By Charles H. Spurgeon (1834 – 1892)

    It was no small honor to have seen our risen Lord while yet He lingered here below; what must it be to see Jesus as He is now!  Dwell with your hearts very much upon Christ crucified, but indulge yourselves full often with a sight of Christ glorified; delight to think that He is not here, for He is risen!  He is not here, for He has ascended!  He is not here, for He sits at the right hand of God, and makes intercession for us! 

Jesus Has All Power

    “…All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18).

    Now, think a moment of these words, “all power.”  Jesus Christ has given to Him by His Father, as a consequence of His death, “all power.”  What mind shall conceive, what tongue shall set in order before you the meaning of all power?  We cannot grasp it!  It is high, we cannot attain unto it!  Such knowledge is too wonderful for us.  The power of self-existence, the power of creation, the power of sustaining that which is made, the power of fashioning and destroying, the power of opening and shutting, of overthrowing or establishing, of killing and making alive, the power of pardon and to condemn, to give and to withhold, to decree and to fulfill, to be, in a word, “head over all things to the church” (Eph. 1:22) – all this is vested in Jesus Christ our Lord! 

The Power of the Holy Spirit

    “All power” must include – and this is a practical point to us – all the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is He that convicts men of sin, and leads them to a Savior, gives them new hearts and right spirits, and plants them in the church, and then causes them to grow and become fruitful.  As the anointing oil poured upon Aaron’s head, ran down his beard, and dampened the skirts of his garments, so the Spirit which has been granted to Him without measure flows from Him to us! 

All Power on Earth

    Our Lord also claimed that all power had been given to Him on earth.  Since all power on earth is lodged in Christ’s hands, He can also clothe any and all of His servants with a sacred might by which their hands shall be sufficient for them in their high calling.  Without bringing them forth into the front ranks, He can make them occupy their appointed stations till He comes, girt with a power which shall make them useful.  My brother, the Lord Jesus can make you eminently prosperous in the sphere in which He has placed you.  My sister, your Lord can bless the little children who gather at your knee through your means.  You are very feeble, and you know it, but there is no reason why you should not be strong in Him.  If you look to the Strong for strength, He can endow you with power from on high, and say to you as to Gideon, “Go in this thy might” (Judg. 6:14).

Power for the Church in Our Day!

    O believers, resort to your Lord to receive, out of His fullness, grace for grace.  Because of this power we believe that if Jesus willed, He could stir the whole church at once to the utmost energy.  Does she sleep?  His voice can awaken her.  Does she restrain prayer?  His grace can stimulate her devotion.  Has she grown unbelieving?  He can restore her ancient faith.  Does she turn her back in the day of battle, troubled with skepticisms and doubts?  He can restore her unwavering confidence in the Gospel, and make her valiant till all her sons shall be heroes of faith.

   Let us believe, and we shall see the glory of God!  Never despair for the church!  Be anxious for her, and turn your anxiety into prayer – but be hopeful evermore, for her Redeemer is mighty, and will stir up His strength.  “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge” (Psa. 46:7).  There stands One among us whom the world sees not, whose shoelace we are not worthy to loosen – He shall again baptize us with the Holy Spirit, and with fire, for “all power” is given unto Him.

By James A. Stewart (1910 – 1975)

    The burden of my life is that the Lord will revive His work.  For this reason, I am tried by many of God’s people because they are living only half-heartedly instead of being one-hundred percent for the Lord Jesus Christ.

    I am longing and praying for a worldwide revival because I believe the days of revival are not past.  As long as the blessed Holy Spirit, Himself the great standing miracle, abides and works on the earth, the church’s potential is the same as it was in apostolic days.

    I believe that God wants to send us a mighty tidal wave of the Spirit to all the churches.  We have seen this happen again and again in our own ministry, resulting in the salvation of thousands.  I have many reasons for believing that God wants to send revival in these days to you, my brother and sister, and these have to do with His plans and purposes for the lives of His redeemed ones.

