The Spirit does not belong to one corner of the church. He is for all of us. Study the doctrine, yes, but don’t stop there. Seek his power. Pray with expectation. Long for revival. Refuse to let charismatic extremes become the reason you hold back from pursuing the Spirit’s fullness in your life and ministry.

Jack Miller walked away from everything: his role as pastor, his position as professor. Depression had hollowed him out, and the frustration of seeing so little change in the people he served had worn him down to nothing. For weeks, he could barely do more than weep.

But in those quiet, broken weeks, something began to shift. The problem, he slowly realized, wasn’t the church. It was him. He had been laboring for his own reputation, craving the approval of people more than the glory of God. He repented of pride, of fear, of the deep hunger for human approval, and returned to his calling.

Rather than simply picking up where he left off, Miller took his family on an extended sabbatical to Spain, where he immersed himself in the missionary promises of God woven throughout Scripture. And there, something else broke open in him:

He also realized in a new way that the promise of the Holy Spirit’s help, comfort, and encouragement was not just for the disciples of long ago; it was for every Christian.

He returned to ministry changed. He felt new freedom in his life and new power in his preaching. It marked a decisive turning point. Miller was Presbyterian, not charismatic, but he learned to pray like a man desperate for God. “Fall afresh on us, Holy Spirit; mold us, remake us, and fill us till we shine with the joy of Christ!”

Not the Only One

In Preaching and Preachers, Martyn Lloyd-Jones traces the centrality of the Spirit in the life of Jesus and in the proclamation of the early church. Some argue that this kind of Spirit-empowered preaching belonged exclusively to the apostolic age, an argument Lloyd-Jones refuses:

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