Are We Yo-Yo Christians?

May 1, 2002 - In the New Testament the Spirit-filled life is not something strange. Nor is it something special. It is standard New Testament Christianity for every Christian and for every church.

by Armin R. Gesswein

Vance Havner had a way of saying that we are so subnormal, if we got back to the New Testament normal, we would be considered abnormal. We are settling for a lower level than the normal.

We shouldn’t settle for a revival. We do need it desperately, but not for the sake of having some kind of revival. Even revival is not necessarily the normal, unless it gets us into the normal ongoing Spirit-filled Christian life. To be a booster rocket is not enough unless it gets the Church into the orbit of a habitually holy life, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles.

In the book of Acts the plan is that the entire Church be filled with the Holy Spirit and for it to continue and abound in the full life of Christ and of His Spirit as the normal, where it is normal for the Lord God to add to it all the time those who are being saved (Acts 1–6).

John the Baptist was Spirit-filled even from birth. Jesus was filled with the Spirit even above others and above measure. At Pentecost the entire congregation was filled with the Spirit (corporately and individually). From Pentecost to Patmos we meet Spirit-filled churches.

If churches are now up and now down, in some kind of yo-yo revival experience, it is not normal, to say the least.