God back into the church. A return to the power of Pentecost has begun! Our emptiness of power has created a void that we have sought to fill by other means and finally...after years of dissatisfaction the church is beginning to hunger and thirst for power encounters with the Holy Spirit.

What many viewed as years of excess by "those pentecostals" in days gone by of displays of exuberance and confusing uses and misuses of the various gifts of the Holy Spirit has been replaced by such a lack of display that the church has been guilty, not of mis-use, but of non-use. Many have bought into the lie that "we don't want to offend anyone" and have gone so far in that direction that offense is not likely to happen to anyone but the Holy Spirit, or they have bought into the lie that says, 'We don't need the spiritual gifts anymore." The problem with lies is simply this - they are empty and have to be followed up with more lies. They are pots with no bottom. They look from a distance as if they can hold water, but can hold nothing at all.

Consider this: If the Holy Spirit is the giver of the various gifts of the Spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8-9 and we have decided that they have no place in the modern church, then is not that a slap in the Holy Spirit's face, so to speak? We, in our arrogance, have said, "Holy Spirit, we know much better than you," and in our non-use we have become guilty of mis-use of another sort. Instead of taking the time to learn the proper operation we have dismissed the operation of these gifts altogether. The problem was not so much their use, but rather not keeping their use within the guidelines of Scripture. Instruction is the key to the proper operation. Realize that God won't fall of His throne if someone doesn't do everything perfectly when operating in one or more of the gifts of the Spirit.

We cannot claim excess in their use in the modern Pentecostal/Charismatic churches because no "use" is occurring in many of these churches. As Pentecostals we have lost our distinctiveness. That which gave us our name, no longer exists in the vast majority of Pentecostal churches. Major Pentecostal denominations have allowed (even encouraged) the precedent of relegating the operation of tongues and other manifestations to the back room saying, "we don't do that publicly here". My question in regard to that concept is this: "What would have happened on the day of Pentecost if the one hundred twenty upon whom the Holy Spirit fell had stayed in the room instead of spilling out into the public setting? Where would the church be today? The early church did not advance and make impact upon society by staying in the upper room, but rather by immediately and unapologetically spilling out into the streets. We have come to apologize for our distinctiveness. That which is the expression of our power we no longer exercise for "fear of offending".

The charismatics among us fare no better. You may not want to be referred to as a "pentecostal", however, the term "charismatic" is from the Greek word referring to "grace gifts" from 1 Corinthians 12.

Modern Pentecostal/Charismatic church operations would have never allowed those early believers to get out of the back room and into the public view where such strange phenomena would be heard by the unbelievers present. It is such arrogance for us to, in essence, be telling the Holy Spirit that He doesn't know what He is doing in distributing these manifestations among the saints. It is even more arrogant (and irresponsible) to have received a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our lives and refuse to exercise it properly. Living in a day when we are quick to exercise our bodies, our minds, even our pets, yet disregard the fitness of our spirit because someone might hear us speak in tongues is ludicrous. It is a day for the church as a whole, and Pentecostal/Charismatic believers in particular, to repent of such foolishness and return to our distinctions. Stop apologizing for what God has given to us – the church and start cooperating with the Holy Spirit and welcome these operations back into our midst.

It has been noted by a major leader in the "seeker sensitive" movement that in the move to never offend we have filled our churches with carnal Christians. The apostle Paul made clear that carnal Christianity was not to be the modus operandi of the church. If anything carnality was to be the exception to the Christian life – certainly not the rule. Our first responsibility is not to the people who walk through our doors – believers or unbelievers – but rather to the Holy Spirit, the agent of God upon the earth to do as He bids whether we understand it or whether we can "control it" or not. We owe Him an apology and true repentance – not merely to say, "I'm sorry", but also to change our methods and operations to line up with what He is saying and has said in the Word. Let's remember who is in charge here – it is certainly not us!

Another issue at stake is our dependence upon what we can "control". Pastors and leaders have also bought into the lie that they "need to be in charge of what goes on". Yet, in our feeble attempts to do so, we have forgotten one crucial element – the Holy Spirit. When did He say He wanted you to control everything that goes on? When did He say you had to "understand" everything? Remember, our minds are not fully renewed. (Judging from the state of the modern church, our minds are hardly renewed at all). Our version of "control" and "order" are not necessarily the Holy Spirit's version of control and order. Instead of writing our own rulebook, perhaps we should return to the original sourcebook – the Word of God.

Jude, in writing to his fellow believers instructed them (and us) to build ourselves up in our faith by "praying in the Holy Ghost". Have we forgotten to do so? Judging from the state of the church the answer is likely "yes". As a matter of fact, few Pentecostal/Charismatic churches even teach on the necessity of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit or on the value of speaking in tongues. To go a step further, far too few pastors even exercise speaking in tongues on a personal basis and if the leaders don't do so, how can we expect the body to follow? How many lies have we fallen prey to?

Let us repent, as mentioned before. Let us ask God to baptize us afresh in His mighty culture changing power and let us return to the basics of book of Acts Christianity - demonstrations of power without apology. It's time to let the power fall! Let it fall on you and me today!
 

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