20/20: God's Vision For My LifeSample

Layers of Power

By David Smith

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

When I was in my 20s, I was a member of the popular Christian band Dove. We traveled all over the country playing at different churches, high schools, colleges, and venues sharing the gospel. We had incredible success, but we were depending on our own ability and strength to make it happen. 

During that time, we became really good friends with Jack Taylor, a Baptist pastor from San Antonio, Texas. Jack spent time talking to us and teaching us about the Holy Spirit. One night, as he was talking, he explained that if we truly desired to accomplish all that God wanted us to accomplish, then it was going to require something far outside of ourselves. We needed to die to ourselves and recognize we couldn’t accomplish anything through our own strength…we needed to ask God to fill us with His power.

I will never forget praying to God that night and acknowledging that I couldn’t do anything through my own strength or might. I invited Him to consume every part of my life and fill me with His Spirit. He did a supernatural work in my heart—He filled me with the power of His Holy Spirit. It was as though God layered another level of His power on me through the Holy Spirit.

From that day on, God gave me an anointing like never before to reach people for Jesus. Whenever I’d share my testimony and talk to people about God, there was a completely different level of God’s anointing. It was amazing!

In the first chapter of Acts, Jesus told His disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere” (Acts 1:8). The greatest evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit—the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within you—is that you receive the power to become who God has called you to be so you can reach the people He’s called you to reach. 

God doesn’t fill you with the Holy Spirit just so you can have a lot of cool gifts to use for yourself (Acts 8:9–25). He fills you with the Holy Spirit so you can become who He has called you to be in order to reach the world for Him.

As children of God, our focus has to be centered on building His kingdom and influencing the world towards Him. And there’s no way we can do that without His empowering, without being filled with His Spirit. Unless God has given you the power to do it, you’ll never be able to accomplish what He’s called you to accomplish. Granted, those who try to get by without His power can manage for a while (just like I did before He filled me), but ultimately, they will never, ever accomplish all God has intended for their lives.

About a year after I first received the empowering of the Holy Spirit, I developed a deep hunger to read everything I could get my hands on about the Holy Spirit. So I turned to God’s Word and asked Him to show me anything He had to offer. I was in a season of my life where I simply wanted to consume everything I possibly could about the power of the Holy Spirit. And because of my desperation and hunger for God, He had me exactly where He wanted me…in a place where I was willing to receive and accept anything He had to give.

One night, right before our band was about to go out and minister at a football stadium in Farmington, New Mexico, I got together with some of the other guys in the group for a time of prayer in our hotel room. As I was pouring my heart out to God, I felt the Holy Spirit come upon me powerfully and give me another impartation—another layer—of His power. In that moment, I received my spiritual prayer language, and I began to use it right there in that hotel room. 

There was a Baptist evangelist there with us that night, and he told me, “David, you can’t tell anyone about this.” But I just couldn’t keep myself from talking about it. I didn’t want to deny the reality and power of what the Holy Spirit had done in me. From that moment on, I deliberately made time every night before one of our concerts to go off by myself and pray in the Spirit. And let me tell you that it made an incredible difference…not only in my ministry, but also my life!

The great British preacher Charles Spurgeon once said:

Only the Holy Spirit has power over the hearts of men and women. Did you ever try your power on a heart? If any person thinks that a minister can convert the soul, I wish they would try. Let them go and become a Sunday-school teacher. They will take their class, they will have the best books that can be obtained, they will have the best rules, they will draw their lines of defenses around their fortified spiritual city, they will take the best child in their class, and if they are not tired in a week, I will be very much surprised.

We can’t reach people for Christ through our great abilities or skills. Outside of the Holy Spirit’s anointing, we can’t accomplish anything. It’s only by living the Spirit-empowered life that we have the power to do anything. Zechariah 4:6 says, “‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” The Holy Spirit in you accomplishes what only God can accomplish through you. When it’s all said and done, if you can’t say, “This couldn’t have happened outside of God’s power” or if you can’t solely give God the glory, then you’re not really relying on His power to the degree you need to.

Are you ready to ask the Holy Spirit to fill your life? Are you open to receiving His power? Pray today and ask God to fill you with His power.

Trying to do the Lord’s work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.
~ Corrie ten Boom

Memory Verse

“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