How You Can Be Imbued With
the POWER of God!
Herman L Hoeh (originally published in the Plain Truth
magazine, April 1979; scriptures expanded since original publishing)
The Church in apostolic days was filled with power!
Today, Christians are spiritually lifeless. Why? What has happened that
Christians seem cut off from the source of that power?
News flashes constantly bombard us with reports of
undreamed of new powers unleashed by science. Never has the world had in its
grasp more stupendous powers than it has today.
Nations are stockpiling horrifying weapons of
unbelievable power in a mad race for survival. Manufacturers are building
machines with ever increasing power output to satisfy the power-hungry buying
public. Health food addicts are peddling new powerful potions guaranteed to
rejuvenate the impotent and the aged. Even the churches are selling people on
new ways to tap "hidden powers" lying dormant within them.
Yet people today are more spiritually empty, lifeless
and lacking in power than ever before! The churches seem to be destitute of any
real spiritual power!
Why?
What has gone wrong? Are we missing the real source of
power that imbued the original Church in apostolic days?
The Source of That Power
There is a reason why people are spiritually empty,
dissatisfied, frustrated. People have been seeking the wrong source of power!
The churches are looking to material substitutes, to psychological panaceas.
But they are not. looking to the real source of power which filled the apostles
and the whole Church in apostolic days!
Notice the source of that power: Now
may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may
abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)
Notice it! "Filled"! Filled with what?
"With all joy and peace"! By what power? "By the power of the
holy Spirit"!
The inspired, original New Testament Church was filled
with the power of the Holy Spirit. We don't see that today. Instead, we see
either insipid pseudospirituality or uncontrolled
human emotionalism masquerading as the power of God.
Consider what mighty spiritual power overflowed the
Church in apostolic days: And when
they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with
boldness. (Acts 4:31)
Inspired preaching not soft, purring sermons came
from the apostles! Where do you see that kind of power in today's churches?
This was not some kind of uncontrolled, pseudospiritual,
humanly generated, emotional ecstasy often witnessed in evangelistic campaigns.
This was the real power of God not a counterfeit, uncontrolled emotionalism.
World in Utter Confusion
But why are inspired, powerful; spiritual-minded
sermons not generally heard today? Have the churches lost contact with the Holy
Spirit of God? How many professing Christians really know what the Holy Spirit
is why they need it and how they can receive it? And how many really know
when they have received the Holy Spirit?
How many really believe that God acts upon or operates
in human lives through the Holy Spirit?
Why do almost none of the churches and ministers agree
about what the Holy Spirit is, or about why we need the Holy Spirit?
Isn't it about time we understood the truth about this
most vital subject?
Preaching About a Counterfeit
Spirit
Most people are totally unaware of Paul's warning that
there would be many false churches preaching different doctrines about the Holy
Spirit deceiving the many into accepting a different spirit from the one,
true Holy Spirit revealed in Scripture.
Notice: "But I fear" Paul was sorrowed; he knew what was coming in our
day "lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his
craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Christ's doctrine is simple, when we
understand it; it is not a theological mystery!
Continuing with 2 Corinthians 11:3-4: "For
if he who comes" any
false minister coming in the name of Christ "preaches
another Jesus" the
world is filled with, the preaching of a different Jesus who was born, who died
and rose at a different time than the true Messiah, a different Jesus who
rejected the Father's immutable laws "whom we
have not preached,"
says Paul "or if you receive a different spirit which
you have not received,"
from the preaching of the apostles "you may
well put up with it!"
or accept him.
That is what has happened today! Paul warned about
receiving a "different spirit" and "a different gospel."
This prophetic warning from Paul has already been
fulfilled! The world has accepted a different spirit the spirit of error
not the spirit of truth.
Professing Christianity is split asunder by hundreds
of different denominations preaching different doctrines from those of the
inspired apostles of Jesus Christ. It is time we face facts squarely and look
into the Bible to see what God reveals about His Holy Spirit.
How to Receive the Holy
Spirit
There is only one Holy Spirit only one Source of
divine spiritual power. Without it we will never gain eternal life!
How do we receive it?
Open your Bible to Luke 11:13. Here are Jesus' own
words: " If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!
