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Q&A: Seeking the Power
Q: Where in Scripture are we told to seek the power of the Holy Spirit?
A: Nowhere. Nor are we to seek the manifestation of God in any physical sense. John 14:21 promises us that Jesus will manifest Himself to us in obedience to His commands, but that is through His written Word, not by fasting, praying and waiting on some ‘event’ to occur. Likewise, you should not seek an ‘outpouring’ of the Spirit of God apart from obedience to His Word, because then you, again, dally in mysticism.
Here’s the thing, Jesus manifesting Himself spiritually to you is tied to your obedience to His commands, period. Look at this text:
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. – John 14:21
Christ will be a very real and spiritual presence to any loving believer obedient to His commands and seeking the will of God, which, by the way, is your conformity to Christ Himself.
Jesus manifesting Himself to you does not mean in a physical display of anything in any sense. You will not speak in tongues. If you want that, go to school, learn a language, then have at it. It does not mean you will be ‘under the power’ in a physical anomaly. If you spend time praying, fasting and pleading for the outpouring of the Spirit, hoping something will happen, you are playing with spiritual fire. It’s dangerous because the Holy Spirit will never do something not in accordance to the written Word of God. If you pray for the Spirit of God to manifest Himself physically or in some visible means, He won’t – but some other spirit might. You spend enough time pleading for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and yes, something might happen, but you won’t know the difference between a demon or the Spirit of God because you are no longer relying on the written Word, but seeking an experience, and that’s mysticism, not Christianity. Worse, if you plead these things within corporate prayer, you invite the same danger upon your fellowship.
Bottom line, those who seek experiences and manifestations of God’s power apart from the written Word of God are unstable in their doctrine and their faith. They long for experiences and some ‘power’ while missing the glorious truth that, if they are in Christ, they already possess the Spirit of God – why seek for something else?
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5 Pt. Salt 
Great post, in a few paragraphs you have blown apart the tragic fallacies of Pentecostalism. I’m not sure of the situation in other places, but here where I live, what was once a fringe movement[ Pentecostalism] has now become mainstream with devastating results.
Amen…great post. We have a local Four Square Pentecostal church in my village and they have attracted ALL the teens away from my own church (except for my daughter), and the parents are gradually joining them. They are big into spiritual “experiences”. We were warned that in the last days there would be a falling away so this shouldn’t surprise me, but it does break my heart. When I hear about all the “experiences” it really concerns me because if it is not from God they have really opened themselves up to demonic influence.
Good post! It certainly undermines the “signs and wonders” supernatural visions and encounters dogma by simply pointing out that we already have the Holy Spirit living in us. A very simple truth that sheds so much light exposing these errors.
It’s too bad that so many in this movement spent so much time seeking wonders instead of studying the Word.
Great post. I agree with you, as well as with the above posters, Ray, Katie, and David. Since the advent of charismania, there has been a huge wave of Christians being sucked into this errant form of Christianity. It truly is sad that so many have forsaken true doctrine and faith, in favor of experience based Christianity. I myself was a Charismatic for my whole 40+ year life, until about 7 months ago when I fully became aware of what Christian life is REALLY about, and what the Bible shows us. I thank God that He has given me a heart after truth. I guess you could say I never was a true charismatic, in that I never believed in most of what I was a part of. I rarely spoke in “tongues”, because I deemed it to be fruitless, unreal, and also physically taxing on my tongue!
Enough of me. Back to the post. Very well articulated. I am sure many arguments can be made from an opposing view, and I would welcome seeing some here. The tongues issue will likely never be put to rest on this side of the Lord’s return, as I Cor. 14 is very tricky to interpret. However, most all other “experiences” and manifestations can be easily dealt with through scriptural examination. For instance, we can clearly see that slaying in the spirit is NOT Biblical. As for all the “Seekers of power” out there, I think if they stood back and looked at the whole of scripture, using even half-reasonable hermeneutics, they would possibly realize that they are not in line with Biblical Christianity.
Very good post. I also am an ex-pentecostal who throughout my time with them had grave doubts as to the authenticity of tongues etc. Though I could ‘speak’ in ‘tongues’, (and still can if so inclined) like the above commentator was never fully convinced of its value, and today, simply outright suspicious.
I love the general tenor of Joel’s post regarding the power of the Spirit. To my mind the true power of the Spirit is manifested first in the lifestyle changes He makes in the lives of believers as a result of repentance…and secondly through the preaching of the gospel and/or witnessing of those changes as a testimony to the world. And if by God’s grace miracles of a more visual nature occur, then praise God. But first things first. By faith and the grace of God ….
*Forsake sin.
*Seek the righteousness of Christ.
*Pray to be a part of God’s work in the saving of souls.
*Surrender the whole life to His service.
Then watch and wait for God to work in your life.