Pentecostal Power Hijacked—Reclaiming the Spirit from Powerless Christianity
Esther had it all; her God-given beauty and spirit distinguished her from thousands of other young women.
God’s plan elevated her to become queen. The threat of a Jewish holocaust was God’s key purpose for her promotion. Ironically, the tools given her for deliverance were also the touchstones of her greatest temptation.
Imagine Esther sitting in the royal penthouse brushing her marvelous hair. She scans the room and takes in the view: a vast, luxurious bedroom, untold wealth, and servants who wait to fulfill her every whim.
What she had could have very easily seduced her to forget why she had it. In other words, she could be all dressed up with nowhere to go.
What and why are two words that hold life and death. When you live by what, you only see objects and blessings as ends in themselves. Why is the word that kicks the ends out of our little box and wires us into eternity.
Psalm 103:7 tells us that God revealed to Israel His acts, but to Moses He revealed His ways. That is the crux of the matter: acts are taken at face value; ways are purposes that deepen a person to see his connection to the past and the future. When you see that connection, your life takes on immense meaning.
What Esther had been given would have faded into obscurity had she not known why she had been given it. A sense of destiny and purpose is at the heart of self-sacrifice.
The apostle Paul wrote, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18 NKJV).
Yes, there was danger in Esther’s decision to go to the king to plead for the Jews, but there was infinitely greater danger in her remaining silent.
So they told Mordecai Esther’s words. And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:12-14 NKJV)
A vast portion of the Charismatic/Pentecostal Movement in the United States is all dressed up with nowhere to go. We are drowning in what for a lack of why. We know what our rights and privileges are. We even call ourselves the “King’s Kids”; we relish our claimed authority over demons and treat the implements of war like a game.
Squandering God-given resources is at the heart of what’s wrong with us. Where did we go wrong? Primarily, what went wrong was that we allowed the culture of avarice in the 1980s to infect us. One of the most intelligent secular assessments of the ’80s was told in the bestseller Circus of Ambition by John Taylor. This book surgically exposed ten years of obscene material- ism and ran the gamut of what happened in areas from fashion to banking and government.
What was so painful about the book is how it began. It didn’t open by relating the ills of certain mega-billionaires; it began by describing the opulent mansion of an evangelist! Then the author openly wonders how the church, the one agency he supposed could have stood up and rebuked the insanity of the ’80s, instead became, in his view, a channel for spreading the disease!
What we have received is the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Why we received it is buried under a pile of man-created traditions of Christian consumerism. It is frightening to think anyone could be empowered for such a time as this, only to hoard it.
But the best example of where we are at this moment is a verse in 2 Kings. Four lepers sat starving in the city, but decided to rise up and head for the camp of the enemy. God transformed this twilight trip into the most hilarious invasion in history. God sent a roar into the Syrian camp that melted soldiers’ hearts into terror and the enemy ran, leaving a feast totally intact.
These lepers were four of the most unlikely heroes in history, except perhaps for the Holy Spirit movement in America. Pentecost, like those lepers, rose out of American poverty and desperation into a place of high visibility.
The lepers reached the camp and finding no one around, they began to eat. They buried the treasure they found and put on fancy clothes. This is exactly where too many are now: eating, burying treasure, and dressing up.
Suddenly the voice of godly reason gripped them.
If you were to ask me for the single most precise verse for us today, it would be:
Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore, come, let us go and tell the king’s household” (2 Kings 7:9 NKJV).
They realized the why of this provision and the punishment that would surely come if they hoarded it.
So here is a solemn warning to American Spirit-filled Christians:
We sit in a nation cursed with AIDS, bludgeoned by violence, drowning in crime and Godlessness. We must realize that as of now, our witness through the media has been failed amusement parks and Rolex watches. We had better wake up to the reason we are Spirit-filled—the Holy Spirit is in me for such a time as this.
The power of God within me is not only able but is supposed to flow out at this time. We must find expression in ministry to America’s wounds. If we don’t, the movement will die.
Any arrogant assumption that we are still the movement of choice is silly at best, and destructive at worst. We have virtually lost the unsaved audience. We are hardly impressing anyone but ourselves.
This is your personal call to fresh fire. The road ahead is about to fork and you must choose your direction. If you choose ease, prepare for emptiness and disappointment. If you choose fire, the cleansing will sting but you will witness the release of power and purpose.
