Do you move in the power of the Spirit?

A.W.Tozer writes " Seven things that come to the believers in the fullness of the Spirit.”

1. Knowledge of the actual presence of God.
2. Possession of the true joy of the Holy Spirit.
3. Their words now penetrated and arrested.
4. A clear sense of the reality of all things.
5. Sharp separation between the believer and the world.
6. Their new great delight in prayer.
7. Their new love for the Scriptures of God.

I would like to add a few more of my own. A love of other saints. A love of praise and worship. And so, if we run through this list, what do we find? I would argue that we would find your very average believer in the early church and as it progressed through the centuries less and less so, apart from moments and times of "revival.” I wonder what these old writers that held a high view of the church make of the times in which we now love? Don’t you think they would be beside themselves? Men like Sparks and Ravenhill and A.B.Simpson from the turn of the last century. Lets go through the list and as we do I want you to think how this applies to you personally and to the church where you fellowship. These are my own thoughts on the seven points Tozer raises.

1. A knowledge of the actual presence of God. In other places it is described as the manifest presence of God. It used to be written about a lot but I dont find that anymore. Christendom has been so inundated by soulish activities and music that at least a couple of generations have grown up in Christendom knowing nothing of the manifest presence of God either personally or corporately. They have never felt that holy heaviness come down from heaven and rest like dew upon their heads, quieting them, lowering their heads, raising their hands in surrender and worship, not in response to the words of a ” worship leader,” but in response to the very presence of God that stills their very souls and elevates them to the throne of grace where they can only whisper ” Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty,” lest they take any attention away from a Holy God who has come down to visit. Awe and majesty and reverence accompanied by rivers of tears and a deep, deep inner sense of wholeness and all things being possible.

2. Possession of the true joy of the Holy Spirit. Now this joy is not the joy of the world or as the world knows it. It is very much related to that part of the spirit that is ever connected to the presence of God. The world’s definition of joy is ” a feeling of great pleasure or happiness.” Yet this is not the joy of the saint. The saint’s joy is not rooted in the soulish realm of feelings at all, it is an activity of the spirit which produces joy from our very relationship to the Lord. It is sensed in its greatest depths when, at least as far as the world can see, there is absolutely no reason for pleasure or happiness at all. The essence of the joy of the saint is to know that he is loved and that the Lord is with him in whatever his circumstances are, this produces an inner happiness and contentment when there should be none and it is one of the great strengths of the saints.

3. Their words now penetrated and arrested. In Acts 2 when Peter spoke to the crowd, scripture tells us that the crowd were ” stabbed in their hearts.” The Greek word for this phrase is Katanusso. A similar word is used when Jesus is stabbed with the spear, that word is nusso. Now Katanusso is a much more violent word than nusso. It means agitate, to thoroughly penetrate, to violently pierce. And so the Holy Spirit is showing us that there is greater violence taking place in Acts chapter two than even when the Lord was run through with a spear. The violence was to men’s souls. Their hard hearts were being violently penetrated by the very words spoken under the influence of the Holy Spirit. In Acts chapter two those affected cried out ” what must we do,” yet just a few chapters later when Stephen is speaking with the same power, men were stabbed in the heart but gnashed their teeth and fell upon Stephen and stoned him. In either case, men were not left unmoved by the power of the Spirit speaking though the saints.

4. A clear sense of the reality of all things. To have vision, to have an eternal vision is to have a clear sense of the reality of all things. There is a reality of this world and it is powerful, it presses in on the senses and for those outside of the Spirit of God it is all-consuming. Yet there is a greater reality that lies within the saints. It is the reality of the Kingdom of God and they walk in it. Now these two realities undoubtedly compete and we as saints must be on our guard that we do not let the realities of this world overwhelm us and rob us of the realities of the Kingdom in which we truly walk. This is the battle between spirit and flesh. The clear sense of reality therefore is truly knowing that our time here is short, and knowing that we are on a narrow path that leads us to eternity and actually knowing that this eternity has already begun and we are simply in the corruptible stage and there comes the tie soon where these bodies will be raised in incorruption. When we walk in this reality, the reality of the world loses its power and we begin to see more clearly in the spiritual than we can see in the natural and the spiritual begins to dominate everything that we do........bro Frank

This is the 'normal' Christian, brother Frank, as Watchman Nee said. How else can we live as believers in Christ?

Thanks for all your encouraging words lately! Especially that one about "Keep on Walking" YES!!

Sister L

"This is the 'normal' Christian, brother Frank, as Watchman Nee said. How else can we live as believers in Christ?"