    God is never content in any age for His people to live below the standard which He has set for His Son’s Bride.  No man is satisfied that his bride be subnormal.  Far less can our Father be content for one moment to see His church anything less than holy and powerful, living in vital communion with Himself as He has purposed.  A subnormal and backslidden church is an insult and disgrace to a holy, powerful, almighty God.

We All Need Personal Revival!

    What each child of God needs is a personal revival.  An old Methodist saint in Britain quaintly drew a chalk mark around himself and said, “O Lord, revive everybody within this circle!”  This was getting close!  That was making things personal and practical.  Are you prepared for such drastic measures?  Are you prepared to fast and pray to see what is hindering the Holy Spirit from using you in a deeper, fuller way?

    Mr. Moody put it very plainly when he said, “There are in the churches stores of unconsecrated wealth, unused or misused power, multitudes at ease in Zion, witnesses who give not witness for the Lord, workers without the Spirit’s conquering power, disciples who follow afar off, forms without life, church machinery substituted for inward life and power.”

    Alas, as the result of not being filled with the Holy Spirit, we have many believers deprived of untold riches in Christ which the indwelling Spirit would minister to them were He but permitted to fill them.  The illimitable resources and immeasurable power which are potentially theirs in Christ lie idle and unused, waiting to be realized in the life by the infilling and controlling presence of the Spirit of Christ.

    God’s power toward us is declared in the first chapter of Ephesians to be none other than that transcending might of God by which Christ was raised up from the dead and exalted and enthroned at the Father’s right hand.  As the deliverance out of Egypt was the token of God’s power on behalf of His covenant people, so Christ’s resurrection exemplifies the exceeding greatness of divine potency which is available in the Holy Spirit for the life and work of the church.

    Think of all the potentialities of a Spirit-filled life (Eph. 1:17-23).  But also see the tragedy in the fact that tens of thousands of Christians are selling their spiritual birthright for a mess of pottage.

    Oh yes, they are saved.  They have been regenerated by the work of the Holy Ghost.  They are bound for glory.  But oh, so many have no desire for the deep things of God, no yearning, no thirst to be filled with the Spirit, to possess all their possessions in the Lord Jesus.  Potentially, the moment He is received into the life as Savior everything that He possesses becomes the property of the believer.  But, ah, experimentally, one can only receive the marvelous gifts and enjoy the blessed experiences as he appropriates them for himself.

    What ignorance many of God’s people display, living as they do below the level of all the spiritual blessings which are wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenlies, simply because their eyes are blinded by the devil.  They have become carnal and lack joy in the Christian life.  They have no desire to go on in the deep things of God.

    On the other hand, David prayed, “As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!” (Psa. 42:1).

    There is a solemn indictment against the people of God.  It is that they are not hungering and thirsting after the things of God.  They are not longing to have a genuine work of God in their midst but instead they crave excitement.  They are often bored, not interested.  Yet the only way to see God working in the life, the only way to be filled and anointed with the Holy Spirit, the only way to experience a revival – is by hungering after Him!  “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink” (John 7:37).

    We must remember that there is all the difference in the world between the believer’s possession of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s possession of the believer.  We can never say that a believer has not the Holy Spirit, but there is a sad possibility that the Spirit of God does not possess the believer.

Greater Depths and Heights

    What a tragedy, what a heartbreak it would be for us to reach the Gloryland and have to look back and see that we were not all that God intended us to be, that we were living disappointed, meager Christian lives when all the time we should have been multi-millionaires in our risen Christ.  It is the Holy Ghost who is rejected, and yet it is only He who can bring the believer experimentally into a wealthy place in Christ and reveal all that divine power which potentially is his in Jesus Christ.

