While I’m not a slave to what may be known as the orthodox “church calendar”, I do keep up with it, knowing that millions of my brothers and sisters in Christ live closely tuned into it. With PENTECOST Sunday approaching, I went back and reread a short, but wonderful book by A.W. Tozer entitled, HOW TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
In my opinion, it is a Christian classic and I believe every follower of JESUS can find encouragement and challenge from reading it. In it Tozer states: “The Holy Spirit came to carry the evidence of Christianity from the books of apologetics into the human heart, and that is exactly what He does.” “God took religion from the realm of the external and made it internal.”
Elsewhere, Tozer once stated in a sermon, “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.” While I realize the statistical numbers he gives are not truly quantifiable, I believe, unfortunately so, that the spirit of his statement carries much truth.
So how do we, as Christ-followers in our day, “get more of the Holy Spirit” in our lives and our churches? Maybe it starts by answering an even more important question.
I invite you to engage with this message as we ask and answer a truly important question about ourselves and the HOLY SPIRIT of our LIVING GOD?
Pastor Joe Still