Rediscovering the Power of the Holy Spirit

For much of my life I have felt unqualified as a leader in the kingdom of God. I have always known that without the help of my closest adviser and guide, the Holy Spirit, I would not make it.

Recently while praying, I heard God say to me: “Son, why is the church ashamed of My Spirit? Do they not realize that they cannot do true ministry without Me?” As I prayed, I began to ponder what the Lord had asked.

For years I have cried out for revival to hit America. This generation wants to see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, yet the spiritual leaders of today act as if they have outgrown the move of God.

To decide we must keep the passionate in the back rooms and back rows of churches means a slow death. We must not relegate the moves of God to retreats, encounters and youth services. After all, great programs, warm bodies and full offering buckets have never transformed the hurting. It is the Holy Spirit who does the work.

I believe it’s time to hire Him back.

Do We Really Need the Holy Spirit?

Recently a well-known television evangelist made the statement, “The Holy Spirit does not convict the believer of sin but of his righteousness in Christ!” This statement has some truth in it, but it is also very misleading. Yes, the Holy Spirit brings us into righteousness with God, but none of us should ever get to a place where we no longer have conviction at work in our lives. It is the Holy Spirit who brings conviction (John 16:8).

The same minister also made this statement: “The work of the Holy Spirit is no longer needed.”

This is an absolute farce. The work of the Holy Spirit will always be with us. It is the Spirit who leads us to truth (John 16:12-15), and also the Holy Spirit who gives us the power to declare the truth in the first place (Acts 1:8).

The moment the church decides to be quiet and stop declaring the truth is the same moment we become irrelevant.

The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. The work of the Holy Spirit advocates on our behalf. The Holy Spirit gives us power. The Holy Spirit also comforts us when we are in need. Do we need the Holy Spirit? Without a doubt.

For too long many have listened to the opinion of the crowds, the committees and the comfortable when it comes to allowing the movement of the Holy Spirit in our churches.

But God never called us to fit in. When we said, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” it wasn’t by the leading of a mob but by the love of a King.

If we continue to create a benign label that determines what flavor we enjoy when we eat at the table of the Lord, we will turn God into nothing more than an idol on our shelves whose belly we rub when we have a need. We must get back to our first love.

The Light of Truth

We are called to be the messengers of light, and our churches should be the lighthouses in the storms (Matt. 5:15). Yet I believe we are living in very dark times because culture is now deciding what the church can say and do.

For example, the most hated chapter in many social circles today is Romans 1.

This is the chapter the apostle Paul wrote that condemns homosexuality:

“Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done” (Rom. 1:28).

The term “depraved” means “reprobate mind,” or a mind that is now “devoid of all true knowledge and judgment.”

I never believed this verse could apply to the church until I realized some churches now teach sexual perversion is fine as long as two people believe they love each other.

This is an example of what I call our compassion crisis.

Churches have come to so deeply love people’s flesh that they are afraid to talk with them concerning their souls. To say we love people so much that we don’t want to offend them is actually not showing them love at all. A person’s eternal soul will long outlast their habitation in your church.

You must allow the Holy Spirit to personally lead you to the truth in order to lead others to the truth. God will restore their souls. You cannot simply love someone into heaven; you must lead them to the cross of freedom and let the Holy Spirit do the work.

I will close this article with a final question for the reader: Is it possible to do what you are called to do without the habitation and partnership of the Holy Spirit in your life? I think the answer is a resounding no.

I challenge the church to hire the Holy Spirit back. What do we have to lose? Everything.

Pat Schatzline is a leading international evangelist and author. He and his wife, Karen, co-founded Remnant Ministries International. Known for his crazy humor and unique ability to communicate God’s Word with passion, Schatzline desires to introduce a generation to the awesome love of the Father and to see God’s last-days remnant make a stand for truth through the power of the Holy Spirit.

More information

Evangelist and author Pat Schatzline shows how God can use you no matter what your weaknesses, failures, shortcomings and missteps are in his most recent book, Unqualified: Where You Can Begin to Be Great (Charisma House). You can find it wherever Christian books are sold or at amazon.com or christianbook.com.