    Only the Holy Spirit can make these things real and precious and true in our hearts and lives.  It is sadly possible to have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and to be on the way to Glory and yet to be only half-hearted, following afar off.  The life of one who is not a soul winner, who has no passion for souls, no hunger for God’s Word and no thirst for a fuller richer life in Christ, is a contradiction to the glorious Gospel of the dear Redeemer.  He does not carry the fragrance of the Lord Jesus.  The one remedy for this deplorable condition is to be filled with the Spirit.  Then the life will be full of power and will tell for the Redeemer.

   – From Your Personal Revival (currently out of print) by James A. Stewart. Used by permission of Revival Literature, P.O. Box 505, Skyland NC 28776.  revivallit.org

By Al Whittinghill

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD…” (Psa. 33:12).

    “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34; cf. Deut. 8:11; Psa. 9:17; 50:22).

    History is littered with the remains of once great empires, each one having had their turn at the very helm of the world.  They rose so high and enjoyed such prominence, yet today they are only a memory. Nations do not really die…they dissolve, a slow process of erosion and decay from within.  They self-destruct due to disintegration caused by evils and dangers lurking within that they had not attended to.  They forgot God and His Truth!

    Nations that are ready to die are plagued by lawlessness, economic insolvency, a loss of values, self-centeredness and the breakdown of social order.  Peace and order become impossible to maintain despite a deluge of “new laws” to stem the flood of lawlessness.  The barbarians then come and infiltrate, and the nation cannot resist the continual internal chaos.  The nation loses its moral fiber, and the will to sacrifice is no longer present in the people.  The nation is divided and full of crisis.

    These are well-worn paths to disaster that nations mindlessly take, and these symptoms should remain stark warnings to any nation.  They are absolute alarms to “wake up,” to turn to the Lord, and not continue the fatal movement away from God that ends in oblivion.

    A nation that has forgotten God has no chance.  It is doomed to idolatry that ends in death.  The nation that does not fear Him and has forgotten Him seldom hears His warnings.  The reason that history repeats itself is that most people do not listen the first time!  Someone has said, “The future cannot be seen clearly without the past.”  (See Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 and Job 8:8-13.)  As Aristotle first said, “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.”  The lessons of history are meant to lead us to the Lord of history.  It is really His-story, and it lovingly and practically shouts at us that every individual and nation is accountable to Him.  History will end at the feet of our Risen Lord. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

The Hope of Revival

    God repeatedly warns a nation and pleads with that nation in many ways before He removes it.  The great hope in a wayward nation is that God will mercifully send a mighty move of His Spirit in that nation and bring the people into a right relationship with Himself.  The people must respond to the revelation of God and get to that place of letting God be God.  (Nineveh is a good example of how God will have mercy on a nation when there is a heart response to His Word.)  True revival will not come by simply making people aware of our great need for revival.  Revival will not come even if we are successful in pointing out all our present grievous sin and error.  It will not come because of multiplied meetings to encourage us, and to make us want revival; even sing about it.  It will not come even if we are successful in setting forth the symptoms of impending judgment until the people are truly fearful.

    Revival will come only in God’s sovereign grace when the people of God recover God’s revelation of who He is and respond in faith to Him.  It is only united believing prayer that can grasp eternity and open the heavens in authentic revival.  What will bring God’s people to the place where they recover His heavenly vision for believing prayer?  We must have fresh revelation of God Himself through His Word.  Jesus Christ the Lord must be lifted up and proclaimed in all His beauty and power.  Inherent in this revelation will come the glorious realization of what He wants His people to be.  Then, the people of God must choose to genuinely respond to Him in such a way as to allow Him to clear up the discrepancies and contradictions that are in the church.  Apart from Him there is no hope for us!  Submitted to Him, the church will once again become “salt and light” as He graciously pours His Spirit out upon her.  A Spirit-filled church is a channel of His resurrection life and power.

It Is Time To Seek The Lord

    Friends, in our day who would dispute that the church at large has lost sight of who He is?  And because we do not see or know His holiness there is no fear of God.  Because we do not see our unholiness there is little brokenness and contrition.  Because we do not see His forgiveness and grace there is little joy.  Because we do not see His plans and eternal purposes we sense a lack of purpose and meaning.  We end up settling for endless lesser things.

