Unless the
Spirit
Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
ZECHARIAH 4:6
Back in the rustic rural community of my boyhood days we used to sing an old-fashioned song characteristic of the period before the Age of Amen gave way to the Era of So What? It ran like this:
Brethren, we have met to worship
And adore the Lord our God;
Won't you pray with all your power
While we try to preach the Word?
All is vain unless the Spirit
Of the Holy One come down;
Brethren, pray and holy manna
Will be showered all around.
From ''Brethren, We Have Met To Worship,'' by Geo. Atkins
I like especially that line, ''All is vain unless the Spirit. . .''
The plight of many churches is summed up in the words spoken to Jesus by the father who brought his demonized boy to the disciples at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration: ''I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not.'' We are powerless before
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a demonized world. And it is not because we do not have knowledge, equipment, programs, activity, money. Never has the church had more—and less!
Missionaries tell us that sometimes chimpanzees imitate them by gathering wood and arranging it for a fire—but they do not know how to produce the fire. The church has her wood in excellent order today. The system is perfect, but—we have no fire.
The Old Testament tells us how Elisha sent Gehazi, his servant, to raise the Shunammite's son. He carried the prophet's staff and observed the prophet's orders, ''but there was neither voice nor hearing.'' Today Gehazi goes about at Elisha's orders, carrying Elisha's staff, but although he goes through the prescribed motions the dead do not come to life. Although we say all the words the demons do not depart.
Never has the church had more wire stretched with less power in it. ''All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One come down.'' Sad to say, we seem not even to know that we have not the Spirit in power. If He ceased His work many church members would never know the difference. Like Samson, we wist not that He has departed, but we keep ''shaking ourselves'' in the prescribed calisthenics.
Such was the sad plight of the churches in Asia to which our Lord spoke in Revelation. Ephesus was loveless and didn't know it. Sardis was lifeless and didn't know it. Laodicea was lukewarm and didn't know it. ''Thou sayest. . . and knowest not'' is descriptive of altogether too many churches today. In any case ''all is vain unless the Spirit. . .''
We go to extremes, we either freeze or fry. Some services are too formal and we come out like ramrods,
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having mistaken spiritual rigor mortis for dignity. We ought to be dogmatic plus but sometimes we are dogmatic—period. So are there other fellowships coldly orthodox, having the facts but no fire. Again, we sometimes go to the other extreme, where we sit through a frenzy of evangelistic epilepsy and come out nervous, feeling more as if we had been to a circus than to a church. In either case, ''all is vain unless the Spirit. . .''
We do not have to choose between freezing or frying. Certainly, most of the saints do need defrosting. One thing can stop Niagara—it can freeze! The same trouble stops many a church. Deep-freeze lockers are nothing new: we have had them on street corners with steeples on top for years.
We could stand a little emotion nowadays. The World Series baseball games almost stop business in many a section of our land, so intense is the interest. If a revival so interfered with our normal processes you would hear the complaint that we were going crazy. Indeed, that was a complaint made during the Welsh Revival. A spell of that kind of insanity would be welcome, ''think'' some of us who have grown weary of the present insanity misnamed progress.
We have already referred to Samson, who wist not when the Spirit of the Lord departed from him. There was a time when the Spirit was with him. It is stated in a most interesting fashion: ''And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. . . and he had nothing in his hand'' (Judges 14:5, 6). Nothing in his hand! We have too many things in our hands today, carnal weapons of our own choosing, and even God cannot fill what is already full. It was the invisible weapon that prevailed in Samson's case, as with Gideon and his ''sword of the
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Lord.'' God wants us empty-handed when we go out, that we may be full-handed when we come in. Samson's hands were filled with honey for himself and others. When life is done, we want to go home full-handed: ''Shall I go and empty-handed?'' we sing, and the answer is ''No.'' But the Spirit of God comes mightily on those who have nothing in their own hands, that He may fill their hands forevermore.
We are in serious danger of forgetting that it is not by might or by power but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts. We cannot meet the Goliath of this age in Saul's armor. When we try to grapple with the adversary in unsanctified strength we throw away our only chance of success. The Bible is one long record of men and women who dared to be utterly ridiculous in order to prove God. Abraham, the priests at Jericho, Gideon, David facing Goliath, these and many more dared to make the glorious venture where ''all is vain unless the Spirit'' comes to one's aid. If it hadn't worked they would have been laughing-stocks to all subsequent generations. But it worked!
Today we are afraid to prove God. We borrow the world's program and pep and propaganda and paraphernalia and personnel. But from the world we cannot borrow power, the power that works the works of God. Our efficiency turns out to be deficiency unless we have His sufficiency. We have a name to be alive as had Sardis (Rev. 3:1), but we merely double our activities to hide our weakness. ''It is not conquering energy conscious of its power but feverish energy conscious of its powerlessness.'' We have developed in Christian work the go-getter salesman type who ''goes'' more than he ''gets,'' hunches over tables in cafeterias ''making contacts''
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instead of getting on his knees talking to God. And all our modern St. Vitus's dance merely reveals the fact that we have not the Spirit.
There are others who sense their lack of power and set about in diverse ways to improve matters. They introduce this innovation, dispense with that, a mere reshuffling of arrangements; but the church is as powerless before the demons as ever. Rules upon rules are invented, but the sorriest hotel usually posts the most regulations, and the same holds for churches.
What to do? I suggest no ''steps.'' There are books of them already in circulation. Until we are really convicted of our need, humble enough to acknowledge it and desperate enough to lay hold upon God, we shall continue like Gehazi to go through all the motions in vain. And when we are so convicted and humble and desperate we will get through to God. The best way to learn how to pray is to pray, and the man who really hungers and thirsts for God will need no ''steps'' to satisfy his soul.
''All is vain unless the Spirit. . . '' Let us pray as we ought, and ''holy manna will be showered all around.''
