Our Greatest Need

There is a tremendous need in the church today.  As easy as it may seem to identify what that need is, oft-times we are looking in the wrong places to meet it.  We think that the need in the church is for more money, methods or people.  Those are needs, but they are not our greatest need.  The greatest need in the church today is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

If we were to hear a description of the church that was birthed in Acts 2 (Acts 2:42-47), and compare that with many of the churches today, we would see that there are some similarities.  We would see that there are some differences.  But we would also see that something, rather Someone, is missing.

Dr. Ray H. Hughes, in his book Who Is the Holy Ghost?, put it this way:

“The church has been so leavened with the spirit of the world that few Christians know what it means to pray in the Holy Ghost and live a deep, full, all-conquering experience.  They simply exist spiritually.  They know nothing of life more abundant and the abounding, all-victorious participation in the life of a resurrected Christ…They are powerless in the presence of temptation because their low level of Christian living.  Many church members have begun to ask if there isn’t something more than this up-and-down, now-conquering and then-defeated, now-repenting and then-sinning kind of religion.  Too many are lacking victory.”

That pretty much nails it on the head, but that’s not the way God desires it to be.  It is His desire that we have life and have it more abundantly.  It is His desire that we live victorious, Spirit-filled lives.  Think about the words of Jesus in…

• John 7:38 He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly (heart) shall flow rivers of living water.

Does that describe the kind of life that so many in the church are living today?  Not so far as I can tell.  But it doesn’t have to be this way.  God has given us promise after promise in His Word that He has all that we need, and so much more.  So much of what we are lacking is provided for by the Holy Spirit:  love, joy, peace, power, effective ministry, etc. 

Let me quote Dr. Hughes once again:

“Having received the infilling of spiritual power, we joyously and gladly share this out-flowing spiritual life with others.  Many Christians today are like shallow well-pumps that must be primed in order to give forth water.  To get a little water from a Christian like that is a major task; and when the water does come, it comes with gurgling, grumbling protests.”

There is a huge difference between the two, and once again the glaring difference is the Holy Spirit.

We need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit as individuals and as a church.  I pray that we will begin to cry out once again, “let the fire fall, let the wind blow, let Your glory come down.”  Jesus said we don’t have because we don’t ask.  Well, I’m asking!  How about you?