    When revival comes it will make the church “a bull’s-eye for the world,” not just a blessing.  The enmity of a hostile world will become focused against the church because the devil fears a glorious church.  Antagonism and attacks will come upon God’s revived people from the world, and also from the worldly that are inside the church.  But God will own His church and demonstrate that she is His in manifest power.  There will be fresh demonstrations of resurrection life in His Body.  She will worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness (Psa. 96:9), and the Gospel will go forth in majestic power!  Just imagine what the church would be like if our wonderful Lord had His way.  Oh, for an outpouring of the glory of God!  It is time for the church of the Lord Jesus to heed the Scriptures afresh!  We must deal with the real issues of the heart…the ones that have kept us from heavenly intimacy with God and have stifled a passion for His glory.

Clothed with Power

    The world is waiting to see the New Testament church, clothed with power from on high and brimming over with the joy of resurrection life and the presence of the Lord.  Nothing else will impress the world or convince it that Jesus Christ is the wonderful Lord the Word says that He is.  We must have revival in the church!  It is the only hope for our nation and the world.  So the question for each of us is, “What will we do to respond worthily to what the Spirit of God is saying to His churches in this hour?”  Will we diligently seek the face of God in united, humble, desperate, repentant, passionate, Bible-based, Spirit-given prayer?

    Isn’t it true that the church cannot have a message for the heart of the world until the Lord has the heart of the church?  The church must be ignited by the Lord, or we will be ignored by the world!  God loves a church aflame; He cannot abide the lukewarm.  It is time to seek the Lord…to let the Holy Spirit burn the promises of God into our very being.

    Heaven-sent revival can save a nation.  Let us turn to Him in prayer that is worthy of Him and that is appropriate and right for the desperate hour in which we live.  There is glorious hope in Him.

    “Lord send revival, and let it begin in me.”

By Wesley L. Duewel (1916 – 2016)

    When the Holy Spirit fills us He imparts purity and power.  The person who dedicates his all as a living sacrifice in absolute surrender (the term Andrew Murray loved to use) and asks for and trusts for the Spirit’s infilling is given a new dimension of spiritual life.  The Holy Spirit cleanses and makes one pure in the inner person to a degree he never knew before, and in the same moment fills with a divinely greater power.

    After one is filled with the Spirit, as one walks in the light of the Word as guided by the Spirit, he seeks constantly to please the Lord.  Moment by moment he depends on the Spirit who indwells, and the Spirit enables him to be victorious over temptation.  Through the Spirit’s help purity can be preserved.  In some sense we can keep ourselves pure (1 Tim. 5:22) by careful obedience to the Spirit (1 John 3:3), by testing everything, holding to the good and avoiding the evil (1 Thes. 5:21-22).  We thus help to keep ourselves from being soiled and spotted by sin (2 Pet. 3:14).

    But spiritual power is different.  Spiritual power cannot be preserved indefinitely.  The power of the Spirit is His energy flowing into and through our spirits.  Energy gets used up.  Power must be renewed.  This spiritual secret is beautifully symbolized in Zechariah 4.

    God gave an important vision to Zechariah to strengthen and encourage the two God-anointed leaders who were rebuilding the temple after the captivity – Joshua, the high priest, and Zerubbabel, the governor.  Great opposition had delayed the work for twenty years.

    God used symbolism to illustrate and confirm His powerful statement: “This is the word of the Lord…‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Zech. 4:6).  God showed Zechariah a vision of a gold lampstand furnishing light through a bowl that channeled olive oil to seven lamps (symbolizing fullness of light).  The oil supply to the bowl came from two golden pipes that received oil from a living olive tree.  The lamps burned and gave light as long as oil flowed.

    The Spirit’s power is the great essential for doing God’s work, but it is expended by use.  We cannot minister today in yesterday’s power.  We cannot accomplish God’s full purpose on memories of past blessing and empowering.  God does not want us to live in the past, but in a moment-by-moment present appropriation of His power.

