Power from on High

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. ACTS 1:8

Evans came to faith in a Welsh Pentecostal church, served for years as a pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and describes himself as a conservative charismatic: one who believes that the gifts and working of the Holy Spirit are the same today as they have always been, and just as necessary. He speaks warmly of an experience of the Spirit in his student days which he regards as the lighting of a fire that has burned ever since. The fullness of the Spirit is therefore at the centre of his teaching, in Feasting at the Table, in Soar Like the Eagle and in his sermon Guard the Fire.

Breathed on, and then empowered

Evans’s starting point is the difference between two scenes in the Gospels and Acts. On the evening of the resurrection, Jesus came to His frightened disciples in a locked room, showed them His hands and side, and breathed on them.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. JOHN 20:22

Evans believes that at that moment the disciples were born again. He points to the form of the Greek verb, which he takes as a command expecting immediate fulfilment. But seven weeks later, at Pentecost, the same disciples were filled with the Spirit in power. In between, Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem.

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. LUKE 24:49

For Evans these are two distinct works. The first is new birth, by which the Spirit baptises us into the body of Christ; the second is the baptism in the Spirit, by which the risen Lord empowers His people for witness. He uses two Greek words for power to mark the difference: the authority to become children of God in John 1:12, and the dynamic power for witness in Acts 1:8. Too many believers, he fears, live only in the first.

He finds the same pattern at Ephesus, where Paul met disciples who had believed but had not heard of the Holy Spirit, and laid hands on them.

He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. ACTS 19:2

Even Jesus waited

His most striking argument is from the life of Christ. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was full of the Spirit from birth. Yet He did not begin His public ministry until the Spirit descended on Him at His baptism. Then, in the synagogue at Nazareth, He read from Isaiah and declared that the Scripture was fulfilled.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. LUKE 4:18

If Jesus needed the anointing of the Spirit to do the work He was sent to do, Evans asks, how much more do we?

How to receive

Evans does not teach a technique for receiving the Spirit. He speaks instead of longing and preparation. The disciples tarried, and their waiting was not idle but full of prayer, worship and expectation. Jesus’ words about asking, seeking and knocking, he notes, are all in the continuous tense: keep on asking.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? LUKE 11:13

He adds that those who would enter God’s presence must come with clean hands and a pure heart, and suggests that we might well practise the attitudes that mark a Spirit-filled life as a preparation for receiving it.

Three evidences

Those three attitudes are among the most frequently repeated points in all Evans’s teaching. When Paul tells the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit, he at once describes what such a life looks like.

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. EPHESIANS 5:18–21

A worshipping heart, a thankful heart and a servant heart: these, Evans says, are the marks of fullness. He is blunt about it. A believer who does not worship, who complains habitually, or who refuses to defer to others, has in his view no business claiming to be full of the Spirit. He notes too that Paul’s instruction to be filled is in a continuing form, so that while the first filling is God’s sovereign gift, the ongoing filling is something for which we bear responsibility. And he points out that Paul places the great chapter on love between his two chapters on spiritual gifts. Gifts without love are noise.

Filling and anointing

Evans makes one further distinction. Filling, he says, is within; anointing is upon. Filling prepares us for service; anointing comes as we are released into the service God has called us to. The filling depends, over time, on our openness; the anointing remains God’s sovereign choice. He defines anointing as God putting His seal on a person or a ministry so that it has an eternal effect on those it touches. Chapter fifteen returns to this.

Gifts, with discernment

Evans believes in the gifts of the Spirit, including prophecy, words of knowledge and healing, and, as the Alliance has always taught, that healing is among the benefits of the cross; he testifies to having been healed himself. But he insists there is no formula, and he is equally firm against charismatic excess: unaccountable personal prophecies, manipulation from platforms, emotion mistaken for the Spirit’s presence. What he wants is not noise but God.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. ZECHARIAH 4:6

Weighing the teaching

Here a reader should know that Evans is taking a side in a long conversation among faithful Christians. Many believers, including many who long for the Spirit’s power as much as he does, read the same passages differently. They understand Pentecost as a unique moment in the history of salvation, and Ephesians 1:13 as teaching that every believer is sealed with the Spirit on believing. They see later fillings as renewed experiences of the Spirit already given, not as a second stage every Christian must seek. Evans knows this well; some of his closest friends in Victoria came from Brethren backgrounds that held the other view, and he honoured them. He is also sharper than many would be about teachers who believe the miraculous gifts have ceased.

What all can receive from him is his refusal to settle for a powerless faith. Whatever one’s view of the order of events, Scripture commands every believer to be filled with the Spirit, and the marks of that fullness, worship, thanksgiving and humble service, are open to test in any life.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Test your own life by Evans’s three evidences: are you a worshipper, a thankful person and a servant? Where is the gap widest?

2. Read Acts 1 and 2 slowly, noting what the disciples did while they waited.

3. Ask the Father, simply and persistently, for the fullness of His Spirit, as Luke 11:13 invites.

4. If you hold a different view from Evans on the baptism in the Spirit, ask whether your view has made you content with less than God intends.

5. Consider one area of service in which you have been relying on your own ability. Ask God for His power in it.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You breathed on Your disciples and gave them life, and then You filled them with power from on high. I do not want to live with less than You intend.

Fill me with Your Spirit. Make me a worshipper, make me thankful in all things, and make me a servant of Your people.

Keep me from seeking noise instead of Your presence, and from using Your gifts without Your love.

As You were anointed to preach good news to the poor, anoint me for the work You have given me. Amen.