How does the power of the Spirit manifest in Christians?

Jesus summarised the effect of the Holy Spirits Power when He sent a message back to John the Baptist...

Luke 7:22
And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: people who were blind receive sight, people who limped walk, people with leprosy are cleansed and people who were deaf hear, dead people are raised up, and people who are poor have the gospel preached to them.

TruthSeek3r said:

How does the power of the Holy Spirit manifest in Christians, as opposed to non-
Christians who don't have access to this power?

To the best of my knowledge and understanding, access to the power of the Holy Spirit is an essential and distinctive attribute and privilege of Christians. People from other religions, as well as agnostics and atheists, do not have access to this power. Therefore, it stands to reason that a Christian who is empowered by the Holy Spirit in this unique, privileged way would manifest this reality in ways that would set him/her apart from the rest of the world.

Question: How does the power of the Holy Spirit manifest in Christians, as opposed to everybody else who lacks this power? What are unique and distinctive features through which the power of the Holy Spirit becomes evident and manifest in the lives of Christians, in ways that non-Christians cannot imitate or achieve, at least to the same degree?

Appendix: passages that talk about the power of the Holy Spirit

• 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” [Acts 1:8, ESV]
  
  
• 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. [1 Cor 2:4-5, ESV]
  
  
• 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. [1 Cor 4:19-20, ESV]
  
  
• 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. [1 Cor 12:11, ESV]
  
  
• 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; [Romans 15:18-19, ESV]
  
  
• 14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. [Luke 4:14, ESV]

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The essential message of the Scripture quotes that you have given is that the power of the Holy Spirit is seen through the preaching of the Gospel to the unsaved. Therefore, the evidence that a person is moving in the power of the holy Spirit is that when he or she shares the Gospel with the unsaved, people repent, believe the Gospel and are saved.

We need to notice that when the group of Christians got together because of the persecution of the Jews, and when they prayed the place was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, Luke says that they went out and spoke the Word with boldness and the Lord went with them confirming His Word with signs and wonders.

Notice that they did not stay in the room to have a "hallelujah hootenanny" with prophecies to each other, being slain in the Spirit, shaking, or jerking. They went out where the unsaved were and preached the Gospel with boldness, and that's where the signs and wonders were manifested.

Therefore the conclusion is that the real power of the Holy Spirit is for the preaching of the Gospel to get unsaved people to repent and believe it.

Perhaps much of the "power of the Holy Spirit" we see in many churches is merely the steam going out through the whistle.

TruthSeek3r said:

Although what you say is true in those cases, don't forget the case of Ephesians 5:18-20:

18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,​

In this example there is no preaching to the unsaved. I gather from this that boldness for preaching and joyful worship are two equally valid manifestations of the Spirit.

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True, but engaging in worship during Christian meetings is not the type of power that is depicted in the OP's post.

TruthSeek3r said:

How does the power of the Holy Spirit manifest in Christians, as opposed to non-Christians who don't have access to this power?

To the best of my knowledge and understanding, access to the power of the Holy Spirit is an essential and distinctive attribute and privilege of Christians.

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The Spirit is himself the power given to us by God. To ask for spiritual power is to ask for the Spirit. Too many believers are keen for divine power but have no great interest in the Spirit, however. They are thrilled at the idea of having supernatural strength but don't want the total authority, the Lordship, of the Spirit of Christ. But there is no way to be empowered by the Spirit apart from constant, daily submission to him.

Anyway, no lost person experiences the illumination of God's truth in the way a saved person does (1 Corinthians 2:10-16). They may have a partial illumination, given to them by God that they might understand the Gospel, but the deeper truth of life in Christ is an utter mystery to the lost person. The lost person does not receive the strengthening (Ephesians 3:16; Philippians 2:13; Romans 8:13) or comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-4) of the Spirit, either. Divine discipline is also absent from the life of a lost individual who stands, not under the remediating chastisement of a Heavenly Father (Hebrews 12:5-11) but under the wrathful judgment of their holy Creator. Finally, the development of the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 5:9) does not characterize the life of a lost man or woman, only the life of one who has, by faith, "put on Christ" (Romans 13:14) and been made alive by the Spirit (Romans 8:9-11; Titus 3:5).

TruthSeek3r said:

What are unique and distinctive features through which the power of the Holy Spirit becomes evident and manifest in the lives of Christians, in ways that non-Christians cannot imitate or achieve, at least to the same degree?