    There may be rare occasions when God uses us in spite of ourselves.  That was probably the way He used Samson, Balaam, and King Saul at times.  But the rule of God is that we can give only what we receive.  God wants us to be daily empowered so that we are daily usable for His glory.  God forgive us if the only time He uses us mightily is when He is compelled to work in spite of our spiritual condition.

How Spiritual Power Is Depleted or Lost

    Jesus Christ did not begin His ministry until He received a special bestowal of Holy Spirit power.  Hear His words: “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach…” (Luke 4:18).  Peter summarized Christ’s ministry by saying, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power” (Acts 10:38).  Jesus used the same power in His earthly ministry that we must use today – the power of the Spirit.  He chose primarily not to minister through His inherent deity, but through the anointing of the Spirit.

    Luke 6:19 explains, “The people all tried to touch Him, because power was coming from Him and healing them all.”  This was the power of the Spirit.  When the woman who had been suffering for twelve years touched the edge of Jesus’ cloak, He said, “Someone touched Me; I know that power has gone out from Me” (Luke 8:46).

    What was true of Jesus is true of you.  As you minister to people, you expend spiritual power.  If you want to be used of God, if you want to heal the wounds of humankind, God’s power must be upon you continually and flow through you.

    1.  Spiritual power is expended naturally by your ministry.  The more you minister, the more you need your power renewed.  The busier you become, the more you need your power renewed, the more you need spiritual refreshment and replenishing.  It is not just mental weariness or physical exhaustion that you experience.  Without spiritual renewal you will become a spiritual has-been.

    Once when Luther was asked about his plans for the next day he replied, “Work, work, from early until late.  In fact, I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”  Busy ministry without adequate prayer and spiritual renewal leads to loss of spiritual power.  The input is not keeping up with the outflow.  Have you been giving to others so constantly that you yourself are spiritually depleted?  Have you once known more of the power of God upon you and more of His anointing than you know these days?

    2.  Spiritual power is expended by involvement in non-spiritual affairs.  We are living in a basically secular world.  We are not an island, but live with all kinds of human associations.  God does not want us to be recluses, to isolate ourselves from the contaminating influences of life.  We are to be light and salt in our world.  But the source of light is expended by burning, and salt is expended by use.

    There is no conflict between work and spirituality.  Hard workers make the best Christian workers and the best prayer warriors.  Many people are too lazy to be blessed greatly.  They do not know how to pay the price of self-discipline to find time for God’s Word and prayer.  They let almost anything take priority over spiritual replenishment.  They have not learned the lesson of Zechariah 4.  They try to succeed by their own power rather than by God’s Spirit.

    In many forms of work there are wonderful opportunities for moments of brief prayer, praise, spiritual communion, and expressions of love for the Lord.  But too often we live as if the Lord were not by our side.  We ignore Him.  We fill our minds with fantasies, self-pity, and self-made plans.  We can invest moments with God while washing, grooming, walking, driving, or a thousand other activities, if we only will.

    But there are activities or environments where this is more difficult.  The atmosphere in some places is not conducive to spiritual activity and may even be anti-spiritual.  You cannot breathe the atmosphere of noise, levity, suggestiveness, sinful jokes, materialism, or blaspheming of God’s name without its effect upon you – unless you resort constantly to the Lord.  You will begin to sense gradual loss of spiritual power.  Like Lot (2 Pet. 2:7), you will feel constantly distressed and almost tormented.

    You need quiet of soul for spiritual communion and renewal.  Some people are so accustomed to being entertained by radio or television that they hardly know how to use quiet time for spir­itual refreshment and renewal of soul.  In Bible times the priest washed before ministry in the tent or temple.  We too need to take spiritual baths, or at least to freshen the face, as it were, with frequent moments with the Lord.

