Silas
Beloved Servant
It is right to pray with such earnest desire for the word of the Lord to run swiftly and be honored, and your prayer draws from deep wells of Scripture. The heart behind it, longing for the Spirit’s power in teaching and for the word to accomplish its saving work, is a holy ambition. There is great need for believers not only to hear preaching but to sit under sustained teaching, allowing the truth to take root over time and shape the whole life.
What you are reaching for in the Spirit’s work aligns with a pattern seen throughout the early church. The Holy Spirit is with a person before conversion, convicting of sin and drawing the heart toward Christ. The moment someone genuinely confesses Jesus as Lord, that is the Spirit’s doing, for no one can say that apart from Him. In that same moment, the Spirit comes to indwell the believer, making the body His temple. Yet the Scriptures also speak of an empowering by the Spirit that is distinct from and follows conversion. The disciples were told to wait for the promise of the Father to be clothed with power from on high, and this came upon them after they already belonged to Christ. This filling, this coming upon, is for boldness and effectiveness in witness, and it remains a desperate need today.
We must be careful not to mistake the evidence of the Spirit’s filling. The sure mark is not found in this or that gift, but in the fruit the Spirit produces, supremely love. If love is flowing from a cleansed heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith, there is the proof that the Spirit of God is at work. The gifts are distributed by the Spirit as He wills, for the profit of the whole body, but no single gift is the measure of spirituality. Even the ability to teach or to speak in tongues is empty without love.
There is a tragic tendency to try to fulfill the ministry by human energy, to gather people through entertainment or polished production rather than through the preaching of the word under the anointing of the Spirit. True power is not in technique but in men and women full of the Holy Spirit, declaring the word of God. When you pray for the word to be effectual and for the Spirit to give you what to say, you are asking for that very thing. The Spirit takes the word and makes it alive, causing it to jump off the page and burn in the heart, showing Christ in all the Scriptures. He guides the church directly, not through guesswork, but through the word and through the inner witness, as we are led by Him.
Your prayer for deliverance from unreasonable people and for the Lord to establish and guard you rests on a solid foundation. The same Spirit who seals us as God’s possession is the earnest of our inheritance. Continue to keep a close watch on your life and teaching. Persevere in asking the Lord to open doors for the word, that many would hear, be baptized, and be taught to obey everything Christ has commanded. The men God has always used are those steeped in the word, able to handle it rightly under the Spirit’s instruction. Let your faith rest not on feelings, which shift, but on the unchanging word, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you all things and to bring to your remembrance what Christ has said. As you pursue love and earnestly desire that the Spirit would speak through His word to edify, comfort, and exhort, you are on a sure path. May the Lord indeed confirm His word with lasting fruit, and may your joy spring from seeing true conversions and names written in the Lamb’s book of life. The Lord is faithful.
What you are reaching for in the Spirit’s work aligns with a pattern seen throughout the early church. The Holy Spirit is with a person before conversion, convicting of sin and drawing the heart toward Christ. The moment someone genuinely confesses Jesus as Lord, that is the Spirit’s doing, for no one can say that apart from Him. In that same moment, the Spirit comes to indwell the believer, making the body His temple. Yet the Scriptures also speak of an empowering by the Spirit that is distinct from and follows conversion. The disciples were told to wait for the promise of the Father to be clothed with power from on high, and this came upon them after they already belonged to Christ. This filling, this coming upon, is for boldness and effectiveness in witness, and it remains a desperate need today.
We must be careful not to mistake the evidence of the Spirit’s filling. The sure mark is not found in this or that gift, but in the fruit the Spirit produces, supremely love. If love is flowing from a cleansed heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith, there is the proof that the Spirit of God is at work. The gifts are distributed by the Spirit as He wills, for the profit of the whole body, but no single gift is the measure of spirituality. Even the ability to teach or to speak in tongues is empty without love.
There is a tragic tendency to try to fulfill the ministry by human energy, to gather people through entertainment or polished production rather than through the preaching of the word under the anointing of the Spirit. True power is not in technique but in men and women full of the Holy Spirit, declaring the word of God. When you pray for the word to be effectual and for the Spirit to give you what to say, you are asking for that very thing. The Spirit takes the word and makes it alive, causing it to jump off the page and burn in the heart, showing Christ in all the Scriptures. He guides the church directly, not through guesswork, but through the word and through the inner witness, as we are led by Him.
Your prayer for deliverance from unreasonable people and for the Lord to establish and guard you rests on a solid foundation. The same Spirit who seals us as God’s possession is the earnest of our inheritance. Continue to keep a close watch on your life and teaching. Persevere in asking the Lord to open doors for the word, that many would hear, be baptized, and be taught to obey everything Christ has commanded. The men God has always used are those steeped in the word, able to handle it rightly under the Spirit’s instruction. Let your faith rest not on feelings, which shift, but on the unchanging word, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you all things and to bring to your remembrance what Christ has said. As you pursue love and earnestly desire that the Spirit would speak through His word to edify, comfort, and exhort, you are on a sure path. May the Lord indeed confirm His word with lasting fruit, and may your joy spring from seeing true conversions and names written in the Lamb’s book of life. The Lord is faithful.
