Power Isn’t Proof—The Devil Has Power. Do You Have Presence?
Excerpted from Holy Spirit: God Within You.
The power of the Holy Spirit is what He does.
The presence of the Holy Spirit is Himself. Power is His performance. Presence is His person. The power of the Holy Spirit can change your circumstance, but the presence of the Holy Spirit can change your heart. The power of the Holy Spirit comes upon you. The presence of the Holy Spirit dwells within you. The power is for service. The presence is for salvation. The power helps you to do. The presence helps you to become.
His presence within you marks you as God’s possession, purchased with a price.
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT).
His power comes upon you for the sake of the work you do for Him.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you (Acts 1:8 NLT).
The power stirs you. The presence stills you. The power activates the gifts. The presence is the glory. The power inspires praise; we praise Him for what He does. The presence inspires worship; we worship Him for who He is.
Many pursue His power, seeing His Person as merely a means to an end. Oh, but to know His presence is everything!
One day Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Take these people up to the Promised Land.’ But you haven’t told me whom you will send with me. You have told me, ‘I know you by name, and I look favorably on you.’ If it is true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor. And remember that this nation is your very own people.”
The Lord replied, “I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.”
Then Moses said, “If you don’t personally go with us, don’t make us leave this place. How will anyone know that you look favorably on me—on me and on your people—if you don’t go with us? For your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other people on the earth.”
The Lord replied to Moses, “I will indeed do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you, and I know you by name.” Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence” (Exodus 33:12-18 NLT).
Don’t settle for seeking His hand; know His heart. You can pursue encounters with God’s power or live an encounter in His presence. If you seek power, you may walk in some measure of it but will always be unsatisfied. If you live by faith in His presence, you’ll know ultimate fulfillment—and power will come too.
I’ve sat in church services where people move in power without presence, gifts without glory. There’s something so “off,” so forced when someone who does not know God’s presence demonstrates power. There’s no weight, no thickness of divine essence, no Heavenly touch upon the atmosphere. I have determined in myself to never settle for power alone.
His presence is the difference. There’s not something special about you; there’s Someone special about you.
Faith
And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God ( James 2:23 NLT).
So how does one walk in that friendship? First, you have to realize you already have it. I pray the Church comes to truly understand this. Friendship with God is by faith. You cannot perform your way into friendship with the Holy Spirit. The friendship is already yours by faith.
As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”
But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-42 NLT).
Mary and Martha welcomed Jesus into their home. Martha worked. Mary enjoyed the company of the Lord. They both honored the Lord. They both wanted to please Him. Yet they approached their relationship with Him in different ways. Martha performed. Mary rested.
Though there’s nothing wrong with working for the Lord, we must realize that even the work we do for Him must come from the place of fellowship or else that work makes for a strained and jaded soul—even a critical spirit that focuses more on others than the Lord Himself: “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work?”
Faith seeks God from rest. Faith fellowships from confidence and certainty, not fear and insecurity. So if we are to enjoy and experience the benefits of our already-established friendship with God, we must cultivate the fruit of that friendship from the place of peace and faith.
Welcome, Holy Spirit
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 NLT).
What is meant here by “stifle”? What does it mean to stifle or quench the Holy Spirit? This speaks of our resistance to Him and His work. Does the way you live your life say, “Welcome, Holy Spirit”? Does the Holy Spirit feel at home in you?
There should be no hesitation when it comes to embracing the genuine influence of the precious Holy Spirit. Hesitation with carnal weirdness? Yes. Reservation with unnecessarily bizarre behavior? Of course. However, we must accept that the power of the Holy Spirit will always be a little strange on its own. This is no reason to throttle the flow of His power by way of doubt and cynicism.
A pastor once attempted to explain to me why they didn’t allow for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be used during their public Sunday morning assembly. Trying to convince me of his approach, he explained, “Aren’t people being saved? Aren’t marriages being restored? Aren’t lives being transformed? So then the Holy Spirit is moving. We just want to be wise with what we allow to happen in front of church visitors.” In other words, some believers want to be just surrendered enough to the Holy Spirit to be blessed and helped by Him but not surrendered enough to be inconvenienced or challenged by Him.
Dear reader, this is a widespread issue. We’ve limited the power of the Holy Spirit to private rooms and special prayer sessions after service— never allowing the Holy Spirit’s power to be too mainstream. We say things like, “We don’t want visitors to know about the gift of tongues until they grow a little.” But that’s not how it worked in the book of Acts. That should be the first thing you do when someone receives the Lord—lay hands on them and pray for the Holy Spirit to have as much influence as He’d like.
Or we suggest that a full display of the Holy Spirit’s power might weird people out or turn them off to the gospel. Dear friend, the world is turned off to the gospel because of a love for sin, not because of questions they have about the Spirit’s power. Besides, I think that the world is hungry for the supernatural.
When was the last time a demon was cast out in your church? When was the last time you laid hands on the sick? I don’t mean when did you offer a corporate prayer for someone sick—I mean when was the last time you laid hands on the sick with the expectation that they’d recover right then and there in front of many witnesses?
When was the last time a prophetic tongue was spoken aloud? When was the last time people were filled with the evidence of speaking in tongues at your church? When was the last time you saw words of knowledge in operation at your church? We see it all over the book of Acts. Has the Holy Spirit changed? Have the needs of the people changed? Or has the Church changed its approach? In a Church that He helped to begin, the Holy Spirit is being minimized and neglected.
Years ago, as a financially struggling evangelist, I had to deny a speaking invitation because the pastor who invited me told me that he didn’t want, “any of that Diga stuff. I don’t want people falling on the floor. I don’t want you snapping your fingers when you pray.” I told him, “The version of me you’re asking for doesn’t exist.” I didn’t want to be in a position where I had to choose between pleasing man and pleasing the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave me the grace to choose Him—He came through for me, though I was tempted to take the payday.
I don’t want to sip from the river; I want to jump into the river. Let the river take you. Embrace all the Holy Spirit has without reservation or hesitation. That is true wisdom. We’re a little strange, a tad otherworldly. So be it. You might as well embrace it, because you’re a friend of the Holy Spirit. I don’t mean to purposefully act weird just because you want to get a reaction out of people. I don’t mean we should embrace disorder. I simply mean that you are who you are. Don’t allow even a subtle sense of shame to cause you to hesitate when it comes to yielding to the Holy Spirit. Welcome the Holy Spirit!