    3.  Lack of unity with other Christians depletes our spiritual power.  David says that unity, like the dew from heaven, brings spiritual refreshment and blessing (Psa. 133:3).  Disunity does the opposite.  It dries the soul, withers spiritual life, and evaporates spiritual refreshment and keenness.  Power is dissipated by critical attitudes, thoughts of resentment, or any unforgiveness or bitterness of heart.

    Nothing will drain away God’s blessing, power, and anointing from your life more rapidly than unkind thoughts of others.  Unloving words, gossip, laughter at the expense of others, and negative talking cuts your power and the sweetness of God’s presence.  Anything contrary to the tender love of the Holy Spirit is devastating to spiritual power.

    Are you sensitive enough to recognize quickly what grieves the Holy Spirit?  Whoever touches God’s people touches the apple of God’s eye (Zech. 2:8).  With one critical remark, you can destroy the blessing you received from hours of prayer.  The Holy Spirit is the gentle Spirit of perfect love.  One of His roles is to pour in abundance the love of God into our hearts and out through our lives (Rom. 5:5).  We cannot afford to grieve His loving nature.

    Paul speaks sharply and abruptly to this subject.  “You, then, why do you judge your brother?  Or why do you look down on your brother?” (Rom. 14:10).  “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?” (14:4).  Judgmental thoughts always grieve the Spirit.

    “…Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God…Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander…Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us…” (Eph. 4:30 – 5:2).

    4.  Lack of obedience depletes spiritual power.  Failure to continue to walk in God’s light, or failure to accept and use God-given opportunities can bring loss of the power of the Spirit.  God constantly gives us opportunities to do little extra things for Jesus.  They are not demanded of us; it depends upon how intensely we love Jesus, how eager we are to please Him with little gestures of love.

    Just as active expression of your love to Him increases His nearness and blessing upon your life, so neglect of these gestures of love can lead to loss of the sweet awareness of His presence.

    Failure to be alert to express your love in thought, word, or deed can lead to spiritual carelessness and to a gradual decrease in the Spirit’s presence and power upon you.  Are you as sensitive to what pleases the Lord as you are to what pleases your dearest companion?

    Delayed obedience, ignoring the Spirit’s suggestions, any controversy between your heart and the Lord, resisting His highest will for you – these can short circuit the flow of God’s power into your life.  Spiritual power is governed by God’s spiritual laws just as certainly as electrical power or nuclear power is governed by God’s laws of nature.

    5. Self-indulgence, a self-centered, luxurious lifestyle can deplete your spiritual power.  R. A. Torrey, the Bible teacher and co-worker of D. L. Moody, was deeply convinced of this.  He wrote,

    “Power is lost through self-indulgence.  The one who would have God’s power must lead a life of self-denial….  I do not believe that any man can lead a luxurious life, over-indulge his natural appetites, indulge extensively in dainties, and enjoy the fullness of God’s power.  The gratification of the flesh and the fullness of the Spirit do not go hand in hand.

    “…If we would know the continuance of the Spirit’s power we need to be on guard to lead lives of simplicity, free from indulgence and surfeiting, be ready to ‘endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ’ (2 Tim. 2:3).  I frankly confess I am afraid of luxury; not as afraid of it as I am of sin, but it comes next as an object of dread.  It is a very subtle, but a very potent enemy of power.  There are devils today that ‘go not out but by prayer and fasting’ (Matt. 17:21).”

    The Holy Spirit always reaches out to others, is always sensitive to the welfare of the entire church and of the world.  Self-centeredness is the opposite of Christ-centeredness and kingdom-centeredness.  In numerous ways Christians may spend their time or indulge themselves, ways that are contrary to the sacrificial spirit of holiness, the recognition of the needs of a hurting world, and the extension of Christ’s kingdom.  His “inasmuch as you did not” will be said to evangelical Christians of our generation as truly as it was said to some of His generation.  How can the Spirit bless us with outpourings of His power when we are so little concerned about what concerns Him?

