Focus: The Missing Spirit

Text: Act.19:2,6

"He said unto them, Have ye RECEIVED the Holy Ghost SINCE ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost… And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied."

Paul comes to Ephesus and meets with a body of believers, and while the worship service was ongoing, he discovers that the presence of the Holy Spirit was not being felt. The meeting was dry and ordinary. It was more or less a mere religious routine. Paul then inquires from them about the Holy Spirit, and from their response he realizes that they are unaware of anything or anyone called the Holy Spirit. They have not the slightest idea of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. What they know about is the baptism of John. Their problem bothers on ignorance. No preacher or teacher among them knows anything about the Holy Spirit. The lack Pentecostal power was evident in their services and sermons, and that was due to ignorance.

For us today, our problem is that of unbelief and negligence. As you may know, ignorance is more than not knowing; it is ignoring or neglecting knowledge. This is ignorance by choice. We are ignorant by choice and by church dogmas. This is willful ignorance. We ignore the Spirit's reality in the face of a clear revelation of God in the Scriptures. For many of us, we see only what we want to see in the Scriptures. Our Church dogmas keep us from opening our hearts and minds to the move of the Holy Spirit. We keep ourselves from encountering the realities and possibilities of the Holy Spirit - His presence and power.

We seem more interested in keeping to the status quo and maintaining our religious positions. We are locked up in what J. I. Packer has termed the "travesties of Christianity," which includes our institutionalism, formalism, moralism, and traditionalism, and the Holy Spirit is kept out of our personal lives and corporate religious meetings by these so called 'isms.' Paul says, "Having a FORM of godliness, but denying the POWER thereof: from such turn away" (2Tim.3:5). We have the form while denying the power - the real deal.

We have the music and the dance. We know how to preach and teach expertly. Our songs and hymns are super. We observe order and follow the program of service. Externally, everything seems perfect. We sing with dignity and pray with poise. Truly, everything seems right except for the missing Holy Spirit, and as Packer would say, everything "minus the Spirit." And without the Spirit everything else is utter failure.

The New Testament church cannot operate effectively without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul knew something was missing in that service, but after teaching and baptizing them in the name of Jesus Christ, he laid hands on them, and right away, they were filled with the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues and prophesying.

Fire from heaven came upon that little church, and like the dry bones in the valley of Ezekiel's vision, the life and Spirit of God entered into them, and they were revitalized, galvanized, and formed into a formidable force for God's glory.

Paul stayed back in Ephesus for about two years, shepherding them in love.

O, Holy Spirit, come upon your people afresh, for apart from you we can do nothing!Your absence is telling on us, and you can't be replaced or relegated. Save us from believing without receiving. Grant us another baptism of fire by the Spirit. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter