The Spirit As Power

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you" (Acts 1:8)

Some good Christians have misread this text and have assumed that Christ told His disciples that they were to receive the Holy Spirit "and power," the power to come after the coming of the Spirit. But the truth is that Christ taught not the coming of the Holy Spirit as "power"; the power and the Spirit are the same.

Our Lord before His ascension said to His disciples, "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). That word "until" is a time-word; it indicates a point in relation to which everything is either before or after.

So the experience of those disciples could be stated like this: Up to that point they had "not" received the power; at that point they "did" receive the power; after that point they "had" received the power. That power, still active in the Church, has enabled her to exist for nearly twenty centuries.

Christianity takes for granted the absence of any self-help and offers a power which is nothing less than the power of God.

~A. W. Tozer~

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A Supernatural Potency

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13)

"Ye shall receive power." By those words our Lord raised the expectation of His disciples and taught them to look forward to the coming of a supernatural potency into their natures. It was to be nothing less than God Himself entering into them with the purpose of ultimately reproducing His own likeness within them.

Here is the dividing line that separates Christianity from all occultism and from every kind of oriental cult. They each advise, "Get in tune with the infinite," or "Wake the giant within you," or "Tune in to your hidden potential" or "Learn to think creatively."

All this may have some fleeting value as a psychological shot in the arm, but its  results are not permanent because at its best it builds its hopes upon the fallen nature of man and knows no invasion from above.

Oh, how long we struggle! Oh, how hard we try!
Helplessly we labor, Helplessly we sigh
Till Thy Spirit gives us
Power from on high.

~A. W. Tozer~