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What of "tares," of "false brethren," who participate in the life and work of the Church but are not truly born-again? Many of them in time fall away from the faith, exhausted by the effort of mere mimicry of the life of the Spirit, trying to be a godly person by human effort. But Scripture seems to suggest that often only when this falling away happens can tares be recognized for what they are. (1 John 2:19; Hebrews 6:4-6) Often such "false brethren" manage to remain in a church community for their entire lives, their true spiritual condition undiscovered, because that community is populated by many other false brethren and/or very spiritually-compromised but genuine believers who cannot discern a false member of the faith from a true one.

Anyway, I'm not convinced that a "tare," well-practiced in the lifestyle and language of the faith, will be readily evident as a tare. My wife's unsaved friend, Anne, was invited to a Christian Woman's Retreat only to find herself among a group of ladies who were determined that all in attendance should speak in tongues and "experience the Spirit" before the weekend retreat ended. They assumed that Anne was a believer and nothing she said or did clued-in any of the ladies at the retreat to the fact Anne was not a genuine Christian. In the final hour of the retreat, the leader of it closed the door to the room in which all the ladies were gathered and declared that no one would leave it until each person had manifested tongues. And so, one by one, each lady "spoke in tongues." Anne was horrified by the situation and so arranged herself in the group that she would be the last to be made to babble. She hoped that before her turn arrived, she'd find a way to depart the room. No such opportunity presented itself and so Anne, feeling caught up in a nightmare, but unwilling in the face of the expectation and enthusiasm of the group to confound their goal, blurted out whatever verbal nonsense came to mind. Delighted, the woman all applauded the achievement of their goal, praising God for His "manifestation" of Himself among them.

Anne never set foot among Christians again. And she has developed a deep cynicism and hardness toward all things Christian. She concluded that "God" was just a figment of the fevered religious imagination of the women she'd encountered, confirmed in this view by the absolute blindness the women showed to the fact that Anne was not herself born-again. Her story illustrates how easy it is to mimic what some believers want to say is certain proof of the indwelling Spirit. It is no accident that many of the very same behaviors of believers chasing after a sensual experience of God are found among people of pagan religions having encounters with the demonic.

TruthSeek3r said:

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” [Acts 1:8, ESV]

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And in Acts 2, the first spiritually born-again believers, filled by the Spirit, went out into the street and preached the Gospel. Their witness was not mere tongues-speaking (which was not, by the way, incomprehensible gibberish but actual foreign languages) but the giving of the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ.

If you want to offer Acts 1:8 as a proof of being truly born-again, the verse would, as least as far as I'm concerned, enjoin evangelism upon genuine believers, as it did in Acts 2.

TruthSeek3r said:

4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. [1 Cor 2:4-5, ESV]

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1 Corinthians 2:1-7
1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;
7 but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;

As I look through this passage, it is evident Paul is describing the content of his preaching and teaching, the "wisdom of God" centered upon Christ and his crucifixion, not incoherent babbling. It was in the power of the Spirit that Paul preached these things, not relying merely upon "persuasive words" but upon the Spirit who convicts (John 16:8) and illuminates (2 Timothy 2:25) the minds and hearts of lost people.

Such power in preaching has not been evident, in my experience anyway, except among a very precious few preachers. Such power in preaching manifested, not in tongues-speaking, or people falling to the floor and convulsing, or becoming emotionally hysterical, but in deep conviction of sin, repentance and confession of it, and the healing of fractures among believers. Holiness and cleansing were the Spirit's first work in the hearts of people he touched through the preaching of men whose words he infused with his power. Lives submitted to God anew resulted from preaching done in the power of the Spirit, not frenzied, sensual, fleshly "experiences" of God.

TruthSeek3r said:

19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. [1 Cor 4:19-20, ESV]

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1 Corinthians 4:18-21
18 Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.
19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power.
20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.
21 What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

In context, this passage is addressing a disciplinary matter, not supernatural evidence of the Spirit's presence within believers. Paul offered the Corinthian church a choice between the "rod," symbolic of discipline, administered in the power and authority of an apostle of God, or an apostle coming to them with love and gentleness.

And so on.

