Word and Spirit

When Spurgeon, at just nineteen years of age, was in his first pastorate in the hamlet of Waterbeach, he wrote a letter to his uncle in which he expressed the wish to be employed not only in Waterbeach but wherever he might be able to serve Christ. 'I often wish', he wrote, 'I were in China, India, or Africa, so that I might preach, preach, preach all day long. It would be sweet to die preaching. But I want more of the Holy Spirit; I do not feel enough - no, not half enough - of his divine energy. "Come, Holy Spirit, come!" Then men must be converted; then the wicked would repent, and the just grow in grace.' Quite evident in this letter is Spurgeon's tremendous sensitivity to the absolute necessity of the help of the Holy Spirit in his preaching and ministry. It was a sensitivity that would stay with him throughout his life, and it explains much about his remarkable ministry. Yet, it is also a sensitivity that serves as an encouragement and a challenge to us in our increasingly godless and needy age. Yes, indeed, 'Where the Spirit of God is, there is power': power to live for Christ and power to bring glory to his person.Daly, Michael is the author of 'Word and Spirit' with ISBN 9780852345450 and ISBN 0852345453.