Powerless Christianity

The Holy Spirit is the power of Christianity; and we experience the power of the Holy Spirit when He is within us. Paul warns us of those “Having a form of godliness, but denying [rejecting] the power thereof”¹. This is the state of most Christians nowadays; and, it is because there has been little teaching on the role of the Holy Spirit in Christians towards being strengthened in their individual lives, and little teaching on how to access Him for this strength. The instruction is in the Bible; but, many are content with limiting themselves to only what they are taught by their pastors and teachers in their churches and denominations. In order to benefit from the instructions in the Bible, we need to perform them in addition to reading them.² There are those who are content to only read about Christ in the Bible; but this is not enough because Christ is “not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”³

We need to have the power of God in order to deal with the effects of the law of sin that we all inherit from the fall of Adam and Eve. Our human weakness is the universal effect that we all experience. Paul describes it well when he says that we do the things that we don’t want to do, and we neglect to do the things that we should.⁴ It is the reason for our sin actions. No one is exempt. Even the rich and famous die of drug overdoses whether they believe in original sin or not. The law of sin is a form of slavery to our impulses that makes us prone to excesses: and Christ came to free us from it. The strength from the Holy Spirit is an aspect of our Christian freedom in Christ.⁵ We are called to moderation. ⁶

In Christ, there is also the freedom from religious law which does nothing to bring us out of the law of sin when we view obeying law as a way to righteousness. The Spirit is required for righteousness.⁷ There are churches that substitute religious law in place of the restraint that the Spirit provides. This is no different than being under the Mosaic Law.

Do we let God put limits on our liberty; or, do we let the Church put limits on our liberty? These are not one and the same. When the Holy Spirit within us tempers our fallen nature by grace, then we can be truly free. When the Church attempts to do it by only imposing rules and regulations, then we are not truly free. There are limits to our Christian freedom; “For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another”.⁸ There will always be those who use this freedom for the purpose of sinning, but this does not invalidate Christian freedom. Without it, we are rejecting the liberation that the Holy Spirit can bring us. There is no Christianity without this; and we are left with a powerless form of godliness without it.

The Bible is very specific on how we receive grace from God in order to be strengthened by Him. We access God and His power by humility towards Him.⁹ This type of humility is defined by Peter as casting all of our care upon God, and is applied to the entire Godhead including the God-man Christ Jesus.¹⁰

There are many distractions that are offered to us which hinder us from direct access to Christ through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not allow Himself to be substituted by anyone or anything in His function.¹¹ We receive the entire Godhead when we receive the Holy Spirit: and without Him, we are powerless.¹²

For more information and a FREE download of Peter Aiello’s entire book, visit http://www.hiddentreasure.website/.

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