Empowered: Claiming the Power of the Holy Spirit

By Esther Burroughs

Is there a longing in your heart for the Holy Spirit to fall fresh on you? God’s magnificent power is available to refresh and transform every aspect of your life. “In a very real sense, when you I and come under the power of the Holy Spirit, we yield our power—becoming less so that He can become more,” says author Esther Burroughs.

Through a provoking look at Scripture and true stories of the work of the Holy Spirit, Empowered will inspire you to claim this power in your life.

This book pries open treasure boxes of teaching and truth so that the Holy Spirit does not remain hidden!

Esther Burroughs is a remarkable storyteller, having the ability to blend the truth of God into her messages. Esther Burroughs is an audience favorite as she speaks across the USA and beyond. Should you like to know more about her, go to her website: www.estherbministries.com

To receive a FREE copy of her best-selling book, “Treasures of a Grandmother’s Heart,” go to her website and look under the heading: “Heart.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 10, 1999
• ISBN: 9781483512570

Book preview

9781483512570

Introduction

This book, Empowered, will introduce you to the person of the Holy Spirit, who is our Purifier, our Power, our Presence, our Provision and our Promise. As you read this book, you will have an introduction to the work of the Hoy Spirit in your everyday living.

In John 14: 14-15, the Amplified Bible defines "Counselor" with six additional names that describe the person of the Holy Spirit.

[Yes] I will grant—will do for you—whatever you shall ask in My name (presenting all that I AM]. If you (really) love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby) that He may remain with you forever."

Consider the Spirit’s powerful resources that are available for you to live a life that is honoring to God:

making choices—pray with your indwelling Counselor

daily stress—wrap yourself in your indwelling Comforter

difficult relationships—trust the One who stands at God’s right hand—your Intercessor

mistakes—you have an Advocate

life is too heavy—draw upon your Strengthener

just can’t go on—lean on the Standby

Imagine how our lives could change if we chose to live every moment in the power of the Counselor—Comforter—Helper—Intercessor—Advocate—Strengthener—Standby Person of the Holy Spirit! Please don’t just think of the Holy Spirit working only in extraordinary ways in major life moments. He can and does do that, of course, but rather, think of Him living through you in every moment of everyday life. There is nothing you will have to face alone—absolutely nothing! The indwelling Holy Spirit yearns to indwell and empower you.

The Spirit whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over—and yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome]—with a jealous Love" (James 4:5 (AMP).

James offers us a picture of God yearning over His people, eager to dwell within our lives through His Holy Spirit more eager than we are to be indwelt! This is true, so take courage! It means that God is willing to do everything in His power to enable us to live a Spirit-filled life.

My prayer is that the Holy Ghost will become a Holy Guest—a permanent guest in your life. When you asked Jesus Christ into your life, the Holy Spirit sealed your adoption into God’s family. You received all of the Holy Spirit there is to receive! The Holy Spirit does not manifest Himself in stages. Since He is a Person, you cannot get Him in little pieces. You either have all of the Holy Spirit or none of the Holy Spirit! As you grow in love with your Lord, you learn to now and trust more in the person of the Holy Spirit in your life. The Spirit’s power is there—learn to trust His power.

We often think of the Holy Spirit in relationship only to the Pentecost experience at the birth of the early church.

Realize this:

• The Holy Spirit was present in creation—moving over the surface of the waters. (Genesis 1:2, NASB)

• The Holy Spirit was present in the creation of man—"Let Us make man in Our image." (Genesis 1:26, SB)

• The Holy Spirit was present at every important event in the life of Jesus—His conception (Luke 1:35); His baptism (Matthew 3:16); the beginning of His ministry (Matthew 3:17); His temptation experience (Luke 4:1-14)

• Isaiah prophesied the Holy Spirit’s work in the life of Jesus in Isaiah 61:1-3. This same Holy Spirit indwells in us to do His work in today’s world.

• In Anne Graham Lotz’s book, Just Give Me Jesus, she gives insights into the Person of the Holy Spirit:

In the Garden of Eden, God had been with man.

In the Old Testament, God had appeared to man.

In the Tabernacle, God had dwelt among men.

In the history of Israel, God had spoken through men.

In the Gospels, God was visible as a man.

But at Pentecost, God became available to dwell in man!

Paul encourages us to be filled to all the fullness of God and to be filled with the Spirit. In Ephesians 3:18, he tells us:

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.

In other words, it says be being filled. This is a process. In my life, it is a constant process. The secret of being filled is simply this: we must live in instant confession of any sin in instant obedience to what the Holy Spirit reveals to us. Simply said, we confess—and we obey. Delayed obedience is disobedience.

The Holy Spirit clothes us with Himself! Thank of that!! The Holy Spirit is:

in us

around us

behind us

beside us

before us

under us

above us

through us

What more do we need?

"Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whosoever believes in Me as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him’" (John 7:37 - NIV).

How can I live like this, you ask? This is what Empowered is all about. This book will teach you to allow the Holy Spirit to break you, melt you, mold you, fill you, and gloriously use you.

This is my prayer for you—and for me!

1

Fall Fresh on Me

The Holy Spirit—Our Person

Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me

Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me

Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me, (use me)

Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.

Daniel Iverson, Spirit of the Living God

© 1994, Birdwing. Used by permission.

What a prayer request—that the Holy Spirit might fall on us like a waterfall: rushing, flowing, constantly moving, cleansing and refreshing all it touches. One of Webster’s definitions of the word fall is to become less, to lose power. In a very real sense, when you and I come under the power of the Holy Spirit, we yield our power—becoming less so that He can become more.

Do you remember the disciples’ obedience when Jesus told them to let down their nets (Luke 5:8)? And do you recall their reaction when they caught a boatload? When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ feet. Peter recognized God’s power! No wonder the early church had passion! They waited for the power to fall fresh on them—"a fresh wind and fresh fire," as Jim Cymbala writes in his book by the same title. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8 - NKJV).

Empowered living involves the act of falling down before the highest power, the Holy Spirit. Fresh, the dictionary cites, is recently made, new, and bold. The idea is that something is so recent that it has freshness—which is exactly how you feel when the Spirit has taught you something, or when He has shown Himself clearly to you.

To be empowered by the Holy Spirit—in the process of being continually remade—is overwhelmingly exciting to me. When I fail, it is often because I insist on my way and not on His. I need to be made new and fresh daily through the Holy Spirit’s power—on a moment-by-moment basis. We can live in the knowledge that the fresh wind and fire of the Holy Spirit are working through us even when we don’t feel it or least expect it. This is not only amazing—it is true!

The word, empower means to give power to, to authorize, to enable. To enable means to provide with power. This definition affirms Paul’s assurance to the Ephesians that the Holy Spirit empowers and enables us according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV). I have chosen this verse, Ephesians 3:20, as the theme for this book. Many are the times God has used this verse in my own life’s journey. Look at the larger passage in which verse 20 is found:

For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen

(Eph. 3:14–21 NKJV).

The Holy Spirit Is a Person

Where did we get the notion that the Holy Spirit is an it? The Holy Spirit is a person. Jesus, the Son of God, came in the flesh and lived out His life as a physical being, moving about in physical space and doing the will of God. Jesus completed His work on the cross. He even spoke from the cross the words, It is finished. He accomplished what God sent Him to do. The Lord Jesus came, suffered, died, rose again, and went back to heaven to sit at