Charles F. Stanley - Living in the Power of the Holy Spirit

Copyright 2005 by Charles F. Stanley

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

All Scripture references in this manuscript are from the NEW KING JAMES VERSION of the Bible. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. Publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stanley, Charles F.
Living in the power of the Holy Spirit / Charles F. Stanley.
p. cm.
ISBN-10: 0-7852-6512-0 (hardcover)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7852-6512-2 (hardcover)
1. Holy Spirit. 2. Christian lifeBaptist authors. I. Title.
BT121.3.S73 2005
231'.3dc22

2004030537

Printed in the United States of America

07 08 09 10 11 QW 12 11 10 9 8

CONTENTS

Our
Ongoing
Success as
Believers

O nce you and I have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we have the opportunity to learn spiritual principles by which we are to live the Christian life. Many believers, however, find that after a period of time in applying those principles, they incorrectly begin to feel self-confident in their success at living the Christian life. And the next thing you know, theyve experienced a spiritual setback or moral fall of some kind.

Why is it that we often seem to start strongly in our Christian walk, and then later discover that we are facing failure in our faith?

One of the primary reasons is that we drift away from the very principles that we learned at the beginning of our relationship with Christ. Another key reason is that we become so familiar with the Word of God and the messages that we hear preached that we no longer take the truth of Gods Word to heart as diligently and as eagerly as we once did.

Yet a third reasonand perhaps the most prevalentis that we stop relying on the Holy Spirit to lead us, to guide us, to give us the spiritual power we need to withstand temptation, and to give us the spiritual wisdom we need to recognize and to avoid error.

We never spiritually outgrow our dependency upon the Holy Spirit. The exact opposite is true. The more mature we are in our faith and the more intimate our relationship with our heavenly Father, the more dependent we must be on the Holy Spirit.

It is the Holy Spirit who guides us into the right path for us to walk and convicts us of our sin if we stray from that path.

It is the Holy Spirit who reminds us of the truth of Gods Word and teaches us how to apply Gods Word to our daily lives.

It is the Holy Spirit who works in us to conform us to the image of Christ Jesus, and who works through us to minister the presence and power of Christ to others.

The ongoing lesson all Christians must learn is how to experience and live daily in the power of the Holy Spirit! No matter where you are in your journey with the Lord, this is the key to your being a truly successful Christian.

The
Promise
of
God
the
Father

W ho is the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer today?

The foremost lesson I believe every Christian must learn about the Holy Spirit is this: the Holy Spirit is the Promise of our heavenly Father to each one of us.

In Luke 24, we find a very specific command given by Jesus right before He ascends to heaven:

[Jesus] said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me... Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued [or clothed] with power from on high.

And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. (Luke 24:4453)

In this very short and simple message to His followers, Jesus gave them the key to living a victorious life as He demonstrated on the earth: Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you.

That Promiseas we know from John 1415, Acts 1, and other passages in the New Testamentwas and is the Holy Spirit. The Promise of Jesus to His disciples at the time of His ascension is the same Promise given by Jesus to those of us who are followers or disciples of Jesus today.

Jesus has made available to every believer the work and power of the Holy Spirit. Every believer receives that promise, regardless of denomination, cultural background, race, color, or age.

Many people seem to think that the Holy Spirit has only been poured out on those who are preachers, teachers, missionaries, or some other type of full-time Christian worker. Not so! The anointing power of the Holy Spirit is for every believerthe Holy Spirit has been given to businessmen, mothers, students, plumbers, secretaries, and to people in all walks of life.

GOD'S DIVINE PRESENCE AND
SOVEREIGN POWER

What does the Bible mean by the power of the Holy Spiritthe power from on high?

The power of the Holy Spirit is the divine authority and energy that God releases into the life of every one of His children in order that we might live a godly and fruitful life. The Word tells us that we become clothed from on high by this powerit envelops us, not only covering us and protecting us from the influence of the devil, but also enabling us to demonstrate the likeness of Christ.

The Holy Spirit covers us in such a way that we bear both the fruit of His character and the demonstration of His presence wherever we go. Clothing identifies people as having authority, prestige, or influencesuch as the uniform of a policeman, the cloak of a king, or the robes of a judge. Similarly the spiritual garment bestowed by the Holy Spirit identifies us as Christs own brothers or sisters alive and at work in this world.

WE CANNOT MANIPULATE
THE HOLY SPIRIT

What does the Bible mean when Jesus said His disciples would be endued with power? It means that the Holy Spirit initiates and governs His relationship with us from start to finish.

The Holy Spirit cannot be manipulated. You cannot make the Holy Spirit do anything. You cannot f ill yourself with the Holy Spirit, no matter what formula or method or series of works you perform. You cannot govern the Holy Spirit. Neither can you eliminate the Holy Spirit from your life.

God imparts His Spirit to those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. The work that the Holy Spirit does in our lives is His work, done at His initiative, motivated by His love and divine purpose for our lives. The Holy Spirit manifests Himself as He