The Spirit transforms us, conforming us progressively to the Person of Christ. In these things, the power of the Spirit is most clearly and surely seen.

aiki said:

Anyway, I'm not convinced that a "tare," well-practiced in the lifestyle and language of the faith, will be readily evident as a tare. My wife's unsaved friend, Anne, was invited to a Christian Woman's Retreat only to find herself among a group of ladies who were determined that all in attendance should speak in tongues and "experience the Spirit" before the weekend retreat ended. They assumed that Anne was a believer and nothing she said or did clued-in any of the ladies at the retreat to the fact Anne was not a genuine Christian. In the final hour of the retreat, the leader of it closed the door to the room in which all the ladies were gathered and declared that no one would leave it until each person had manifested tongues. And so, one by one, each lady "spoke in tongues." Anne was horrified by the situation and so arranged herself in the group that she would be the last to be made to babble. She hoped that before her turn arrived, she'd find a way to depart the room. No such opportunity presented itself and so Anne, feeling caught up in a nightmare, but unwilling in the face of the expectation and enthusiasm of the group to confound their goal, blurted out whatever verbal nonsense came to mind. Delighted, the woman all applauded the achievement of their goal, praising God for His "manifestation" of Himself among them.

Anne never set foot among Christians again. And she has developed a deep cynicism and hardness toward all things Christian. She concluded that "God" was just a figment of the fevered religious imagination of the women she'd encountered, confirmed in this view by the absolute blindness the women showed to the fact that Anne was not herself born-again. Her story illustrates how easy it is to mimic what some believers want to say is certain proof of the indwelling Spirit. It is no accident that many of the very same behaviors of believers chasing after a sensual experience of God are found among people of pagan religions having encounters with the demonic.

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This is exactly what happens when the gift of tongues is misused and that people are ambushed and trapped in situations where it would be very stressful to say "no" to being forced to enter into something they are not ready for.

But I just wonder at the wisdom of an unsaved person being invited to a Christian retreat. I also wonder if the Gospel of Christ was actually taught at the retreat so show any unsaved person there that there is a Saviour who died on the cross to take the guilt, penalty and power of sin from them. I would say that such teaching would be mandatory in any retreat where unsaved people are invited to attend.

Also, Anne must have shown some interest to have agreed to attend the retreat. Perhaps she was aware that she needed to know more about Christ and what He did to save people from their sins. It is a great pity that she was not given the opportunity to receive that teaching.

This is the problem with some fringe Pentecostal groups who put more emphasis on the sensual experiences such as tongues, than confirming people's faith in Christ and His finished work on the Cross. As someone who was introduced to the things of the Spirit at the age of 19 (I am now 74), and received excellent training by a very godly Pentecostal pastor who had a Methodist Holiness background, if I had been at that retreat and saw what was going on, I would have run a mile away from the place too! And I have many years of experience in the use of tongues and prophecy, and have been involved in a prophetic ministry where the gifts of the Spirit were faithfully and comprehensively taught in a series of one-day prophetic conferences over the years.

The last Pentecostal morning service I attended had things going on there that really spooked me out, and when I got out of there I determined never to go back to a service like that. When I was first introduced to a Pentecostal church in 1966, there was none of the spooky stuff. It was a church where people loved being there, singing with all their hearts, hearing inspiring preaching, and having great fellowship with each other. But going to the same AOG church 50 years later, things were totally different, and if the 1966 church had the same spooky stuff in it when I first went to it, I would have run a mile from it and probably would never have received Christ as my Saviour. Instead, I was impressed that I had found a group of believers whose Christianity meant a lot to them and their Christianity was a joy and an adventure for them. Also, the Gospel was preached in that church, while in modern Pentecostal churches the plain and straight Gospel is rarely preached, with repentance, humility, sorrow for sin, holiness never mentioned. All a new convert is encouraged to do is to say a short "sinner's prayer" and then told they are saved. Trouble is that the Word of God says that people are saved through repentance and believing the Gospel. Praying the sinner's prayer and doing nothing else has sent more people to hell than anything else.

So, if I was running a Christian retreat, I would concentrate of the Gospel of Christ first, to make sure that everyone knows what Christianity is all about and what genuine conversion to Christ entails. Get the foundation right and the rest will follow. Although I would teach about receiving the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues, I would make sure that good teaching about it came first, and then an invitation for anyone who wants to receive the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues to go into another room to be ministered to.

