A.B Simpson ~ The Holy Spirit

The Power of Holy Character\tIt is the power of holy character. It is not primarily power for service, but it is power to receive the life of Christ; power to be, rather than to say and to do. Our service and testimony will be the outcome of our life and experience. Our works and words must spring from our inmost being, or they will have little power or efficacy. “We must ourselves be true, if we the truth would teach.”\tThe change produced by the baptism of the Holy Spirit upon the first disciples was more remarkable in their own lives than even in their service and testimony.\tPeter was the irresolute disciple—always running ahead of his Master. Boasting in his self-confidence of what he would do or would not do, yet he ran away at the threat of a servant girl. The power of the Spirit transformed him into the fearless hero who stood before the murderers of his Lord and charged them with their crime. With lowly spirit and humble heart, Peter went forth to walk in his Master’s steps, and at last to die upon his Master’s cross with downward head. The miracle in Peter’s personal life is greater than the wondrous power of his public testimony.\tThe spirit of unselfish love, that led to the entire consecration of all their means to the service of Christ and the help of one another, was an example that could not fail to impress the skeptical and selfish world. The “great grace” that was upon them all was more wonderful than “the great power” with which they bore witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The heroic fortitude with which they endured unparalleled sufferings, “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name [of Jesus]” (5:41), was an exhibition of power that no man can gainsay, and carried a weight of conviction that nothing can counterpoise.\tThis is the power which the church needs today to convince an unbelieving world; the power that will make us, not inspired apostles, but living letters, known and read by everybody (2 Corinthians 3:2). Nothing is so strong as the influence of a consistent, supernatural, and holy character. Many a skeptic, whom all the books in the universe would never have convinced, has been converted by the sweet example of his Christian wife.\tMany a missionary among the unsaved tribesmen has found that the failure of his temper and spirit has done more in a moment to counteract all his teaching than years could undo. “He that ruleth his spirit [is greater] than he that taketh a city” (Proverbs 16:32, KJV). And the power that can supress the angry word, and stand in sweetness in the hour of provocation in the humble kitchen and laundry, has often become an object lesson to the proud and cultured mistress, until her heart has hungered for the blessing which has made her lowly servant’s life a ministry of power, and her humble heart a heaven of love.

The Power of Truth\tIt is the power of truth. The Holy Spirit works through the Holy Scriptures, and so the baptism of Pentecost was clearly identified with the power of the Word.\tThe very first thing that Peter did after the Holy Spirit came was to quote the Scriptures and explain the manifestation from God’s own inspired Word. And it was a scriptural sermon which was used in the extraordinary conversions of that day.\tIf you will carefully notice the different messages of the apostles, you will find that in every instance they made large use of the Bible, and some of their messages are simply statements of Scripture and quotations from the Old Testament.\tThe Holy Spirit has given the Holy Scriptures and will never dishonor His own message. The more we know of Him, the more will we honor His Word. The Bible must ever be the foundation of spiritual power and the instrument of spiritual service; but it must ever be in the power of the Spirit. “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6).\tThe late Dr. A.J. Gordon tells of a Sabbath he spent abroad, on which day he went in the morning to hear a distinguished preacher who was celebrated for his biblical knowledge. He came home delighted with the clear and brilliant expositions of the truth that he had heard, but chilled with the icy coldness of the message. It was true, clear, scriptural truth, but as cold as an iceberg.\tHe went in the afternoon to hear another preacher distinguished for his fervor, and he came back delighted with the earnestness and unction of the preacher but it was a fire of shavings, and there was not truth enough in it to make it lasting.\tHe went again at night and heard a third preacher, and he came away not only instructed, but thrilled, because this sermon had been not only an exposition of scriptural truth, but it had also been alive with the power of God and full of the fire of the Holy Spirit. It was not a fire of shavings, but of substantial fuel, and it left not only a memory of truth, but a glow of warmth that filled his heart with joy and love. This is the power of the Holy Spirit, speaking the truth in love—the Bible ablaze with holy fire, the Word of God dissolved in unction and love, until it can be observed in every fiber of our being, and become the nutriment of our life.

Mike,Wow, Thanks a lot. What a powerful and beautiful letter that is.which has made her lowly servant's life a ministry of power, and her humble heart a heaven of love.lMurray

Hi Murray,It struck me as well. It was that same style disposition that won me simultaneously to my wife and the Lord.More to follow from AB.

