The greatest event in history was the coming of Jesus Christ into the world to live and to die for mankind. The next greatest event was the going forth of the church to embody the life of Christ and to spread the knowledge of His salvation through the earth.
That the church did not perish was due entirely to the miraculous element within her. That element was supplied by the Holy Spirit who came at Pentecost to empower her for her task. The Church began in power, moved in power, and moved just as long as she had power. When she no longer had power she dug in for safety and sought to conserve her gains. But her blessings were like the manna: when they tried to keep it overnight, it bred worms and stank. So we have had monasticism, scholasticism, institutionalism; and they have all been indicative of the same thing: absence of spiritual power.
If we are to advance, the Church must have power; she must become formidable, a moral force to be reckoned with, if she would regain her lost position of spiritual ascendancy and make her message the revolutionizing, conquering thing it once was:
- We need spiritual energy of sufficient voltage to produce great saints once again.
- We need a spiritual unction that will give a heavenly unction to our worship, that will make our meeting places sweet with the Divine Presence.
- We need that divine afflatus which moves the heart and persuades the hearer to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. It is not eloquence; it is not logic; it is not an argument. It is more penetrating than thought, more disconcerting than conscience, more convincing than reason. It is the subtle wonder that follows anointed preaching, a mysterious operation of spirit on spirit. (A.W. Tozer in Paths To Power)
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| The Upper Room at Pentecost |
That the church did not perish was due entirely to the miraculous element within her. That element was supplied by the Holy Spirit who came at Pentecost to empower her for her task. The Church began in power, moved in power, and moved just as long as she had power. When she no longer had power she dug in for safety and sought to conserve her gains. But her blessings were like the manna: when they tried to keep it overnight, it bred worms and stank. So we have had monasticism, scholasticism, institutionalism; and they have all been indicative of the same thing: absence of spiritual power.
If we are to advance, the Church must have power; she must become formidable, a moral force to be reckoned with, if she would regain her lost position of spiritual ascendancy and make her message the revolutionizing, conquering thing it once was:
- We need spiritual energy of sufficient voltage to produce great saints once again.
- We need a spiritual unction that will give a heavenly unction to our worship, that will make our meeting places sweet with the Divine Presence.
- We need that divine afflatus which moves the heart and persuades the hearer to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. It is not eloquence; it is not logic; it is not an argument. It is more penetrating than thought, more disconcerting than conscience, more convincing than reason. It is the subtle wonder that follows anointed preaching, a mysterious operation of spirit on spirit. (A.W. Tozer in Paths To Power)
