What is Spiritual Power By A. B. Simpson
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A. B. Simpson was founder of
the Christian and Missionary Alliance, a movement which was dedicated to taking
the gospel to the far ends of the world. This is the movement, to which A. W.
Tozer belonged and, in fact, Tozer wrote Simpson’s biography, Wingspread. My father also belonged to
the C&MA and loved to read Simpson’s Christ-exalting books.
His message wonderfully
echoed the cry of the Apostle Paul, “Not I, but Christ in me”. One of Simpson’s
many hymns was entitled simply, Himself: “Once
it was a blessing,” the hymn stated, “now it is the Lord… Once for gifts I
wanted, now the giver own, once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.” A. B.
Simpson’s love for Jesus drowned out all else and left him with a single
passion… Christ alone! Oh God, give us again preachers and hymn writers like
this man!
What kind of man could
inspire hundreds of missionaries to go to most of the countries on this planet
with the message of salvation? Well, a guest in Simpson’s home got up at 4:30
a.m. and walked out of his room into the hallway. He noticed that the door to
Simpson’s office was ajar and light came from the small opening. He heard
weeping and looking through the crack, he could see Simpson standing above a large
globe of the world, embracing it, his tears falling upon the countries below
his face. Read the following from this godly man…
What is spiritual power?
First, it is the power which convicts of sin. It is the power that makes the
hearers to see themselves as God sees them, and humbles them in the dust. It
sends people home from the house of God not feeling better but worse; not always
admiring the preacher, but often so tried that they perhaps resolve that they
will never hear him again. But they know from their inmost soul that he is
right and they are wrong. It is the power of conviction; the power that awakens
the conscience and says to the soul, “You are the man.” It is the power of
which the apostle speaks in connection with his own ministry: “by manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of
God.”
They that possess this power
will not always be popular preachers, but they will always be effectual
workers. Sometimes the hearer will almost think that they are personal, and
that someone has disclosed to them his secret sins. Speaking of such a sermon,
one of our most honored evangelists said that he felt so indignant with the
preacher under whom he was converted that he waited for some time near the door
for the purpose of giving him a trashing for daring to expose him in the way he
had done, thinking that somebody had informed on him. Let us covet this power.
It is the very stamp and seal of the Holy Ghost on a faithful minister.
It is the power that lifts up
Christ and makes Him real to the apprehension of the hearer. Some sermons leave
upon the mind a vivid impression of the truth; others leave upon the mind the
picture of the Savior. It is not so much an idea as a person. This is true
preaching, and this is the Holy Spirit’s most blessed and congenial ministry.
He loves to draw in heavenly lines the face of Jesus and make Him shine out
over every page of the Bible, and every paragraph of the sermon as a face of
beauty and a heart of love. Let us cultivate this power, for this is what the
struggling, hungry world wants… to know its Savior. “We would see Jesus” is
still its cry; and the answer still is, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto me.”
Next, this power leads men to
decision. It is not merely that they know something they did not know before,
that they get new thoughts and conceptions of truth which they carry away to
remember and reflect upon, nor even that they feel the deepest and most
stirring emotions of religious feeling, but the power of the Spirit always
presses them to action… prompt, decisive, positive action.
The power of the Holy Ghost
leads men to decide for God and to enlist against Satan, to give up habits of
sin and to make great and everlasting decisions. The Lord grant us so to speak
in His name, in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that the result shall
be, as Paul himself expresses it on writing to the Thessalonians, “Our word
came unto you not in word only, but in power, and ye turned from idols to serve
the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, even Jesus, which
saved us from the wrath to come.”
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