This would have given someone like Anne the opportunity to observe, but not be forced to participate in something she was not ready for. The Scripture says to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts. Love does not force people to do what they are not ready for. So, a soul is potentially lost forever, not because of the teaching about the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues, but because of the stupidity and lack of love demonstrated by the leaders of that retreat.

It gets worse...

I remember being told by a prominent christian celebrity, in front of 250 people, that I was blaspheming the Holy Spirit because I didnt speak in tongues when he laid hands on me.

I knew not to be concerned about this because His Peace was strong upon me at the time.

Circus is the only word that comes to mind when looking back at such meetings.

For the record, the precious gift of tongues operates effectively in my life today.

Carl Emerson said:

It gets worse...

I remember being told by a prominent christian celebrity, in front of 250 people, that I was blaspheming the Holy Spirit because I didnt speak in tongues when he laid hands on me.

I knew not to be concerned about this because His Peace was strong upon me at the time.

Circus is the only word that comes to mind when looking back at such meetings.

For the record, the precious gift of tongues operates effectively in my life today.

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This is exactly why I support young believers being discipled and apprenticed in the things of the Spirit by mature, experienced pastors who can give sound teaching. The problem is that men and women are appointed as pastors and teachers who have had no formal training and have "grown up" in groups gaining their knowledge by observation of others, which is not always sound.

Doing my M.Div was a great three-year journey for me, and I wish I had done it years ago. It is not the piece of paper on the wall that has meaning for me, but it was the three-year process of training and study that made it worth while.

I think that the fault of the Pentecostal movement was its anti-academic attitude - that doing formal academic training was contrary to the work of the Holy Spirit in people. The attitude is not helped by Charles Finney's comments that after training people in his church, he felt they were ruined when they went to seminary, and he had to train them all over again. Of course there are Bible colleges and seminaries that teach liberalism and how not to believe the Bible; but there are Bible colleges and seminaries that do teach sound Bible doctrine and practice. It is just that one has to be wise about his choice of Bible college.

But Finney himself had to go through a year's apprenticeship and training with a mature, experienced pastor before he got his ministry credentials. If I had my time over again, I would have spent the first few years of my Christian life concentrating on being discipled and trained in the Scriptures and the ministry of the Spirit before launching myself out in any type of ministry. The trouble is that young believers were encouraged to go straight out into using the gifts of the Spirit before they had received sufficient training in the foundations first. This caused a lot of confusion and I think was the birth of a lot of wrong teaching concerning the things of the Spirit in many Pentecostal groups. But then, you can't put an old head on young shoulders. We all have to learn by experience, making mistakes, taking the consequences of them, and learning to do better next time.

I am not saying that doing a degree in theology or divinity is essential to successful and sound ministry in the Gospel and the Holy Spirit. But I am saying that being soundly trained by experienced, mature men, faithful in prayer and knowledge of the Word is essential. The hallmark of one who is used in the prophetic is that he or she has a teachable spirit, and who is open to correction when things go wrong, and humble enough to admit error and to seek advice from people more experienced than himself.

Indeed the Church growth movement seems to have resulted in the appointment of many young inexperienced Pastors and skipped a whole generation of more mature believers...

TruthSeek3r said:

Shouldn't the appointment to be a pastor or teacher be performed by the Holy Spirit? Do you think it should be God Himself who must call you to ministry in a clear, unambiguous manner? I'm thinking of the Apostle Paul here, who was called to ministry in an extraordinary clear fashion by Jesus himself.

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The problem here is that there is not the same clear voice of the Holy Spirit in our modern churches as there was described in the book of Acts. Also Paul and Barnabas were specifically called to a unique pioneering ministry unlike any modern calling.

Also, we must not forget that the Apostles went through three years of intense training by the Lord Himself, and then another 40 days after His resurrection. We get only a glimpse of the extent of the training, as the Apostle John says when he said that if he wrote everything that Jesus did and said, the world would not be able to contain all the books that need to be written.

After giving them a lot of teaching, Jesus sent them out into the towns and villages on a "practicum" to put their training into practice.

Paul spent three years in Asia after his initial conversion and then another 14 years in Tarsus and in Antioch before being called to ministry. One commentator has said that during his three years in Asia, Jesus gave him direct training to bring him up to speed with the other Apostles. Paul instructed Timothy not to appoint "novices" to eldership positions in the church lest they be lifted up with pride and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Paul also told Timothy to give teaching to mature and faithful men so that they could pass it on to others. That implies formal training in sound doctrine.