The Power of Love\tIt is the power of love. The baptism of Pentecost was a baptism of love. It brought a love for God that annihilated the power of self. “No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own” (Acts 4:32). Their costliest treasures were yielded up to God. Their wealth, their homes, were held at the service of the church of Christ.\tIt was love one for another, and they were so absolutely bound together that they formed a corporate body. There was no schism or possible place for the paralysis or mutilation of the whole body of Christ. Today the church of Christ has broken to pieces. Here and there we find a sound member, but the whole body is mutilated and severed, so that it is not possible for the Spirit to flow with undivided and unhindered fullness through the whole; consequently we do not have the gifts of the Spirit in the same measure as in the day of Pentecost. The body is carrying about with it diseased and lacerated members, and it takes the strength of those who are whole to carry those who are broken.\tWhat we need today is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and then the union will come because of the unity. Then we will not need our platforms and our convocations to bring the body together, but bone to bone, member to member and heart to heart we will stand in “unity of the Spirit” (Ephesians 4:3), and the Church of Jesus will be “fair as the moon, bright as the sun, majestic as the stars in procession” (Song of Songs 6:10).\tThe baptism of the Holy Spirit will always bring a spirit of love. It will fill the heart with devotion and devotedness to God, with tender consideration for one another, with loving regard for our brethren, with intense longing for the salvation of souls, and with sweetness and charity toward all men.

Power from on High(Acts)But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)THE GREATEST NEED OF HUMAN NATURE is power. Man is weaker than all other creatures. The tiger’s cub is able to take care of itself, but the human being spends one-third of an ordinary lifetime before he reaches maturity.\tHe is the prey of all the elements around him, and morally he is much weaker still. In his heart are elements of evil that drag him downward, and around him a thousand influences that lead him astray.\tThere is unspeakable pathos in the cry of a poor, sinning woman who once said in a hospital, as we were pleading with her to do right: “I am not strong enough to be good.” There is infinite comfort in that blessed assurance of the Holy Scriptures, “When we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).\tThe gospel is a message of strength. “It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (1:16). It is the special ministry of the Holy Spirit to give power from on high. How much is signified in the mighty promise? How far have we come short of His fullness? How far may we claim its fulfillment?\tWe cannot find a better answer than in the book of Acts. This verse is the keynote and the table of contents. Every word in this verse points forward to a whole section of the book which follows.\tThe first chapter of Acts tell us the story of the power. The next chapter tells us of the witnessing which followed. Then we have the church in Jerusalem. Then we have the gospel in all Judea. Then we have the story of Samaria. And finally, the closing chapters are wholly devoted to the preaching of the gospel unto the uttermost part of the earth.\tWe will not attempt now to trace the unfolding of this order through the book of Acts. But we will simply endeavor to illustrate the meaning of the word “power” by the facts and incidents of the story of the apostolic church as given in the book of Acts, which is really the story of the Holy Spirit more than the acts of the apostles.Power of a Person\tThis is the power of a Person. The right translation is, you shall receive not power, but the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you. It is not your power, but His power. It is not abstract power under your control, but it is a Person whose presence with you is necessary to your possessing and retaining the power.\tHe has the power and you have Him. In the science of electricity, it has been found that the best form in which this motive power can be used to run our street cars, is not through storage batteries, but through overhead wires. The power is not stored up in the car, but in the dynamo and the wire, and the car just draws it from above by constant contact, and the moment it lets go its touch the power is gone. The power is not in the car, but in the wire.\tAnd so the power of the Holy Spirit is power from above. It is not our power, but His, and received from Him moment by moment.\tIn order to receive this power and retain it, there are certain conditions which are necessary. One of them is that we will obey Him and follow His directions. We can only have His power in the line of His will. The car can only draw the power from the wire in so far as it follows the track. It can have the power to run along the highway, but it cannot have it to run into the neighboring farms and follow the capricious will of the driver. The Holy Spirit is given to them that obey Him, and obedience to the Holy Spirit is a much larger thing than many dream.\tIt is not merely to keep from doing wrong in some little contracted sphere; but it is to understand and follow the whole will and purpose of God in the use of this divine enduement. We cannot have it to please ourselves even in the mode of our Christian work. We can only enjoy the fullness of the Spirit, in so far as we use this fullness for the work to which He has called us.\tThis verse is the measure and the limit of the Spirit’s power. He is given that we will be witnesses of Christ, both “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).\tWe can only know the fullness of the Spirit’s power as we use it to give the gospel to the whole world. Only in the line of the world’s evangelization and the fulfillment of our great trust can the church of God ever realize the utmost meaning of the promise of Pentecost.

