Passion For Jesus Ministries

If you were to find out that the leaders of your church disobeyed the injunction of this verse there would be an outrage, and rightly so. I knew a preacher that was excited, energetic, could really move the people. One morning after he had finished a moving sermon, one of the custodians found the secret to this preacher’s zeal – a small bottle of Mad Dog whiskey under the pulpit. This preacher’s career skidded to a halt. He was under the influence of the spirit, but it wasn’t the Holy Spirit, it was the wrong spirit.

 

Beloved, there is something else in Ephesians 5:18 that we need to heed. Who am I to say that it is less important than the other: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, “ and the dual command is, “But be filled with the Spirit.” Now if I understand the Bible, it would be as much of a sin for the pastor of this church to come to the pulpit next Sunday not filled with the Spirit as it would if he came to the pulpit drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.. 

 

It would be just as sinful for the worship leader to stand up here on Sundays not filled with the Spirit as it would have be for him to come drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. Friends, if any leader; whether it be the a departmental superintendent or a children’s class teacher or a pastor or deacon or elder or officer of this church, or any church, not to do his or her work in the anointing and energy of the Holy Spirit would be a sin equal to that of doing his work in the energy of alcohol, drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. 

 

The same verse in the same chapter in the same book in the same Bible gives the same emphasis to these two commands: 

 

1. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, 

 

2. But be filled with the Spirit. 

 

Now I want to speak tonight on one of the most important subjects that I can think of, “The Fullness of the Spirit.” I believe in doing the work of God in the energy of the Holy Spirit. We are in desperate need of reflecting this blessed Person of the Trinity in our churches today. I’m afraid too often we have made Sunday morning God the Father’s service and Sunday night God the Son’s service. We dare not sing about Jesus on Sunday morning. We dare not witness of Jesus on Sunday morning. He is not dignified enough for the Sunday morning service, and so we relegate Him as a second-rate Sunday night attraction. And I am more afraid we have not put the Holy Spirit anywhere at all. Because there have been those who have perverted this blessed truth, we have ceased to teach on the Holy Spirit altogether. 

 

Now tonight if you are a Pentecostal, I want to speak to you on the subject of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. If you are a Nazarene, I want to speak to you on Sanctification. If you are a Wesleyan, I want to speak to you tonight on Perfect Love.. If you are a Quaker, I want to speak to you tonight on the subject of walking in Overcoming Power. If you are a Presbyterian, I desire to speak to you tonight on Death to Self. If you are a Christian, I want to speak on WHAT WE AIN´T GOT THAT WE

DESPERATELY NEED IN OUR CHURCHES. 

 

Now I am not talking about talking in tongues. I am not talking about getting sanctified. Whatever you believe it is - I’m talking about getting the power of God in your life and upon your ministry. When I was just a young preacher I used to walk in the woods and say, “Dear Lord, I read a book about this and I want to talk in tongues.” I’d read another book, and I’d say, “Lord, I want sanctification.” I’d read another, and say, “Lord, I want perfect love.” But I didn’t get a thing. 

 

Then I would pray, “Lord, I don’t know what it is, I don’t know all about it, I don’t know all the theology--all I know is I’m not going to have a powerless ministry. I’m not going to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in the energy of the flesh. I’m not going to settle for anything less than a supernatural empowering from Heaven.” And when I quit worrying so much about the theological explanation and the practical acceptance of it, God gave me a little bit of that which I wanted. 

Tonight we are utterly powerless and helpless unless we are living our ministry in the energy of the Holy Spirit. This doctrine is a Bible truth. I like what Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., said: 

 

 

And I would rather you be a little wrong and have power than to have all the I’s dotted and the t’s crossed and not have the power of God. 

 

I. It is Bible Truth 

 

In Acts 1:4 we read the words, “wait for the promise of the Father.” In Acts 1:5 we find “baptized with the Holy Spirit.” In Acts 2:4 we find “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”-fullness of the Spirit. Luke 24:49 says,”...clothed with power from on high”- clothed with power. In Acts 1:8 we find the words, “The Holy Spirit has come upon you.” In Acts 2:17 we find the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. In Luke 11:13, and in Acts 2:38, 39 we find the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 5:18 we find the expression, “be filled with the Spirit.” Whatever you care to call it, whatever you care to term it, whatever you choose to believe about its teaching, whether you believe in a gradual process of being filled or whether you believe in one filling and that’s all, or whether you believe, as I do, in many filling over and over and over again--whatever you believe, I’m not as concerned with what you call it, I am more concerned tonight about you going home and getting on your face before God and saying, “O God, I will not be a powerless preacher. I will not be a powerless teacher. I will not be a powerless singer. I will not be a powerless Sunday School worker. I will not be a powerless elder.” I’m concerned about people who call themselves “Christians” or “little anointed ones getting the breath of God and divine unction upon our ministries. 

