For too long the body of Christ has been held back from walking in what is theirs due to performance based thinking with regard to the work of the Spirit. There has been a spirit of limitation on Christians due to a lack of New Covenant Gospel.
There is a mentality that you must be prayed up as though prayer is how His influence is released. It is like the Holy Ghost is caged up until we pick the lock and release Him through prayer.
This is a man centered approach to understanding the ministry of the Spirit in the life of the believer. It puts us in control of what the Holy Ghost does, when He does it, and how much He can do.
It breeds the idea that His hands are tied unless we empower Him with our prayers and good behavior. It is an Old Covenant understanding and approach., but we need a New Covenant understanding.
The Biblical teaching on the work of the Spirit understood from a New Covenant perspective empowers believers. It reinforces our dependence on the Holy Ghost. He is not dependent on us, the Holy Spirit is in charge as opposed to the idea that we through behavior or prayer can manipulate the Holy Ghost to do whatever we tell Him to.
Ideas do not originate with us, they originate with Him and He leads us into opportunities for ministry and impact that we might never imagine to be possible on our own. Too often Spirit filled believers think too short term and neglect considering that the Holy Spirit wishes to do things of a lasting nature with us, in us and through us.
Under Old Covenant glasses we tend to put more emphasis on stimulation rather than transformation.
We are living in a stimulation culture. There is a market for things that cater to the need of the moment. It is not foreign to the body of Christ either. Christians will demand in the moment fixes, they want in the moment proofs, and they expect to be stimulated whenever they come together. A stimulation mindset wanting immediate things cannot look beyond right now. All you need to do is look at what our government has done with the stimulus package to know short term fixes are not long term solutions.
The Law was a stimulus package. It was never meant to be a long term solution because it could not produce transformation.
Transformation transcends stimulation. It is a work in which a person is being changed from the inside out. Make no mistake the work of transformation requires true Holy Ghost power at work in us. A work not possible on the inside of us until Christ opened the way for it. Transformation is the real work of the Spirit. His goal involves conforming us to the image of Christ.
We can be so eager for being validated in the moment that we find ourselves doing whatever we think will work if it will produce a quick result. We want to feel that we’ve done something or proven we are authentic. This thinking produces jump starts but cannot finish.
This is usually a byproduct of performance based thinking.
About The Author
- Tim Atchley
- Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
- I currently serve as Senior Pastor of Harvest Church in Knoxville, Tn. I was sent out from Trinity Chapel of Knoxville in 1993 accompanied by my wife Sheila our four children Sarah, Hannah, Josiah & Isaac and a handful of bold, brave and committed believers determined to plant our first church. Pioneering is hard work but well worth the journey. That is why we desire to make disciples of Christ who will, like us, also embrace the call to plant churches.
