"We read in Acts 10.44 that 'the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.' ... I want to establish that the thing was patent and evident... And if your doctrine of the Holy Spirit does not include this idea of the Holy Spirit falling upon people, it is seriously, grievously defective. This, it seems to me, has been the trouble especially during this present century, indeed almost for a hundred years. The whole notion of the Spirit falling upon people has been discountenanced and discouraged, and if you read many of the books on the Holy Spirit you will find it is not even mentioned at all, a fact which is surely one of the prime explanations of the present state of the Christian church....You particularly get the evidence for this in Acts the second chapter. It was evident at once to the populace of Jerusalem that something had happened to these men.... Then we are told about the saintly Robert Murray McCheyne in his church in Dundee in the late 1830s and early 1840s. It has been authenticated so many, many times, that McCheyne had simply to enter the pulpit and before he had opened his mouth people used to begin to weep and were convicted of sin. He had not uttered a word. Why? Well, the explanation was that this man had come from the presence of God and the Spirit was poured forth. One of the results is something that can be seen even externally.

I am emphasizing this because I am convinced that the main trouble with most of us and with the church in general is that we seem to have forgotten the presence of the Spirit and the power of the Spirit. We have become so formal, with everything so set, so organized, all in the control of man- and have forgotten this other evidence, the power and the glory of the Spirit and the sanctity and the holiness. I am convinced that the greatest need of the church is to realize again the activity of the Holy Spirit. You see, we organize- organize meetings, organize campaigns, but that is because very largely we have forgotten this element that I am trying to emphasize to you. When the Spirit comes His evidence is unmistakable and the results are amazing and astounding.... Now I do not want to make an either/or issue of this, but I do wish to say this, that if you neglect this element all the rest will avail you nothing. In a sense this neglect has emptied the churches. And there is no hope until we return to the New Testament, the primitive pattern."

Martin Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable, Copyright © 1984, by Bethan Lloyd-Jones; pp. 115-122

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