The need for a Holy Spirit worked revival is growing hourly. Needed now is a revival that has nothing of man’s working and planning, but is wrought in the Body of Christ here on earth by the Holy Spirit Himself. The need is for a revival with results like Pentecost, where men and women are actually filled with the Holy Spirit; a revival that brings into the life of the believer the threefold blessing of Pentecost, not to a few, but to the entire Body of Christ on earth.
At Pentecost, as each one was filled, the real blessing that each had was a new conception and realization of the living Lord Jesus Christ. They lived, they worked, they walked in the power and presence of their living Lord. Each had an utterly new understanding of the Word, and with it a burning desire to share with each other, and with the world, their new knowledge of the Savior and of the Word.
And last, they had a new understanding and appreciation of each other. They found that each was utterly dependent on the other, and the loss or gain of one was the loss or gain of all the others. They discovered they were actually one in the Lord Jesus. These are the abiding things of Pentecost – needed in that day of beginnings, and sorely needed in this day of endings. These results are always found in a life filled with the Holy Spirit.
Each child of God must be “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:16-17). This means a Spirit-filled life, not for one here and there, but for each member of the Body of Christ.
Most Christians are looking backward to the Savior on the Cross, and never up to a living, reigning Christ. Christ Jesus is not a living reality to very many people today. At Pentecost, and after, they preached Christ crucified indeed, but also living, risen, exalted; a Miracle Worker today; a coming King tomorrow; a living Judge before whom the world must stand. We need a Holy Spirit revival that Christians may know a living Christ, and that the world may be convicted of “sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8).
Our leaders are planning the work of a paralyzed church. They hope to accomplish by legislation and programs what the Holy Spirit only can do. Morals cannot be legislated, and planned programs produce no power. “…Power belongeth unto God” (Psa. 62:11). “…Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you…” (Acts 1:8). The church is powerless today. We need a Holy Spirit revival!
Such a revival is the will of God for us today. It is God’s command. “…Be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). With each member of the Body filled with the Spirit, first-century lives will be lived and early day conversions repeated. Sinners will cry, “What shall we do to be saved?”
The Holy Spirit longs to fill us. “Or think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain? That Spirit which He made to dwell in us yearneth for us even unto jealous envy” (Jas. 4:5, margin). The Lord Jesus died on the Cross for this, that the way might be opened that all believers “might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:19).
We are bidden to walk in the Spirit, to pray in the Spirit, to worship in the Spirit, to give thanks by the Spirit, to keep the unity of the Spirit – all things that can be done only by Spirit-filled people.
The need is great, urgent and imperative! The will of God is clear and well-known. Any member of the Body of Christ may pray intelligently and believingly. “…If we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us” (1 John 5:14). Shall we pray? Let us pray.
“Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them…” (Ezek. 36:37).