Unqualified

September 9

Excerpt from Unqualified by Pat Schatzlane,

Isn't it about time your church rehired the Holy Spirit?

For much of my life I felt unqualified as a leader in the kingdom of God. Whether I was working as a youth pastor, an evangelist, a lead pastor, or an author, I have always known that without the help of my closest adviser and guide, I would not make it!

This adviser has been with me my whole life. He was with me as a boy when I was lost in a ruthless world. He was with me when I heard the call of God at a children's camp during a puppet show where I was a sixteen-year-old camp worker. He was with me when I was running from God. In fact, He drove me crazy. It seemed in every direction I went, He was waiting for me.

He was with me when I met my wife. He was with me when I held my son and my daughter for the first time. I have shared so many memories with this dear friend. He has guided me as a husband, father, son, pastor, and evangelist. Whether it was when I lost my sister or held my first book in my hands, He was there.

I, of course, speak of the Holy Spirit.

Recently while praying, I heard God say to me, "Son, why is the church ashamed of My Spirit? Why has My Spirit been fired from most churches? Do they not realize that they cannot do true ministry without Me?"

As I prayed, I began to ponder what the Lord had asked. For years I have cried out for revival to hit America. I believe that revival happens when God gets so weary of being misrepresented that He shows up. I believe it also happens when the church cries out for intervention from above because it doesn't want to continue through the doorway of mediocrity and often-plagiarized self-help sermonettes with no power.

This generation wants to see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual leaders of today act as if they have out-grown the move of God. To decide that this generation is not worthy of the same supernatural encounter you once had as a youth means the death of tomorrow's church.

To decide that we must keep the passionate in the back rooms and back rows of churches means a slow death. We must not relegate the moves of God to retreats, encounters and youth services. It will be the undignified who awaken the unqualified.

We have become so adept at watering down the blood of Jesus in our messages that it now represents a pink slip for the firing of the Holy Spirit. He has been fired from many churches and places of worship and ostracized as too intrusive and too disruptive. Maybe He is forced to fly under the radar, living in the gymnasiums of youth services, the Bible studies of homes, and encounter weekends twice a year, because He has caused more upheaval than any person in history.

Listen to me, unqualified. You will never accomplish anything without the power of the Holy Spirit. Go ahead and let the intellectual and spiritually dry theologians of the day lead with their man-driven knowledge, but you and I must be inhabited by the third Person of the Trinity. God is moving through those of us who still allow Him to be God! For those who do not believe in the anointing at work in our lives, I need only to point to this verse:

"Little children, it is the last hour. As you have heard that the antichrist will come, even now there are many antichrists. By this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us.  But they went out, revealing that none of them were of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things" (1 John 2:18-20).

I believe there are many who are more impressed with the aesthetics of the church than the anointing in the church. We often put more importance on the lighting, stage set, and sound than we do on crying out for an encounter with God. But great programs, warm bodies, and full offering buckets have never transformed the hurting. It is the Holy Spirit who does the work.

I will close with a final question for the unqualified. Is it possible to do what you are called to do without the habitation and partnership of the Holy Spirit in your life? I think the answer is a resounding "no." I challenge the church to hire the Holy Spirit back.

What do we have to lose? Everything!