Holy Spirit Power for What?

After the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and just before He ascended into heaven, He made a promise to His disciples, saying,

“…ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you...” (Acts 1:8).

They were the first to be regenerated, receiving Jesus Christ’s eternal resurrection life.

But recall that earlier the Lord Jesus had told His “little flock” Jewish remnant of believers to “tarry” in Jerusalem until they were endued [Gk. enduo, clothed upon] with that “power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The power of which the Lord spoke here was the power they received when they were filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:4) on the day of Pentecost.

At Pentecost, the disciples like Peter and Stephen were filled with the Spirit and given the temporary “power” to do “great wonders and miracles” (Acts 2:43; 6:5, 8). This was temporary miracle working power as we see here below.

“Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be [word of] knowledge, it shall vanish away. ⁹ For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is perfect [Gk. pleroo, complete] is come, then that which is in part [temporary] shall be done away.” (1 Corinthians 13:8-10 (KJV)

Of course, the reason the Lord temporarily gave them these powers to do mighty works was for it to be a taste of the long-promised ‘Kingdom to come’ and thereby confirm or give validity to the words they were preaching, and their offer of the “Kingdom of heaven” to come on earth … IF the Nation Israel would repent and believe on Jesus as “the Son of God.” So, the miracles of the early Acts period were to be seen as “signs” for Israel to confirm the offer of the Kingdom to Israel.

Of course, we know from the record that Israel rejected the offer of the King and His kingdom and so they have “fallen”. (Rom. 11:10-11, 15. 25). They’ve never yet repented and so that the Kingdom to come, so the Kingdom and Israel’s Program is still in abeyance … now until the end of the Tribulation.

Then also, the miracles done at the hand of the Apostle Paul came after the “fall” of Israel (Rom. 11:10-11, 15, 25), but these again were a “sign” for Israel... this time for ‘fallen Israel’ after their failing to repent and their brutal stoning Stephen to death as seen in Acts 7. Paul’s Acts period miracles were a “sign” to Israel and his message to Israel was the ‘revelation of the cross’ of the risen Jesus of Nazareth as “the Son of God.” Paul wrote this below during the time of the book of Acts,

“For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:” (1 Corinthians 1:22 (KJV)

Now, we of “the body of Christ” today have another ‘dispensational difference’ from Israel’s experience with regard to the “power of God.” God has not promised us, the members of “the body of Christ” the same ‘kind of power’ seen in the early Acts period of the Twelve Apostles ministry to Israel, “with miracles and signs following,” We today do not have the “power” of Paul’s Acts ministry when he was going to “the Jew first” with “signs.” For after Acts 28:28, closing the book of Acts, with Israel is totally fallen. Paul simultaneously lost the kind of miracle power that had been for Israel to see as a “sign” before Acts 28:28. It was then too late for the Nation Israel to repent, they were then ‘fallen’ and “cast away” (Rom. 11:15) for a time.

Thus, Paul wrote of Israel’s fall;

“Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. ¹¹ I say then, Have they [Israel stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their FALL salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.” Romans 11:10-11 (KJV)
“For if the casting away of them [Israel] be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” Romans 11:15 (KJV)
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery [secret plan], lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in [at the Rapture].” Romans 11:25 (KJV)

Then the only way a Jew could be saved was under Paul’s new “gospel of the grace of God” for the Gentiles …  Gentiles meaning for all men of all races, including ‘Jews who are now seen as lost Gentiles’ (Rom. 3:9-12). Today God’s grace dispenses the overcoming power of “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” into our “spirit of man” such that we now have the inner power to endure all things (Rom. 8:28, i.e., sufferings), while yet living in rest and peace of soul.

“For the law [the spontaneous automatic operative power] of the Spirit of life [Gk. zoe, the eternal life) in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2 (KJV)

So today, you can “tarry in Jerusalem” all you want as Jesus had instructed His disciples, and you will not be endued with power like that from on high. I know that some Christian churches and sects even today hold what they call “tarrying meetings,” where they get together to wait for the Spirit to come upon them in that miraculous manner… but it really never happens. Nobody today receives that kind of power from the Spirit, simply because the Father didn’t promise it to us, the members of “the Body of Christ,” living during today’s age of “the dispensation of the grace of God.” (Eph. 3:2)

If you want to demonstrate and confirm “the power of God” for today that it is found in God’s Word for today, for we do it by demonstrating God’s power in our own personal daily living.

Examples of the “Power” of “the Spirit of life” for Today:

• When you display God’s patience in the midst of your difficult circumstances, you exhibit the power of God in a mighty way that demonstrates His patience!
• And when difficult people tax your patience over and over again, you can display the power of God mightily by exhibiting His longsuffering as you endure it.
• You can also show the power of God’s holiness working in us when you are tempted to sin and you are empowered to resist the temptation steadfastly.

So, if you want to talk about demonstrating “the power of God,” today this how it’s done during today’s “dispensation of the grace of God.” Thus, Paul say we are walking books, read of men.

“Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:” (2 Corinthians 3:2 (KJV)

So, we do live in power, but the nature of God’s power is quite different than it was at Pentecost in the early Acts period. Nearly everything seen in Acts was external, but our reality of Christ is inner… in our hidden man of the spirit.

The filling of the Spirit didn’t just give Jesus’ disciples the power to work miracles. It gave them another kind of power that the kind the Spirit gave the prophet Micah in ancient Israel:

“But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob [Israel] his transgression, and to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:8).

Can you imagine how much power it took for Micah, and later Paul and others to stand in front of a bunch of rebellious Jews, who thought they were the favored people of God just because they were born physically of the seed of Abraham, and tell them how sinful they are? Micah and Paul knew!

And so also did men like Stephen who was stoned to death for declaring similar words to Israel. Stephen bravely charged the Jews with the death of the prophets (Acts 7:51,52). Peter charged the people of Israel with “killing the prince of peace,” then declaring His resurrection. The twelve Apostle’s message at Pentecost said, as it were, “You killed Him, but He rose from the dead, and now He’s angry with you, so you’d better repent!” (cf. Acts 2:22-36).

But here we have yet another dispensational difference. It is not up to us to show the nation of Israel her sins, or any other nation for that matter, including the nation in which we live! Though you wouldn’t know it from the way most of Christianity conducts itself, by politically going around pointing out how sinful our nation is in legalizing things like abortion and gay marriage. All that does is make unsaved people hate Christianity, and turn a deaf ear to the gospel we proclaim.

Our job as “ambassadors for Christ” on earth today is rather to remind individuals of their own personal sins… and the salvation available to them in believing “the gospel of the grace of God.” For this at time does is help people to see their need of The Savior! Once they get saved and learn to accept the Bible as God’s Word, then they are willing to accept what God says in His Word about things like abortion as murder, homosexuality, etc.

Remember, God has called us to be fishers of men, not clean up the pond! That means if you want to fix what’s wrong with our nation, don’t become a political activist. Become an evangelist declaring the love and grace of God as demonstrated by the shed blood of Christ at the cross to pay for “the sins of the world” and to change the hearts of men, one precious soul at a time.