A hearty amen to that sister, I would agree entirely, and amen, yes, Keep on Walking! :) ............bro Frank

Hi Mike,

I am glad you mentioned prayer and amen to your word. Here is part b of this post, points 5,6 and 7.

5. A sharp separation between the believer and the world. This leads on from point number four. When we see and know and walk in the Kingdom reality, it necessarily separates us from the world for we will be Kingdom minded, our hearts and thoughts will be eternally focussed. And as the old hymn goes ” Cast your eyes upon Jesus, look full into His wonderful face, and the thing of earth shall grow strangely dim, in the light of His mercy and grace.” Yet, lets not confuse separation from the world with separating ourselves from the world. We go into the world every day and this is rightfully so. We do not run from the world and hide behind walls seeking some kind of holiness outside of the world’s influence. It’s in the very midst of the world and all of its systems that we have the most impact as Kingdom minded saints who walk in a very different reality. We bring that reality everywhere we go, we bring our light into the world’s darkness, we are a city set on a hill, a light for the gentiles and so we have been called for we know how much our heavenly Father loves the world, we know this because of Calvary and our hearts beat within His.

6. Their new great delight in prayer. This point is so important. To put it very simply, we love to talk to those we love is that not right? When the above points are in operation then talking to God is as natural as breathing. It becomes your constant source of strength and sanity. Yet you must believe that you are actually talking to God, and this is where point one plays such an important point in the saints relationship with God. If you have never experienced the manifest actual presence of God then quite possibly your prayer life is at best a discipline, like exercise, something that has resistance and must be pushed through. This is quite a bit different from the breathing analogy. Now in everything in the spirit there are seasons, this is not what I am talking about here. There can also be spiritual warfare in the realm of prayer, and there will be, I am not talking about either, I am simply saying that for the most part, there will be delight in prayer.

7. Their new love for the Scriptures of God. Can I just say that I have been a believer for a long time now and I have yet to meet a genuine saint who does not love God’s word. It is a lamp unto their feet and a light in the darkness and especially in times of trouble it is their very strength. How often a single verse can hold you through the darkest periods of your life and of course its not the verse itself its the author of the verse. The author of the word has given us a love for the truth. (2 Thess 2:10) This is something we receive from God Himself. It keeps us with its reminder of God’s promises and faithfulness and it assures us of what it to come.

The last couple of points are praising and worshiping God and a love for other saints. Brothers and sisters I have never met a genuine saint who does not love other saints, it’s in our DNA it simply is. And to praise God with our hearts lips in song, especially corporately is something common to very saint. We know that the Word tells us that the Lord inhabits the praises of His people and whatever brings us closer to the Lord then we delight in do we not? Now all of the above points are vital to every saint and it is vital that we do not neglect these things especially as the days are growing darker. The power of God is a vital aspect of who we are and if we are to have any affect on this dying world and if we are to stand in these coming evil days we must be endued with power from on high. It was vital for the early saints and it has been vital for every saint that followed. A modern preacher said this, and I very rarely quote people who are still alive ” Your faith is either supernatural or it is superficial.” All of the above points are supernatural. Let us walk in the fullness of God and stand fast brothers and sisters.

Hi Mike, I could not agree more. The presence of God, the manifest presence of God, the reality of God, this " awareness of God," as Duncan Campbell used to call it makes the difference. Out of this flows all other things. Joy and peace and love and obedience, all done for Love, manifest love manifested. Real love felt. Passionate love creates passion. It creates power in the speaker who is speaking of the one he loves and knows and no matter what the unbeliever thinks, he knows he is speaking to one who claims to know, not know about Jesus..................bro Frank

Hi bro Dominic,

I personally believe a great part of the problem is the inability of a great number of Christians to experience the manifest presence of God corporately. I believe this is where this experience is primarily " felt." As you know, much of Christendom has been flooded by soulish activity that passes itself of as Spirit led worship,prayer and preaching when in actual fact it is man led soulish activity. The programs at a great deal of our churches are so managed and managed by people with degrees that the Spirit of the Lord is no-where to be found in His manifest presence. This I believe is a part of the times in which we live, the great falling away, its a part of the proclamation of Ichabod and a sign of our times.

Those who have experienced the freedom of the Spirit are eventually compelled to leave controlled organizations behind and go out into the desert and seek Him wherever He may be found.

There is power in the manifest presence of God, no one knows this better than the enemy of our soul. If you were coming against Christendom, this would be a main target. He is coming against Christendom and this is and has been his main target. It is part of our end time battle and it is separating, winnowing and sifting. May the Lord be with us as we stand in these days when everything around us is falling and has been invaded by the world........bro Frank