Section 14. THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father sent his Spirit to bear witness to his Son; without his witness ours is futile. Conviction of sin, faith in Christ, new birth and Christian growth are all his work. Further, the Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit; thus evangelism should arise spontaneously from a Spirit-filled church. A church that is not a missionary church is contradicting itself and quenching the Spirit. Worldwide evangelization will become a realistic possibility only when the Spirit renews the Church in truth and wisdom, faith, holiness, love and power. We therefore call upon all Christians to pray for such a visitation of the sovereign Spirit of God that all his fruit may appear in all his people and that all his gifts may enrich the body of Christ. Only then will the whole church become a fit instrument in his hands, that the whole earth may hear his voice.
(I Cor. 2:4; John 15:26;27; 16:8-11; I Cor. 12:3; John 3:6-8; II Cor. 3:18; John 7:37-39; I Thess. 5:19; Acts 1:8; Psa. 85:4-7; 67:1-3; Gal. 5:22,23; I Cor. 12:4-31; Rom. 12:3-8)
Those are powerful, and convicting words!
How many Christian leaders would be willing to sign their names to such documents today, as they did at the Lausanne conference back in 1974? The original conference brought together 150 Christian leaders from around the world to Lausanne Switzerland. The committee was headed by Billy Graham. The drafting committee for the document was chaired by John Stott. It was during this gathering that the Lausanne Covenant was writte and adopted by 2,300 evangelicals. The Covenant consists of an Introduction, 15 points and a Conclusion which can be read in it's entirety by going to this link.
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