by Ted Dekker
The Bible explains that in the last days people will hold to a form of godliness while denying its power (2 Timothy 3:5). Sadly, many believers do not know the reality of living a supernatural life through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.
The story you have read is spectacular in parts, but in reality the events in this story are no more spectacular than events which occur repeatedly throughout the Old and New Testaments. If they seem more dramatic, it is because we have used a contemporary story to bring them into your world. But if you think about each occurrence of the miraculous, they are no more than what we see in Scripture. The power of the Holy Spirit characterized the New Testament church no less than it did the lives of the prophets of old. The Lord enabled them to do many miraculous signs and wonders (Acts 14:3), many were healed (Acts 5:16), others were raised from the dead (Acts 9:41), and most importantly the good news of Christ began to spread throughout the world.
Jesus said, except you become as a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Children are generally trusting and dependable and believe what they are told. At Campus Crusade for Christ we have noticed that the response in many parts of the world to the Jesus Film is phenomenal. Audiences who see the film say that if Jesus can heal the blind, He can heal them too. And so He does. In fact, we have reported situations where people have actually been raised from the dead, and their communities revolutionized by the message that resulted.
But in the Western world, we are more prone to rationalize and analyze until the true meaning of the gospel is dissipated and often rendered powerless. We become like the churches in Ephesus and Laodicea: we have left our first love and are neither hot nor cold. We find it difficult to believe that Jesus would do today what He did centuries ago, while many of our fellow believers across the seas do believe, and they rejoice in the fruits of their belief.
Without the Holy Spirit, our own strivings are fruitless. It is “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord (Zechariah 4:6). The last instruction Jesus gave to His disciples on the Mount of Olives was to wait in Jerusalem until they were renewed with power from on high. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Everything in the Christian life involves the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came to glorify Christ, to lead us into all truth, to convict us of sin, and to draw us to the Savior (John 16). We must be born of the Spirit (John 3). Only through the enabling of the Spirit can a person understand the Word of God and live under its power. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).
No book written by man can begin to capture every aspect of the remarkable truths about the Holy Spirit, but I trust this novel has challenged you to reconsider your understanding of God’s power. I pray that unity and harmony and love will flow from the discussions inspired by these pages. May we come together as the bride of Christ and worship at His feet together. No matter what your view on how God works in the affairs of men and nations, we certainly can agree that He is awesome and worthy of the grandest telling of His power.
But most of all I pray that every individual who reads this story will be so gripped with the reality of the Holy Spirit’s presence that they will personally experience His supernatural love and power.
Lord, may Your light shine brightly on this world of darkness.
BILL BRIGHT
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From the minds of multi-million selling suspense authors Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker comes House—an epic supernatural thriller that gives new meaning to the phrase “haunted house.”
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