Tragic Misuse of the Holy Spirit: A Cry for Deep Spiritual Renewal

By now I hope you, like me, possess a deep frustration and an inward turmoil that makes you dissatisfied with the level of your walk with God!

What if I told you that your profound yearning for more had an amazing explanation?

It is very likely that at the root of your agitation of heart is a call by God! Not just any call, but a wondrous invitation. You are being drawn and prepared for an event, an impending marvel that will stun our nation with fiery awakening.

This is why you have no use for the rampant shallowness that surrounds you. This is why sometimes you may weep without provocation.

The priorities of so many leave you distressed. You ask, what is our generation’s fascination with the trivial? With each day that passes, your internal desire grows stronger and stronger, begging for expression.

Each wave that comes in your spirit tells you that your time on this planet is precious and strategic. You dare not miss your destiny.

These birth pangs are both a warning and an opportunity. The warning is that the Charismatic/Pentecostal Movement is mired and waning.

It simply breaks the heart of God that we have mutated into a club that conjures up solutions and lives in opposition to our roots and original purpose. Jesus said, “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:24 NKJV). Our camels are being swallowed whole.

If you were to ask the average Christian celebrity what we should do now to revive the movement, here is what you probably would hear, “First, let’s oppose gay legislation.” Others would offer, “Let’s put everyone in cell groups.” Still others would prescribe going down to key buildings and shouting at ruling spirits. What is painful is not that these ideas are wrong, but they are close enough to being right that they distract us from what we really should do.

It takes time to swallow a camel. But what, then, is the gnat that we strain at? It is so basic and obvious that it stings our leaders. We must see that we have relegated the Holy Spirit to one baptism when there are many subsequent overflowings.

We are a Spirit-filled movement. We must go back and seek a fresh fire. Long before we petition a congressman, lie down in front of an offending clinic, yell at demons, or anything else, we must have a new Day of Pentecost. We must stop the most compelling activities and form upper rooms in every self-respecting, Spirit-filled ministry in America.

This is a solemn warning to everyone who speaks in tongues. We must repent and be re-baptized in the Holy Spirit so that we have a legitimate authority to do the true work of God.

Jesus is the Head of the church, which is His body (Colossians 1:18). And because Jesus said He only does what He sees the Father doing (John 5:19), we must follow suit.

Why can’t we just admit we need fresh fire? Does the idea of power falling on us threaten the hierarchy because the simplest saint can see the need and go to God directly? Have we lived so long without it that we dread the embarrassment of admitting our need?

Whatever the reason, we are no longer able to justify sparing egos. We are powerless and need a new outpouring of the Spirit.

It is wrong to bask in by-products; we have no right to engage in feverish activity that has not been fueled by the Holy Spirit.

Revivalist preacher and evangelist J. Edwin Orr placed the highest priority on the Spirit being outpoured:

…The outpouring of the Spirit effects the reviving of the church, the awakening of the masses, and the movement of uninstructed peoples towards the Christian faith; the revived church, by many or by few, is moved to engage in evangelism, in teaching, and in social action. The major marks of an Evangelical Awakening are always some repetition of the phenomena of the Acts of the Apostles, followed by the revitalizing of nominal Christians and by bringing outsiders into vital touch with the Divine Dynamic causing all such awakenings…the Spirit of God.

As mentioned previously, we can’t truly want to stop abortions, homosexuality, or government corruption unless we cut to the chase by seeing that the most immediately effective and lasting results come from a baptism of fresh fire. By now you can see my primary concern with Spirit-filled Christians—we refuse to return to God to ask for power! My related grievance is that we offend God by basking in by-products and projects fueled by human power.

At the heart of our deception is a fatal misconception of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We abuse this empowering experience the way many college graduates abuse their diplomas. Graduates often stop learning, assuming that their sheepskin marked an achievement so great that no further education is needed. Pentecostals presume that their initial baptism of power is a final baptism of power.

When God empowered you to be a witness, it was the first of a series of encounters with the Holy Spirit. You must have repeated infusions of power at key points in your life.

Corporately, the church must learn that such repeated returning to God for fresh fire is a reaction to crisis. The pioneers of the Holy Spirit movement in the 20th century recognized this need and called solemn assemblies based on the words of Joel:

Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord (Joel 1:14 NKJV).

They realized Joel was right. There has to be a gathering where no one is excused from attending. No one is too young; no one is too old; no one is too smart or too spiritual to be exempted from attending. Joel even required a wedding to be postponed (see Joel 1:8).

Charles Finney referred to times when revival waned, and he charged the revival core to press in for renewed power, or face the specter of certain death of the movement.

We have replaced the solemn assembly with the seminar. Some roving teacher blows into town and charges a huge amount of money for a one-day, instant-victory seminar.

What is our fascination with quick-fix artists and ideas? Clearly we got it from our television culture, where commercials show deodorants fixing careers and good coffee healing marriages.

We have been conditioned to believe that our spiritual problems will vanish if we could only find that latest technique or secret privilege we have not yet “named and claimed.”

We assume that our need is for a new fact, not a new fire.

We should be ashamed! Look at Peter in Acts chapters 3 and 4. He was in the Upper Room; he saw tongues of fire; he tasted the Day of Pentecost! Yet barely two chapters later he ordered the church back together for another infusion.

The faith had been banned in Jerusalem because of the miracle to the lame man. Peter saw what we couldn’t see—only an additional empowerment will help the church answer this threat. His prayer is a model for how to ask for and receive fresh fire:

“Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:29-31 NKJV).

Peter rightly declared that the threat was from Satan, ultimately against God. In other words, we are under supernatural siege and only supernatural power can answer it.

The next part of his prayer revealed Peter’s motive for wanting power, and his motive slashes at the heart of what’s wrong with Charisma. Peter asked for boldness to preach the Word. There is not a hint of petition for personal safety, emotional blessing, or lifestyle enhancement. His passion was for the Word of God to have its full impact on the lost and hurting.

Peter was pleading for miracles that would shatter the chains of the oppressed, thereby releasing even more power for the Word to spread!

Do you see a contrast between praying, “Lord, get me through the week, get me a parking place,” and praying, “God, let me have power to boldly speak your Word”?

God’s power cannot help but overtake the heart that has reduced itself to only wanting the Kingdom to advance.

So it was, that fresh fire came again. An earthquake of unity and boldness assured the next era of harvest!

You may have to pray alone, or you may be able to gather a core of right-hearted believers. In any case, do what you must do!

Find the place; create the time; fall before God in the discipline of waiting. He is the God who answers by fire. Soon you will be engulfed, and your fears will be ashes. The ensuing sense of purpose will astound you.

Do not wait—because the stirring in your heart right now is a signal from Jesus.