 

I like what the old black gentleman said down in the old South: “Lord, give me the unction. Give me the unction.” 

 

A fellow asked, “What is the unction?” 

 

He replied, “I don’t know what it is, but I know what it ain’t, and it sure is terrible without it.” 

 

Lord, give me the unction--that’s what we need. We need something like what John Wesley had when he walked with God. We need something like what George Whitefield had when he would come home with blood dripping down his face after he walked with God and preached the Gospel. We need something like what George Fox had who stayed in a trance for 14 days. We need something like what Savonarola had who sat in his pulpit in a trance for five hours. We need something like what David Brainerd had who walked with God and left his knee prints on the soil of the northwestern country praying for God to send revival. We need desperately a new anointing upon our lives and ministries. 

 

Beloved, if programs would save the world, we would be in the millennium tonight. If plans and pulpits and copied sermons and homiletics and hermeneutics and apologetics and exegesis would bring in the Kingdom, the wolf and the lamb would be lying down together tonight in the Holy Land. Do you hear me? If our plans and programs, our education, our formality, our pomp, our circumstance, or our depth would bring in the Kingdom, we would be right in the midst of Kingdom come tonight. 

Now don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that programs aren’t sometimes good. But what I am saying is that no program is good unless it is anointed by the Holy Spirit. I’m saying the personality and pomp and all the rest of it is as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal unless it has the holy breath of God Almighty and unless our labor of love is done in the energy of the Holy Spirit of God. 

 

Oh, if you would but preach in His power! Oh, if you would just preach with a sweet, fresh settling of the heavenly dew upon the congregation! How awful it is to preach in the energy of the flesh. Stories fall flat, words fall flat, poems fall flat, and illustrations fall flat- all because we are preaching in the energy of the flesh. O God, breathe upon us in these days and cause us to seek Your power. 

 

Billy Bray was a little old Cornish coal miner who got converted and shouted everywhere he went. Every time you met Billy Bray, he would shout, “Hello! Amen! Hallelujah!” And if you didn’t say, “Amen!” he would think you were not saved. 

 

Somebody said, “Billy, don’t talk like that. And you’re singing all the time and you can’t carry a tune.” 

 

Billy said, “Hush. God would just as soon hear a crow as a nightingale. I’ll sing all I want to sing.” 

 

“Billy,” he said, “shut your mouth.” 

 

“If I shut my mouth, my feet would still shout. Every time my left foot hits the ground, it says ‘Amen!´ And every time my right foot hits the ground it says, ‘Well, glory,´ and I can’t help myself.” 

 

Billy had the breath of the heavenly dew upon him. He had this unction upon him. He had this anointing upon him. And from that moment forward, Billy Bray was aflame for God, walking up and down the streets witnessing, preaching whenever he had opportunity, testifying to all he came in contact with - because he was anointed with the Holy Spirit. 

 

Somebody said to him, “Billy Bray, you’re going to die.” 

 

He said, “You mean I’m dying now?” 

 

“Yes.” 

 

“Glory to God! I’ll be Home by the morning!” 

 

“Billy, what if you go to Hell? What if you had been mistaken all these year?” 

 

“I’ll just shout all the way to Hell. I´ll say, ‘Glory! It was wonderful to think I was going to Heaven all those years!´ I’ll just praise the Lord because I thought I was going to Heaven, and I had a wonderful life. If I go to Hell I’ll say, ‘Amen! Glory to God! what a wonderful life it was!´ And if the Devil walks up and says, ‘Billy, you can’t shout like that here,´ I will say, ‘I’ve got to shout! It’s in my bones!´ And if the Devil says, ‘You’ve got to get out of here,´ I’ll say, ‘That’s what I’d like to do anyway, old Devil, if you don’t mind.´ And I’ll just should all the way to Glory! Praise the Lord! Glory to God! I’m saved!” 

 

Now I’m not saying that everybody who shouts, “Praise the Lord!” has Holy Spirit power. I’m not saying that everybody who says, “Hallelujah” has the anointing. But I am saying that there needs to settle upon the people of God a new breath of God that will give us joy and conviction and tears and something supernatural transpiring in our public services. It is Bible truth. 