The Power of Supernatural Gifts and Divine Healing\tIt is the power of supernatural gifts and divine healing. The name of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, was sufficient to restore the paralytic at the Gate Beautiful of the temple, and even to raise the dead at the prayer of Peter.\tAt every great crisis in the apostolic ministry, we find a special manifestation of supernatural power. It was given to emphasize their testimony in Jerusalem. It was specially marked at the opening of the gospel in Samaria. It was still more wonderfully manifested as Peter preached through all Judea. And at every new point in Paul’s missionary journeys we find “God testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles” (Hebrews 2:4).\tYou will notice, however, that the healing of the sick and the working of supernatural power were not primary ends, but rather testimonies to something more important: the reality and power of the name of Jesus, and the message of mercy through the gospel.\tWe must still recognize the supernatural ministry of the Spirit, which never was intended to be interrupted. Such ministry ought to be expected yet more wonderfully in these last days before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us never make the mistake of regarding it as an end, or allowing it to take the place of the higher truths that relate to our spiritual life. At the same time, let us not ignore it. The church is one through all the ages. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (13:8). The Holy Spirit is unchanged. And the constitution of the church is identical with the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians and the plan which God gave at Pentecost.\tWe cannot leave out any part of the gospel without weakening all the rest. And if there ever was an age when the world needed the witness of God’s supernatural working, it is this day of unbelief and Satanic power. Therefore, we may expect as the end approaches that the Holy Spirit will work in the healing of sickness, in the casting out of demons, in remarkable answers to prayer, in special and wonderful providence’s, and in such forms as may please His sovereign will. He will do this to prove to an unbelieving world that the power of Jesus’ name is still unchanged, and that “no matter how many promises God has made, they are `Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the `Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 1:20).\tLet us not fear to claim His power for our physical as well as our spiritual need, and we will find that “if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in [us], he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to [our] mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in [us]” (Romans 8:11).The Power of Providential Working\tIt is the power of providential working. There is nothing more remarkable than the manner in which God’s providence worked in line with the first disciples, showing that He who dwelt within them was the same God who controls the universe and all the affairs of human life.\tHow wonderful the providence that brought representatives from the whole world to meet at Pentecost, and then to receive the power and go forth to their homes in every nation, as witnesses for Jesus!\tHow marvelous the providence that brought Philip and the eunuch of Ethiopia together down there at the crossroads of the desert, and then sent the prince on to his home in Africa converted, enlightened, and filled with the Holy Spirit, to be a witness for Jesus to his whole nation, and perhaps bring all North Africa to God!\tHow remarkable the providence that sent Peter to the housetop, and then brought to him the vision that illuminated his mind, enlarged his ideas, and prepared him for his greater commission to the Gentiles. When he was ready, God sent, in the very nick of time, the messengers of Cornelius to knock at his door and take him up to Caesarea to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and witness the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as at Pentecost!\tHow wonderful the providence of God that opened the church at Antioch and prepared a new center for Gentile Christianity, in the larger spirit of the cosmopolitan congregation, and then gathered there men like Paul and Barnabas to be the leaders of a wider movement for all the world!\tHow marvelous the providence that saved Peter from the cruel hand of Herod, opening his prison doors on the very night preceding his intended execution, and smiting Herod down with a hideous disease in the hour of his presumptuous purpose to destroy the Church of God!\tHow extraordinary the providence’s that followed Paul through his wondrous life, opening his way from land to land, and making storm and tempest, and even the very viper that sprang upon him, to work for the cause of Christ!\tThe same God still rules in the realm of Providence. Still the Holy Spirit within us can control the circumstances around us. Even now the march of events will keep time to the leadings of the Spirit. The man who walks in the Holy Spirit will have a charmed life and be immortal till his work is done. He will find that winds and waves and fierce and cruel men, and even Satan’s very emissaries will be forced to become auxiliaries to God’s purpose, and work with Him for the furtherance of the gospel.\tGod has worked in the lives of men like Arnot in Africa, Paton in the New Hebrides, George Muller in Bristol and many a humble missionary of the cross who has dared to trust the mighty promise of the ascended Master. They discovered the permanent value of His words, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18, 20).