The Power of the Holy Spirit

Albert M. Johnson
Bishop, 1929-1951

April 1950

Why do we not have Pentecostal times in the church now? Should we not seek the reason and remove the obstacles that stand in the way of obtaining Pentecostal times?

Are the days when the multitudes pressed about Jesus to be no more? Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened that He does not answer prayer?

It may be because the church does not pray for this as it did in the days of old. When God looks down from heaven and sees the father of the family altar and the mother at the bedside with her children at her knees and hears one great universal anthem of prayer from the whole church, then we can look for that harmony and accord in faith that will obtain the triumph of Pentecostal days.

There may be a second reason why we do not have Pentecostal times in the church today. The church may not expect them--and what is worse, she may not want them. There are churches, I am sure, where attendants would be very much put out if the pews were filled with strangers and outcasts and harlots and sinners. If these people for whom Christ died were to crowd into some of our churches, as no doubt they would if Pentecostal days were here, the people already there would feel so uncomfortable that they would look for another corner lot on which they could build a church after their liking.

Possibly another reason why we do not have Spirit-filled churches is because we lack Spirit-filled preachers. From my earliest recollection, I have heard the saying, "Like priest, like people." But I believe there should be some revision, so that it will read, "Like people, like priest." I fear that preachers are too often what their congregations want them to be. The demand of the people is for a preacher who will fill the church not with sinners, but with sitters; not with prayers, but with payers. And so the preacher is forced to make a frantic effort to do what the people want him to do. Almost in spite of himself, he thus gets his message from the people instead of from God. He peaches what he thinks they will like and not what God tells him they will need. He chooses topics that will draw men to church instead of scripture texts that will draw men to Christ. Thus, preachers become man-made instead of God-directed. They follow a man-made profession instead of a God-ordained calling. We can never expect a Spirit-filled churches until we have Spirit-filled preachers who will preach the Word with demonstration and with power.

Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, was not governed by the whims of the multitudes who made up his audience. He gave it with such Holy Ghost power that men did not applaud him, but censured themselves. They did not say, "What a great preacher Peter is," But "What vile sinners they were."

The church of our day has not really tapped the unlimited resources of heaven. I feel that the deed of the hour is the evangelizing torrents of the holy host poured out upon the church so that men will be sent forth into this world--not to refine it, but to speak the word of God to a wicked and perverse generation; men who fear God more than they fear men. Then the day of victory will be ours.