So, there is a very important place for sound training in the Gospel and the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Whether a person is apprenticed to a mature elder or pastor, or whether he goes to a Bible college to receive three or more years of training by suitably qualified instructors, if the training is consistent with sound New Testament doctrine, the outcome will be the same.

But what we have in many churches, especially Pentecostal and Charismatic ones, is relative novices given pastoral roles and because they lack the maturity and foundation in sound doctrine, they come up with all sorts of crazy stuff which are not found in the New Testament, and because they assume the title of "pastor" they elevate themselves into positions of authority where they become unteachable. In the AOG it is common to have three or four relatively young men with the title of "pastor" who present themselves as superior to the common members and who give the impression that they set the standard of what Christian leadership should be. In reality, we have young men lifted up with pride, wearing the "pastor" badge saying, "Look at me. I am a pastor; therefore you should listen to what I say and obey me."

The Lutherans have a good system of training. It takes up to eight years of training before a young man is ordained to ministry.

Therefore, subjecting oneself to years of formal training involves discipline, patience, a teachable attitude, and a good degree of intelligence, along with humility, as well as a comprehensive knowledge of Scripture and principles of ministry. One commentator has said that it can take 20 years to give the perfect sermon, because it takes 20 years to prepare the man giving it.

TruthSeek3r said:

Good points about general discipleship and training. But what about your specific calling? Who decides whether you will be a pastor, or an evangelist, or a missionary, or a prophet, or an apostle, or a teacher, etc.? God or someone else?

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I think the first step is to develop fellowship with God through a regular prayer life. This increases sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. The Lord told me once, "If I hear your voice a lot when you talk to Me, you will start to hear My voice more clearly". Coupled with that, we need to grow in our knowledge of the Scriptures until we become like Apollos: "mighty in the Scriptures". I think those are the foundations that anyone aspiring to ministry should develop. Then the Holy Spirit will lead them into fruitful service. We must remember that fruitful service comes about through the grace of God alone. He is the one who makes the appointment. I reckon that when a calling comes to a particular ministry, the person who is in close and regular fellowship with the Lord knows and there is a kind of certainty about it.

As the person follows the leading of the Holy Spirit, the ministry develops into one or a combination of the five-fold ministries. For example, one may desire to prophesy, so he fellowships with the Lord, making his requests, and waits on Him. Then he starts getting prophecies to share in the fellowship meetings. As they develop, the pastor and leaders recognise that his prophecies are a blessing to the church and encourage him in the gift. Then the regularity and accuracy of his prophetic words reveal that he is developing the ministry of a prophet to the body of Christ, and formally commission him to it. The same would apply to a person developing the ministry of Apostle, pastor, evangelist or teacher. These ministries develop within the body of Christ group and the fruit is seen by the leadership who endorses the ministry and commissions the person to the ministry.

This happened with Paul and Barnabas. We don't know how long they were with the group of prophets and teachers at Antioch, but they must have been there long enough for the others in the group to know that they had the fruit of a ministry that the Holy Spirit could use, and so the Holy Spirit spoke to the group and commissioned Paul and Barnabas to the work He was calling them to.

Oscarr said:

Luke says that they went out and spoke the Word with boldness and the Lord went with them confirming His Word with signs and wonders.

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Which is exactly what they prayed for:
Acts 4:
29 Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with
all boldness they may speak Your word,
30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and
wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.

The manifestation of the Spirit is in answer to prayer.
John 15:
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall
be done for you.
8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

Oscarr said:

I think the first step is to develop fellowship with God through a regular prayer life.

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Ah, yes. You have it right here!

just a word of caution...

Careful when assuming signs and wonders confirm where Jesus is...

Remember Moses and Egypt...

and doesn't John in Revelation suggest Satan will even resurrect as an end-times deception?

Personally I think first find where the Love of Jesus is...

Then if there are signs confirming the Word -- all good.

Signs without His Love is seriously dangerous.

Apply this measure to your fellowship - please...

I really wish I could be taught or at least guided by mature believers because half the time I'm lost and I have no idea what I'm doing, My prayer life is lacking and my overall faith is declining though not loss.

DiscipleOfChrist85 said:

I really wish I could be taught or at least guided by mature believers because half the time I'm lost and I have no idea what I'm doing, My prayer life is lacking and my overall faith is declining though not loss.

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www.ttb.org

Thank you.