 

II. It Is an Old Testament Truth 

 

Jacob in Genesis 32:26 wrestled with the angel and said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Isaiah saw the seraphim take the coal from off the altar and place it upon his tongue, and he said, “Woe is me! For I am undone.” Ezekiel wept in the bitterness of the Spirit. Elisha got Elijah’s mantle and received a double portion of blessing. Judges 6:34 says, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.” First Samuel 16:13 says, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon David.” 

 

How did Gideon win the battle over the Midianites with a few little folk who lapped water like dogs? How did Gideon win the battle when he put the fleece out and God miraculously delivered the Israelites from the Midianites’ power? How did David slay a lion? How did David kill a bear? How did David with a stone kill a giant named Goliath? How did Saul win his battle? How did Samson have his power? I’ll tell you how…in the energy of the Holy Spirit. 

 

This truth has been from the time that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water in Genesis chapter one and God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. From that day until this, everything of any lasting merit that has been done by God Almighty through God’s men has always been done in the energy and power of the Holy Spirit. 

If revival comes in your church, it will come when we cease to work and let Him work. As A.B. Simpson used to say: 

 

“Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord;

Once it was a feeling, now it is His Word;

Once His gifts I wanted, now the giver own;

Once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.” 

“All in all is Jesus, of Jesus I will sing,

Everything is Jesus and Jesus everything.” 

 

III. It Is a New Testament Truth 

 

John the Baptist said, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Luke 3:16). Luke 4:1 says, “Jesus full of the Holy Spirit....” Acts 4:31 says, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” What I like about this is that the work Jesus did, He did in the energy of the Holy Spirit, as a man filled with the Spirit and not as God Himself. He wanted to be our example. He wanted to set a pattern for us. So the work that He did, He did in the same power that God makes available to us - the power of the Holy Spirit. 

 

When Jesus preached to Zacchaeus who was up in a tree, to the thief on the cross beside Him, to the woman beside the well, they were touched because He worked in the energy of the Holy Spirit. He did not perform a miracle, He never opened one blind eye or deaf ear as far as the Bible records, He never caused one lame person to leap with joy, one dumb person to speak, one dead person to live until He went into the baptismal water and was anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit of God. 

 

And we have access to that same power that Jesus had--the energy of the Holy Spirit. 

 

In Luke 11 a fellow comes at midnight and says, “Friend, wake up!” 

 

The fellow gets up and shakes himself. He opens the window and says, “Yes? Yes?” 

 

“Say, listen, a friend has come to visit me and I have nothing to set before him. I need three loaves. Would you let me borrow them, please?” 

 

“Come back in the morning. We’re all sleeping now. Come back in the morning.” He puts the window down and goes back to bed. 

 

This fellow starts home but he decides he can’t go home. “I’ve got a friend and he wants bread. I can’t holler back up there, but I can’t go home either. That friend’s hungry. I’ve got to have the bread and I don’t have any.” 

 

So he goes back again and he calls, “Friend! Friend!” 

 

The friend wakes up, his wife wakes up, Johnny wakes up, Susie wakes up. He raises the window, “YES?” 

“Friend, I know it’s going to make you mad, and I hate to bother you, but a friend of mine has come to visit me and I have nothing to set before him.” 

 

“I told you to come back in the morning. I´m trying to sleep. My family’s in bed.” Again he slams the window shut. 

 

The fellow starts home. “I can’t go home. My friend is waiting. He’s expecting to get some food from me. I’m going to go back--I can’t go back. That fellow would kill me. But I’m going to do it. No, I can’t do it. I’m going to go home. I can’t go home.” 

 

(Oh, that reminds me of a preacher on Sunday morning with people sitting before him, and he has nothing to set before them. The people say, “Give us three loaves. We’re hungry.” And we go many times to our sermon outline books and our homiletics books. We go down deep and stay down long and come up dry, and the folks stay hungry. The people stay hungry! Oh, we need to go to God all week long, day after day and say, “O God, lend me three loaves for the people in my class, or my church have come to me and I have nothing to set before them.”) 

 

The fellow cried again, “Friend?” 

 

He wakes up. His wife wakes up. Johnny wakes up. Susie wakes up. He raises the window, “YES?” 

 

“Friend, I’m sorry but I just can’t go home. I can’t go home. I can’t go home. I know you are mad at me. But I’ve got to have some bread.” 

 

“If you will not bother me any more while I sleep, I’ll give you a bakery. Just go home and leave me alone.” And so he gives him the three loaves. 