Observe that the Holy Spirit is a gift. It is called a
gift in Acts 10:45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished,
as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured
out on the Gentiles also. And
11:17 If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?. Then the Holy Spirit is not something we were born
with, nor
"Spiritual qualities and
entities seem so unreal to most people. And no wonder. Spiritual things are
invisible, not discerned by the senses until revealed in writing in the
Bible!"
is it anything we earn. It is the source of spiritual
Power we need, but which we receive as a gift upon asking God for it.
But how do we know that God hears us when we ask Him
in prayer? Here is the answer: "And
whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do
those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And
this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus
Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment." (1 John 3:22-23).
Notice that we must not only repent and believe in
Jesus Christ, but we must also obey the Father that is what love is. "For
this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments
are not burdensome." (1
John 5:3). If we perform these conditions by surrendering our wills
unconditionally to God, He will answer us. We can then receive His Holy Spirit.
Observe how this is again explained in Acts 2:38:
"Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let every
one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins;
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
That is how! YOU begin by repenting by turning away
from your past sins through the blood of Christ, by being baptized (immersed).
YOU are then unconditionally promised the Holy Spirit. God has bound Himself to
perform His part if you first perform yours. YOU can ask God thereafter to
direct you through His Holy Spirit to lead a new life in conformity with His
revealed Word, the Bible.
To continue, in Acts 5:32 you read: "And
we" the apostles are
speaking " are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to
those who obey Him.
Notice the stress placed upon obedience, upon
submission of your mind to the will of God to the law of God. Jesus said, not My will, but Yours, be done. (Luke 22:42). God expects a submissive,
obedient attitude before we receive the Holy Spirit. How plain it is that the
Holy Spirit is the spirit of total submission and obedience to the Father. This
is the way to a full, abundant, Power-filled life!
How to Lead a Fruitful Life
How many of you feel empty and frustrated; feel
spiritually lifeless?
Here's how to lead a rejuvenated, fruitful life how
to be imbued with Power!
Notice the fruit of the Spirit: 22 But the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23). It is by the fruits
of the Spirit that you know you have received the Holy Spirit of God. "Therefore by their fruits you will know
them" said Jesus
(Matthew 7:20).
The first fruit is love. Love is the greatest
spiritual Power on earth. "The love of God has been
poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" says Paul in Romans 5:5. What is the
love of God?
"Love is the fulfillment of the law." is Paul's answer in Romans 13:10. Love is
a godly, spiritual force; imparted by the Holy Spirit, that channels the human
will into obedience, obedience to God's law. If you love God, you will by the
power of God, not by your human strength be keeping all His commandments
all ten of them.
No one who continues to break God's law of love has
received the Spirit of God or has the power of God working in him! That means
that millions of deceived, but sincere, professing Christians who have not
surrendered their wills to God and who do not keep all the Ten Commandments
have never received the Spirit of God they are still unconverted and they
never will be converted until they yield to God's spiritual law of love.
The other fruits of the Spirit, mentioned by Paul in
Galatians 5:22, amplify the attitude of love. Obedience to God is not harsh and
cruel and unyielding it is a joy, it is peaceable and gentle, it expresses
itself in self-control. Self-control is the key to real spiritual power. Most
people cannot be filled with spiritual power because they have not been willing
to exercise self-control. Uncontrolled power is worse than no power at all.
I know that this is hard to believe. Some of you
probably were taught that you cannot receive the Holy Spirit until you work up
your emotions until you reject God's law. That deceptive teaching results
from hearing a different gospel than Jesus preached. That is the way of Cain
who hated his brother Abel. God's law of love has been His message from the
beginning (1 John 3:11-12 11 For this
is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one
another, 12 not
as Cain who was
of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because
his works were evil and his brothers righteous.). But men have refused it!
Why We Need the Holy Spirit
Man was born without the vital spark that will enable
him to live forever. Man is mortal. Man is subject to death.
Notice: "Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not
His. 10 And
if Christ is in
you," living the same life in us now by the
Holy Spirit as He lived by the Holy Spirit while He was personally on earth "the body is dead because of sin, but
the Spirit is life because of
righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him" the Father "who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised
Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His
Spirit who dwells in you." (Romans 8:9-11).
How plain! The Holy Spirit imparts the power to
commence eternal life. We inherited mortal life through Adam. We became heirs
of eternal life heirs of God by being begotten through the Holy Spirit,
which is the life of God. "11 And this
is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son." not in an immortal soul. "12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of
God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you" says John, "that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:11-13).