    6.  Self-sufficiency and pride will deplete spiritual power.  Power can be almost instantly lost through pride.  God will not share His glory with any other.  God condescends to work through Spirit-filled people, but if anyone reaches out his proud hand and takes to himself the glory of which only God is worthy, He will withdraw His power, often instantly.  That is one reason Satan tempts you so constantly to pride.

    Billy Graham has repeatedly made such statements as, “If God should take His hand from my life, these lips will turn to lips of clay.”  We are only earthen vessels, “jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Cor. 4:7).

    God could reveal Himself so fully to Moses in a more face-to-face relationship than with any other human being and could work more mighty miracles through Moses than through any other person (Deut. 34:10, 12) because Moses was the most humble person on the face of God’s earth (Num. 12:3).

    Uzziah was greatly helped by God until he became strong and grew proud (2 Chr. 26:15-16).  Many a Christian leader’s history could be written in the same words.  God worked mightily on behalf of Hezekiah until almost unbelievably his heart became proud over the answer to his prayer (32:25).  Nebuchadnezzar was honored and used by God until he became proud (Dan. 5:20).

    Satan’s own downfall was through his pride (perhaps Ezekiel 28:2, 5, 17; First Timothy 3:6).  Pride makes us more like Satan than like Christ.  Pride will cause God to turn His face away from us.  God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jas. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5).

    Any step of self-sufficiency is the first step to pride.  Any acceptance of praise for oneself is probably denying God the praise due Him.  Self-confidence can be humble if based on God’s usual help and if we remain in complete dependence on Him.  But self-confidence can be carnal, can become a carnal form of self-reliance, and can rob us of God’s sweet presence and His mighty power.

    Any power manifested in the ministry of one who is not marked by deep humility is counterfeit power.  It is not God’s power.  It may be psychological power.  It could even be the power of Satan who delights to pose as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14).

    7.  Excessive levity can deplete spiritual power.  Humor is a gift of God to us, but it must be used only in appropriate ways and to a modest extent.  God is obviously a God who Himself enjoys wholesome humor.  That is why He created us to enjoy humor and to be able to laugh.  But there is a time, a place, and a limit on the humor God will bless.  Even too much wholesome humor can dissipate God’s power.  I have noticed that just before a special spiritual responsibility, even when I was not aware that it was just ahead, Satan has at times tried to get me and others so amused that we lost the spiritual preparation we had made.  Satan delights to rob us of God’s anointing and power just before a spiritual crisis or time when we will greatly need His power.  The presence and power of the Spirit available to a person through several hours of prayer can be lost by five minutes of improper humor, or humor at the improper time.

    8.  Sin always depletes and destroys the power of the Spirit.  Conscious disobedience, sin against light, sin against another, and all forms of failure to walk in God’s light will stop the awareness of the presence and smile of God’s favor.  Sin stops the Spirit’s power from filling you and using you.  Sin robs prayer of its effectiveness.  “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psa. 66:18).  This refers, of course, to sin according to the Bible definition of First John 3:4, a willful breaking of God’s law in spite of clear light.

    When Israel disobeyed God and broke the covenant with God, God paid no attention to their tears and prayer (Deut. 1:45).  Just as Samson was shorn both of his locks of hair and of God’s power upon him because he trifled with disobedience and sin, so there have been Christian workers who have just as completely lost the power of God upon their lives.

    Sometimes we may be unaware that we have disobeyed the Lord, but feel in our hearts that we have grieved the Spirit in some way.  This may be merely the accusation of Satan as he tries to depress and discourage.  On the other hand, this may be the restraint of the Spirit.  He is so loving and faithful that if we grieve Him without fully realizing it, He speaks to us or touches us.  If we have developed a listening ear for God’s guidance, God will find it easy to get our attention and will be faithful to speak to us.

    Thank God, there is forgiveness and cleansing available.  There is always a way back to God’s favor, presence, and power (1 John 2:1-2).  Contrition, humbling ourselves before the Lord, repentance where necessary, and forgiveness can open the gate to God’s full favor and the flood tide of His power upon us again