 

Beloved, the teaching is this: He did not give it to him because he asked him, he gave it to him because of his importunity. The word “importunity” means much asking, begging. God give us a ministry where we’ll know what it is to ask God for Sunday morning. May God give us churches in Canada, in Georgia, in Florida, in California, around the world, that have preachers that come before them on Sunday with warm bread they just got from Heaven’s bakery! 

 

I recently read about the life of Bud Robinson, a Nazarene preacher, He believed in sinless perfection. He was wrong in his doctrine, but he came more near being sinlessly perfect than I do. In one of his sermons he tells this story: 

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, I was in the hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, and the ‘holy father´ came up to my room. The priest said to a fellow on the side of me, ‘Is there anything you want to confess to me? ´ Oh, I have never heard such language as that man done confessed.” 

 

“Then he went to the fellow on the other side and said, ‘Are there any sins you want to confess to me? ´ Oh, I had to shut my ears, that man was confessing so many wicked sins.” 

 

“Then the ‘holy father´ came to me, a born-again Christian, and said, ‘Uncle Bud, any sins you want to confess to me? ´” 

 

“And I said to the ‘holy father,´ ‘Put your ear down. I’d like to confess just one thing to you.´” 

 

“He said, ‘All right. Confess´” 

 

“I said, ‘Put your ear right down close to my mouth, please.´” 

 

“And the ‘holy father´ put his ear right down close to my mouth.” 

 

“And I said, ‘”Holy father, “put your ear right down to my mouth, please.´” 

 

“And the ‘holy father´ put his ear right on my mouth. When the ‘holy father´ put his ear right on my mouth, I opened my mouth good and wide and said, ‘GLORY TO GOD! I´M SAVED AND SANCTIFIED AND FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST AND ON MY WAY TO GLORY.´ Last time I saw the ‘holy father´ he was running down the hall.” 

 

Beloved, let us all make up our minds that we’re not going to fight the battles of Modernism, New Evangelicalism, Neo-orthodoxy, Liberalism, etc., without the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon our ministry. I trust some preacher will go home from this meeting, get out by himself and say, “By God’s grace I am going to spend less time doing the little things and do the big things for God. I’m going to pray, I’m going to PRAY, I’m going to PRAY.” 

 

Recently I was teaching a lesson on the power of God. I said, “Why don’t you pray constantly for God’s power?” I was pricked with conviction. I said to myself, “You don’t pray constantly for God’s power.” That was a year ago. I promised God before I left that service that night that I would spend every conscious waking moment when I was alone asking God for power. I had someone who made wood items to make me a desk stand that says, PRAY FOR POWER. I have to admit to you tonight that I have not kept that promise totally. But I will say I started praying driving down the highway. “O God, give me power.” On the airplane I say, “O Lord, give me power, Lord, give me power.” Before I sing I say, “Lord, give me power. Oh, give me power of the Holy Spirit.” Before I teach I cry out, “Abba, give me bread for my friends, give me the power of God!” And as a result, I have seen a tremendous change in the blessing of God upon my life. 

 

God help us. We are so afraid somebody is going to call us fanatical. And you know, they just might. In fact, they probably will. But if you do, and they do, you know, it might be one of the biggest compliments you’ve ever had. 

 

Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. In Acts 9:17, Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit. From the time the Holy Spirit breathed upon the waters in Genesis chapter one until this very hour, it has always been through the energy of the Holy Spirit that God has done His work. 

 

IV. It Is an Historic Truth 

 

Not only is it an Old Testament truth and a New Testament truth, but it is also a historic truth. 

 

Preachers love to speak about the great men of God from yesteryear. Oh, how I love to walk with them in their lives. We talk a lot about George Whitefield, Finney, Moody, and Billy Sunday. I’m reminded that every time Billy Sunday preached a sermon he opened to Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me....” 

 

For centuries this teaching of the anointing of the Holy Spirit with supernatural power was as common as Sunday School talk is today. Savonarola prayed in a trance for five hours in his pulpit and God’s power came upon him. George Fox, burdened about his sins and powerlessness, went to a priest and said, “What should I do?” The priest answered, “You ought to get married.” Another advised, “You ought to join the Army.” Still another priest said, “You ought to try tobacco and hymns.” 

George Fox went alone. For fourteen days he fasted and prayed. (Let me stop to say this. This matter of fasting oftentimes is not a ritualistic thing. If we want to have the breath of God upon us, sometimes we must forego the conveniences and pleasures of the world.) He stayed in a trance for fourteen days, and the power of God came upon his life. 