Eternal life with unending spiritual power is a gift
of God. It is an attribute of the Holy Spirit. "23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23). If we already had it, it
would not be a gift; it would be inherited.
But the Holy Spirit does more than impart to us the
possibility of eternal life. It imparts to us the characteristics of the
Almighty, the all-powerful God the Father.
That portion of the Holy Spirit which a person may
receive, if he asks God for it in conforming to His will, may be compared to
the germ or sperm of physical life. It transmits to us God's spiritual
characteristics and attributes.
The Germ of Eternal Life
First, notice that the Holy Spirit the germ by which
we are begotten comes from the Father. God has masculine characteristics.
That is why we call Him "Father." We are called the begotten children
of God (1 John 5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of
Him.).
God, then, has the power to beget us as His children.
He begets us by His Spirit. Each portion of the Spirit by which we are begotten
is termed in the Bible a germ or "seed." Peter tells us we are "having been born [begotten] again, not of corruptible seed but
incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever," (1 Peter 1:23). Jesus completes this by
saying we must finally be born again at the resurrection when we shall be
spirit (John 3:5-8 5 Jesus
answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water
and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit.7 Do
not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again. 8 The
wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where
it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.). Now we are only flesh with the spiritual
germ of eternal life impregnating us.
Second, notice that an attribute of God's Spirit is
perfect character. The Holy Spirit, the germ of eternal life, transmits that
possibility into us. It is the Spirit of obedience of perfection.
Every begotten child of God must ask God for the power
to resist sin. We must let Christ live His life in us through the Holy Spirit.
If Christ abides in us through the Holy Spirit, we have the power which enables
us to resist practicing sin. Notice what Paul wrote: "15...
For what I will to do, that I do not
practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will
not to do, I agree with the law that it
is good.... 18 For I
know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is
present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find." (Romans 7:15-18).
Notice how weak and powerless to resist sin Paul
really was. He needed divine help the same power that was in Jesus Christ
which enabled Him to resist sin. That power comes from the Holy Spirit of God!
The Mind of God
Conversion starts with repentance. Conversion means
change. Repentance means a change from the wrong to the right. It is a change
of mind. But that change is not enough. We must receive the Spirit of God in
order for that change to be permanent. Our minds need to be developed to become
like God's mind. "5 Let this
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5). But how is this possible?
Your Bible reveals there is a spirit in man (Job 32:8 But there is a
spirit in man,
And the breath of the Almighty
gives him understanding.). It is not the man it is something in the man. Connected with
physical brain, it forms human mind. It imparts the power of intellect and personality
that no animal can have. This spirit in man is not conscious of itself. It
cannot know apart from the brain. It is spirit essence. It is a human spirit.
Man, with this spirit, knows only physical things. It requires the addition of
another Spirit God's Holy Spirit to open the human mind to comprehension of
spiritual things (1 Corinthians 2:9-11 9 But as it is written:
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for
those who love Him.
10 But God has revealed them to us
through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of
God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of
the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the
Spirit of God.).
The mind of the flesh with which you were born is
death it produces death through sin; but the mind of the Spirit is life and
peace (see Romans 8:6 6 For
to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.).
Few grasp how great and all-powerful God is and how
great His kindness is in making it possible for us to have His mind!
Now that we understand that the Holy Spirit imparts
eternal life and spiritual characteristics of God, we can better understand the
nature and attributes of the Spirit.
What It Means to Be Born of
God
Only when one is born of God at the resurrection does
a person become perfect (1 John 3:9 9 Whoever has been born of God
does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has
been born of God.). Christ is the only human being thus far
born of God. He is perfect. If He, so to speak, lives His life in us by means
of the Holy Spirit (that is the same as saying we are to live by every word of
God, for Christ is the Word personified Christ is the Bible in action), we
have at hand the power of spiritual self-control as we yield to His Spirit. We
have the capacity to grow toward a perfect character like God!
Of course! If we are God's children, we are to grow up
to become like Him. That is true of all offspring in nature they inherit the
characteristics of their parents. It is equally true of Spirit as it is of
matter.
Notice: "For
since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by
the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead" (Romans 1:20). The physical creation
reveals the divine attribute of God to reproduce us in His image. Nature
reproduces therefore it reveals that God does. And if He is our Father, if we
are begotten of His seed, the Holy Spirit, we shall become like Him. That is
what the world does not know!
