THE GREAT OMISSION
A recent article told of some of the amusing situations developed by the producers of the TV program, “Candid Camera.”
One of these involved the removal of the engine from a new model car. The car was poised at the top of a hill with a filling station near the bottom of the hill on the right side of the street.
A young woman then guided the car down the hill and into the filling station and asked the attendant to check the oil and water.
The clincher came when the camera focused on the bewildered and amazed attendant as he exclaimed, “But lady, you ain’t got no engine!”
This amuses us because it is a good story, because it is an absurd situation, and because our imaginations join in the perplexity of the filling station attendant.
But when we transplant this situation into the realm of Christian work the absurdity becomes a tragedy and we stand in judgment before the God who has offered his Spirit which we have ignored or rejected.
How often “the engine is missing” in work undertaken for God! The words of the ancient prophet, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts” still hold good today. We glibly memorize and quote this verse and then go blithely on our work—for the Lord? yes, but as though might, power, activity, and dedication were sufficient in themselves.
In terms we all can understand let it be repeated, the presence and power of the Holy Spirit are as essential to any Christian work as is the engine to the modern automobile. The pull of gravity and the momentum of a down-hill grade will take the car a little way, but then it stops, and stays stopped. In the Lord’s work there are times when we think we are doing fine, only to discover that the momentum of extraneous influences has ceased and our work is revealed as utterly without power or spiritual significance.
There is no substitute for His presence. There is no power without Him. There is no real success without the help and blessing of the Spirit of God.
Our Lord’s earthly ministry was restricted geographically, probably to an area no more than 135 miles long and 60 miles wide. In his person and work he did everything necessary for the redemption of the world. But because of time and space it was necessary that he send into the world One who would make possible the extension of that work around the world and down through the centuries.
What was it which made possible the extension of his work to the uttermost parts of the earth?
Who made it possible for the gospel of Jesus Christ to become the force which turned the world upside down—which carried the Message to Asia, to Europe, and around the world?
How could a few unlearned and unprepossessing men go out and within a few years shake the very foundations of the then civilized world for Jesus Christ?
It was the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the living God who guided, inspired, empowered, blessed, and mightily used these men and their message.
The Bible does not leave us in ignorance as to what happened. They had been with our Lord for more than two years. They had heard him preach and teach. They had seen his mighty miracles, even the bringing of the dead back to life. And they had seen him unjustly condemned, crucified, and then, wonders of wonders, they had seen him alive again—had touched him, heard him, eaten with him and knew without a doubt that he was living.… If ever men would appear to have been prepared to go out and preach the Gospel these men were prepared, and what a marvellous preparation was theirs!
But they were not ready.
The resurrected Lord told them to wait; he said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you,” and then he defined their task: “ye shall be witnesses unto me.”
A witness is one who furnishes proof to a circumstance, or an event. A witness attests to a fact. A witness tells of a personal experience. But the Christian witness is effective only as the Holy Spirit takes it and enables the one witnessed to understand and receive.
For one to accept such a witness it is necessary that its truthfulness be believed. In the preaching of the Gospel it is the Holy Spirit who bears witness to the truth. It is he who prepares the heart of the hearer. It is he who enables one to believe. It is he who quickens the spiritually dead and brings life from death. It is he who speaks of the things of Christ to the human heart, convicts the sinner of his sin, brings about repentance, and leads to confession and surrender to the Saviour.
These things being true—and they are true—how utterly foolish to undertake any work or witness for Christ without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit!
On the road to Emmaus the disciples walked with the risen but unrecognized Lord. Then at supper he expounded to them the Scriptures. Then he suddenly disappeared. But the impact of his presence lingered and they said: “Did not our heart bum within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures”?
And so it is today. Only the Holy Spirit creates the “burning heart.” Only through his presence do men react in love and faith to the claims of Christ.
Ezekiel tells of a vision of a valley filled with dry bones and God asked him: “Son of man, can these live?” The prophet was nonplussed. All he could say was: “O Lord God, thou knowest.” Then God gave this promise: “I … shall put my spirit in you [the dry bones of a spiritually-dead Israel], and ye shall live.”
Nor is God’s promise limited to the rebellious house of Israel. Today he longs to pour out his Spirit on men and women, on the Church, on the nations of the world, and make them live.
Christians. Pastors. Church leaders. Do you want to see the miracle of spiritual rebirth and power in your own life and in the lives of those to whom you minister? The writer believes most persons would quickly and without question reply, “Yes.”
Then such a miracle is possible today. The dryness and deadness of a formal Christianity can be changed to the life and power of new men and new organizations in Christ—by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us all.
We are not left to hope for such a blessing. It is ours for the asking. “If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.” This promise is still valid.
Will it be unduly emotional? No, Christ was not unduly emotional, nor were the early disciples that way. Actually it is the only way to spiritual power.
For too long some of us have tried to drive without an engine.
L. NELSON BELL
