PerspectivesHoly Spirit power
Brent Scully
“It’s just not working!” The words kept reverberating through my mind. We were in India to conduct a week of prayer, but by the second day, after we had already presented four of our nine talks, we knew we weren’t getting through to our listeners.
We had written, planned, organized, and prepared all of our talks, concentrating on the cross and the life of Jesus. Why wasn’t it working? No matter how hard we tried or how enthusiastically we delivered our scripts and stories, we felt as if our efforts were a total failure.
At 3:30 in the morning, I heard a rap on my door. I opened the door to find my friend, Rick Desmond, with an earnest look of conviction on his face. “We need to pray for the Holy Spirit NOW!” he exclaimed. I dared not disagree. Finding a quiet place in the hotel wasn’t difficult at 3:30 in the morning.
We began pouring our hearts out to God. After earnestly praying for two hours, we felt a sense of God’s empowering presence. We had been transformed. The atmosphere pervading our meetings shifted dramatically. The Holy Spirit showed up, and people’s lives were changed.
“The promise of the Spirit is not appreciated as it should be. … It is the absence of the Spirit that makes the gospel ministry so powerless. Learning, talents, eloquence, every natural or acquired endowment may be possessed; but without the presence of the Spirit of God, no heart will be touched, no sinner be won to Christ” (COL, p. 328).
Only the power of the Holy Spirit will energize Gospel Outreach workers and make the mission of our volunteers effective. Join us in praying for an outpouring of God’s Spirit.