The Family of God
Since there is a heavenly Father, and we are His
begotten children, then God must be a family! And the Church of God must be
composed of the begotten family of God. It is the Holy Spirit that unites the
Church.
Notice the family relationship in Galatians 4:6: " 6 And
because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying out, Abba," meaning "Father!
It is the same Spirit by which we are placed or immersed into the Church. "13 For by
one Spirit we were all baptized into one body" the Church (1 Corinthians 12:13).
In Hebrews 12:9, the Almighty is called "the Father of spirits." We are ultimately, at the resurrection, to
be composed of spirit members of the divine family (John 3:6 6 That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit.).
"There is a reason why people are spiritually
empty, dissatisfied. People have been seeking the wrong source of power! The
churches are looking to material substitutes, to psychological panaceas."
In the resurrection we will be changed to spiritual
bodies (1 Corinthians 15:44 44 It
is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body,
and there is a spiritual body.)
imbued with the power of God.
Notice how often in Scripture we are declared to be
heirs of the divine nature of immortal, incorruptible, perfect, all-powerful
spirit possessing the very mind of God. We are to be full "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peters 1:4). But we may also receive a
part of that power in this life now! The apostolic Church had that power so
can we!
We Are Like an Egg
Whenever we become members of God's begotten family,
we receive a portion a seed or germ of the Father's Holy Spirit. "the gift of the Holy Spirit had been
poured out on the Gentiles also (Acts 10:45). This gift is called a seed. It is poured
out from the Father in heaven and, like physical life-giving germs or sperms,
unites with the human spirit in each of our minds upon conversion. Each human
mind is like the nucleus of an egg with which the Holy Spirit or seed unites.
Just as the egg in a mother's womb must be nourished
with life-giving food through the placenta, so we must be nourished by the Word
of God.
"The words that I speak to you," said Jesus, "are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). Those words are the Bible.
That is why man must live by every word of God.
Just as the physical life-giving nutriments circulate
in the mother's uterus, so must the life of God circulate through our minds. We
drink in the life-giving words of God from the Bible through reading and
studying and meditating. Then, just as the physical poisons are carried through
the umbilicus by the bloodstream away from a fetus in
the womb, so must we allow our sins to pass from us by asking God for
forgiveness through prayer, the shed blood of Christ figuratively bearing our
sins away. But this is not all!
Not only must the words of God flow into our minds
through Bible study, but spirit must flow into our minds.
Notice that each converted Christian receives a seed
composed of spirit, not matter which unites with the human spirit in each
repentant human mind. That is what begets us. But that spiritual germ must
spiritually grow like the fetus in a mother's womb.
Let "Christ is formed in you," said Paul in Galatians 4:19. And we are to
"grow up in all things into Him" in spiritual mindedness (Ephesians
4:15).
How is that seed, now united with our minds, going to
grow?
By the addition of more Spirit by the "supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:19).
Added to the germ which proceeds from the Father there
must be a continual supply of Spirit sent from Jesus Christ so that our minds
grow spiritually till our minds become more and more spiritual till we grow
to mature spiritual minds. Spiritual growth comes through prayer earnest,
heartrending prayer! Most people don't grow spiritually because they do not
pray in earnest!
Just as a fetus in a
mother's womb must have physical substance added to the original ovum (egg) and
sperm if that new physical life is to develop, so we must be filled with
spiritual nourishment "filled with the Spirit" so that our minds
grow spiritually.
The Holy Spirit from Christ and the Father may be "compared
to a current of electricity flowing through a light bulb. We are that bulb. But
there could be no light without a filament inside the bulb. That filament is
comparable to the spiritual seed from the Father. As we receive more of God's
Spirit, we emit more power more light! Our light literally fills the room!
The expression "filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18) does not mean to be filled with
emotional manifestations (which come from the flesh and not from Spirit). It
means that we are imbued with Spirit from heaven administered through Jesus
Christ in His office as High Priest.
Notice how Paul explains this in Romans 8:9: " But you
are not in the flesh"
we are not motivated by
fleshly passions "but
in the Spirit"
motivated and guided by Spirit "if
indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." That is the Holy Spirit in the form of a seed from
the Father transmitting His characteristics. But notice what Paul adds: "Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of
Christ, he is not His." that is, the Holy Spirit from the Father and Jesus Christ, filling
our minds so that we can grow spiritually. This begettal and growth through the
Holy Spirit most people have never understood.