 

On October 3, 1730, John Wesley had a meal with George Whitefield and sixty other preachers. They prayed all night. At 3:00 o’clock in the morning John Wesley said, “There has come upon me the blessing of God and for the first time I know what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 

 

All day June 20, 1736, before his ordination service, George Whitefield had a feeling he should not be ordained without the power of the Holy Spirit upon his life. he said, “I’ll not be a preacher unless God gives me the power of the Holy Spirit.” Later he said, “On my knees that night when Bishop Benson laid his hand upon my head there was such a yielding to God’s blessed will for my life that then and there I knew for the first time that by faith I had been filled with the Holy Spirit.” 

You know the story of Dwight Moody. While in an eastern city, he was overcome with the power of God, for which he had prayed so long. One day the power came upon him while he was on the street, and he had to go to an upstairs room of a dear friend and say, “Lord, withhold Your power till I can get alone with You.” 

 

George Mueller was in the house of friends. He saw Christians on their knees for the first time. George Mueller was so impressed about seeing Christians praying on their knees, he said, “I am going to go alone and pray on my knees.” And on his knees he went and the Holy Spirit’s power came upon him. 

 

Charles G. Finney said the night he was converted the Holy Spirit’s power came upon him for soul winning. Peter Cartwright said when he preached his first sermon in Atlanta, Georgia, the Holy Spirit’s power came upon him. Christmas Evans was riding his circuit on horseback. That old one-eyed preacher, whose eye was put out for witnessing the first day he was converted by the same crowd he had gone with in the world, got off his horse and on his face said, “Lord, I can’t be a powerless preacher any more.” Such power came upon him that he was never the same again. As old Christmas Evans died, preacher gathered around him and said, “Mr. Evans, what can you say for us on your deathbed?” He said, “Young men, preach the blood in the basin. Preach the blood in the basin.” 

 

That’s our need, dear friends. New buildings? That’s wonderful, but that’s not the big need. You know it. I know it. Good sermons? They’re wonderful, but that’s not the big need. Organization? I believe in it. Anyone who knows me knows that I believe in organization. But that’s not the big need. Trained workers? Oh, yes, we ought to train our workers. I believe in training, but that’s not the big need. Good voices? Great delivery? That’s wonderful, except that Jonathan Edwards read everything he ever preached and his eyes were so bad he had to put the print right close to them. he read in a very weak voice--and the power of God came upon him. The power of God is the greatest need. 

 

The greatest need we have in our meetings is for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The greatest need we have for our churches is for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The greatest need our ministry has is not polish nor dignity - it’s for God´s supernatural power to settle upon His people. 

 

V. It Is a Twentieth Century Truth 

 

Finally, I want to say that not only is the command to be filled with the Holy Spirit an Old Testament truth, a New Testament truth, an historic truth, but praise God, it’s a twentieth century truth. 

 

I read last week about the Scottish revival and how all Scotland said, “Knox is coming! Knox is coming!” There was such power that there was preaching sometimes 6 and 7 services even in Presbyterian churches on Sunday. I say, “Lord, do it again! Do it again!” 

 

I read about the New Hebrides revival and how seven men went on their faces before God and prayed all night every Thursday night. Thursday night after Thursday night, all night long they prayed. One time they got up at four o’clock in the morning and walked out to go to their homes. The lights were already on in the area. Vehicles had stopped beside the road. People had gotten out of their vehicles and were kneeling and confessing their sins. They saw lights all around the villages and heard people crying, confessing sin, and asking God to save them. Revival broke out. There were 7 or 8 services every Sunday in every church on the island. 

 

I say, “Lord, do it again!” 

 

You know, Beloved, that unless something happens, this generation will never see revival. But if it is going to see revival, it must start somewhere, with someone. Who is going to be responsible? My prayer is, “Lord, send revival, and let it start with me.” We must seek God’s face. 

 

Let’s face it, Beloved. Go home and look in the mirror. The hope for this generation is not in Toronto or in Brownsville, or in Anaheim or in Kansas City. The hope for the nation and the world and the continent does not lie in guarding Cuba tonight, though I think it is a wise move. I say the hope lies in the burning bosom of gospel preachers like you and like me, in a Bible-loving, Christ-honoring people who are filled with the Spirit of the Living God. 

 

May God help us not to be drunk with wine, which is debauchery, but instead to be filled with the Spirit.