In ministry, losing your connection and your power source can be a dangerous thing! Last month during a Wednesday evening online prayer meeting session, power in my home and community was disrupted by a storm. My electrical service went out for hours! The lack of electricity immediately impacted the internet service and lighting in my home. I quickly lit a candle, turned on my battery-charged cell phone, and resumed attendance in the prayer meeting. It was hilarious when a few members joked about helping to pay the Pastor’s Hydro bill, assuming an unpaid bill instead of discontinued hydro service had caused me to use candles and stop using my laptop.
Once again, losing your connection can be disastrous and uncomfortable. In Acts 8, Peter and John are confronted by a sorcerer who is disconnected from the power source provided by the Holy Spirit. The story continues that the Holy Spirit was energizing new believers who were being baptized and hands being laid upon them by the apostles. The sorcerer, seeing this phenomenon, asks the question, “How can I buy this power so that when I lay hands on people, they too will receive the Holy Spirit?” Even this heathen magician understood that being disconnected from a power source was bad for business. There are so many things in life that money can buy, but the gift of the Holy Spirit cannot be purchased by debit, e-transfer, or credit.
In the local church, being connected to the power offered by the Holy Spirit is vital for success in ministry. Service for Christ without a Holy Spirit connection is indeed a hazardous undertaking. The servant of the Lord shares the following, “It is the absence of the Spirit that makes the gospel ministry so powerless. Learning, talents, eloquence, every natural or acquired endowment, may be possessed; but without the presence of the Spirit of God, no heart will be touched, no sinner be won to Christ. On the other hand, if they are connected with Christ, if the gifts of the Spirit are theirs, the poorest and most ignorant of His disciples will have a power that will tell upon hearts.” (Christ Object Lessons, p. 328)
Wow, did you catch the phrase, “The poorest and most ignorant of His disciples will have power!” We begin this Sabbath with a new chapter in the life of Willowdale Seventh-day Adventist Church with Sabbath School Alive. Sabbath School will not come alive until each of us comes alive with a fresh indwelling of the Holy Spirit. United, we must move forward in the power, unction, and direction of the Holy Spirit.
If you feel disconnected, drained, and empty, a recharge for ministry is but a prayer away. Pray, come sweet Holy Spirit, and fill me anew. May the words penned by Daniel Iverson recharge each of us for service, “Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me! Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me! Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me! Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me!” This is my prayer, and I invite my brothers and sisters humbly to join me in seeking to be filled anew with the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Glenn DeSilva