Hidden in Old Testament Times
In the Old Testament, men did not pray to the Father.
But we pray to the Father. No one addressed God as Father in Old Testament
times. Christ came to declare who the Father is to declare that we may be
begotten of Him: "No one has seen God at any time. The only
begotten Son," Christ
" who is in the bosom of the Father, He has
declared Him." (John 1:18).
Then what about the prophets and patriarchs of old?
Did they not have the same power as we can have today? Did they not have the
same power as the apostles?
How did they have access to the Spirit of God? Through
the One who was to become Christ (1 Peter 1:11 11 searching what, or what
manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He
testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would
follow.). Christ, one of the members of the God
Kingdom, was the One who administered the Spirit to Moses, to Abel and to all
the prophets of old. He sent the Holy Spirit of the Father to be in them, to
give them faith and power. " 39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through
faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God
having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect
apart from us." (Hebrews 11:39-40).
It was not fully revealed to the patriarchs and
prophets how one is begotten and born into the Kingdom of God. They knew only
that through the Eternal, who would come to give His life a ransom for many,
they would inherit eternal life. They knew that the Spirit of God was not then
made available to the people in general. They knew there would be a " 20 new and
living way" (Hebrews 10:20) whereby in the millennium
all would have direct access to the Father through Christ that the called
might partake of the Spirit of God " 14 the guarantee of our inheritance" (Ephesians 1:14).
Today we can have God's life and power as a very part
of our being, enabling us to overcome and master our human nature!
The Nature of Spirit
Spiritual qualities and entities seem so unreal to
most people. And no wonder. Spiritual things are invisible, not discerned by
the senses until revealed in writing in the Bible!
When we speak
of the Holy Spirit, many cannot grasp its nature. Yet the Bible makes clear the
nature of spirit.
Notice, "God is Spirit" (John 4:24). The God family is composed of spirit.
The Father and the Son, who are composed of spirit, have definite shape. From
one end of the Bible to the other we are told about the shape and the parts of
each member in the God family. The Father and the Son each have a head, hair,
eyes, nose, mouth, arms, fingers, a torso, legs, feet, plus inward parts. Man
is in the image of God. Man is matter, but God is spirit.
The Holy Spirit, like matter, exists in various
states. It not only composes the members of the God family, it also flows
through our minds and empowers us to do good works.
Also a Creative Spirit
Even though the Father and the Son are in definite
locations with respect to each other, spirit proceeds from them and fills the
entire universe, much like air fills everything on earth! Note David's words
that God's Spirit permeates everything (Psalm 139:7-11
7 Where
can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your
presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell,
behold, You are there.
9 If I
take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold
me.
11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall fall on me,
Even the night shall be light
about me;). Spirit is God's life. Air contains the
physical life-giving oxygen of man. Notice how similar the comparison is.
The divine Spirit that fills the entire universe is the
channel by which the Father and the Son create. The Spirit of God transformed
the creative energy of Father and Son into the physical world we see around us.
Man has no such attribute or power born into him. But man may form tools which
transform man's expended physical energy into visible objects, into light,
heat, and numerous other physical manifestations.
Man is put here on earth to learn to develop tools for
limited creative work to train himself for the eternal goal becoming part
of the God family, which means sharing control of the creative Spirit of God.
(Read our free booklets Why Were You Born?; What Will You Be Doing In The Next
Life?; and Just What Do You Mean... Kingdom Of God?)
God is a family. The Father in heaven wants you to
become a member of His divine family. You can be His son if you surrender your
whole life to Him; believe all that is in the Bible; believe Christ is your Savior and obey Him; and become filled with the power of
the Spirit of God. This knowledge has now reached you. What are you going to do
about it?
Those who wish to learn more about this may wish to read
the article What is Your Destiny? Deification? Did the Early Church
Teach That Christians Would Become God? and/or
watch the video What is Your
Destiny?
To learn more about living as Christian, please study the
article Living as a
Christian: How and Why? and How to Prevent Sin.
There is also a YouTube video available that is called Living as a Christian: How
and Why?
Note: The old Worldwide Church of God no longer exists
and the group that took it over would not make Herbert Armstrong era writings
available, even when I offered to pay. So the above article is freely shown in
the public interest. The most faithful remnant of his old church is the Continuing Church of God.