THURSDAY February 21, 2019
The Power of the Holy Spirit
Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused. So he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, “Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen.” And the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.
1 Samuel 11:6-7
Notice, the Spirit of God came upon Saul. Finally he was beginning to show his real call as King of Israel, but only as the Spirit of God worked in his life. In godly anger, Saul decided to give the people an example so they did not rebel, he took a yoke of oxen cut them up and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel saying: “Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen.” Saul had placed great pressure on the people and the fear of the Lord came on them.
Remember the problem in Acts 6, when the widows were being neglected? The twelve Apostles asked that the brethren to find from among them seven men to take care of the business. What were their needed qualifications? The brethren looked for men, who were full of the Holy Spirit, men of faith, and of good reputation (Acts 6:1-6).
Imagine out of these seven men, one of them gave a powerful sermon (Acts 6:7), and became the first martyr––Stephen (Acts 6:8-15; Acts 7). Another became a prophet––Philip. An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip to go south, into the desert on a road from Jerusalem to Gaza. There came an Ethiopian man, of great authority who was reading the book of Isaiah. Philip explained to him about Christ, and the man believed that Jesus was the Son of God, and was baptized (Acts 8:26-40).
Where did these men start? Waiting on tables. Who promoted them, Peter, James or John? No, God. Understand, the call of God can never work apart from the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives.
If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference…
~A.W. Tozer~
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