The power in being needy

Before discovering this marvelous book by A. W. Tozer that focuses on the Holy Spirit, how did I consider the Spirit? Most of what He does I credited the other Persons of the trinity, which is not wrong, but I didn’t think about the Spirit very much. I knew about speaking in tongues and that some Christians insisted everyone had to do it. However, because some cults also speak in tongues, I was a bit leery of that. Otherwise, I thought and spoke of Him without much inspection or reflection. Tozer has opened my mind using passages like this:

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1–4)

For the reading today, Tozer says that when the Spirit came at Pentecost, this was not a ‘come and go’ event but rather Pentecost came and stayed. That day is historic, but it remains with us in all its fullness of power. That is, today is the day of Pentecost. With God, there is no yesterday or tomorrow, only eternity, the everlasting now. Since the Holy Spirit is God with all the attributes of the Godhead, He inhabits an eternal here, a central everywhere, with no boundaries. I cannot leave His presence, even though He can withdraw my sense of it.

The Spirit enables me to do all that God calls me to do. To be ignorant or insensible to Him is a loss, one usually caused by my lack of faith, or preoccupation with life, or a foolish sense of self-ability. I’ve ignored the power of the Holy Spirit many times because I figured I could do it myself. Imagine that folly — I can do things better than Almighty God? Such pride and a totally sinful attitude.

Oswald Chambers has said that the sign that the Holy Spirit is in us is that we realize that we are empty, not that we are full. We have a sense of absolute need particularly when trials come. That “dumb sense of need” that comes is “a sign that the Holy Spirit is there” and if I am ever free from the sense of need, it is not because the Holy Spirit has satisfied me, but because I have been satisfied with as much as I have. It is as Paul wrote, “When I am weak, I am strong.”

^^^^^^^^^^

Lord God, forgive and wash away all my pride and self-reliance. Your Spirit is not only sufficient but all that I need for life and godliness. Forgive my ignorance and for putting my confidence in the wrong person and for trying to fix that sense of need without realizing it is a gift from You, a gift that can have startling consequences.

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit . . .  God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” (Acts 2:38 & 10:38)