Most believers are aware of the issues that keep this generation of students stuck in the mud and struggling to gain traction in their walks with God. More than ever, the average student steps onto the college campus wrestling with identity issues, anxiety, compromise with sin, shame, isolation, doubt, distraction, and burnout. Even well-intentioned Christian students often find themselves overwhelmed by the spiritual and practical demands of life. This article is written specifically for leaders investing in the the next generation but I do think it will be of interest to any believer seeking to make disciples of Jesus.

While I have always been a huge advocate for activating students immediately to share their faith and make disciples, our investment in them must go beyond motivation and simple tools. More than ever, students need both practical equipping and pastoral care to overcome these challenges. As we inspire them with the God-sized vision of transforming their campus and reaching the nations, we must also build a deep, gospel-centered foundation that enables them to live free, joyful, and Spirit-filled lives.

Let’s look at 3 shifts we can make to help students get unstuck from what holds them back.

1. From Application Centered to Gospel Centered

I am a huge fan of weaving practical application into all our ministry environments, and I am a strong advocate of what some call “obedience-based discipleship.” In other words, instead of merely filling people’s minds with biblical knowledge, one of the best ways to help someone grow in Christ is to start obeying what they already know. Simple tools, spiritual disciplines, and reproducible strategies have always been my go-to approach when discipling students. I still believe these should be the bread and butter of the discipleship training every church or ministry provides.

That being said, we must also be intentional about grounding students deeply in the gospel and their identity in Christ. A student can know how to share their faith, lead a Bible study, and make disciples, but if they are not anchored in the gospel, they will eventually struggle to sustain a healthy and fruitful walk with God. It’s not either-or; it’s both-and.

While weaving practical application into our teaching is essential, may we never apologize for slowing down long enough to explore the depths of the gospel and its implications for the issues holding students back. If we focus only on obedience and never on gospel identity, we can easily slip into legalism or discouragement. God wants us to be worshipers before we are workers!

The more rooted a young person is in the gospel, the more they will naturally (actually, supernaturally) forsake sin and develop a humble, confident, and resilient faith. Theologian J. I. Packer put it well when he said, “We never move on from the gospel; we move on in the gospel.”

Likewise, Tim Keller wrote, “The gospel is not just the ABCs but the A to Z of the Christian life. It is inaccurate to think the gospel is what saves non-Christians, and then Christians mature by trying hard to live according to biblical principles. It is more accurate to say that we are saved by believing the gospel, and then we are transformed in every part of our minds, hearts, and lives by believing the gospel more and more deeply as life goes on (see Rom 12:1 – 2; Phil 1:6; 3:13–14).”

Practically, this could mean devoting a series to exploring how the gospel addresses these common issues or studying foundational texts on identity like Ephesians in your small groups. Our friends at The Salt Company take thousands of students through a ten-week Gospel 101 course each year, seeing many students saved, established, and revived. The combination of an in-depth exploration of the gospel and practical training provides a potent formula that God is using to ignite movements on campuses across the nation!

2. From Low Expectations To Compelling Vision

The churches and ministries that consistently raise up the healthiest and most fruitful laborers are not those that pamper and protect students. While many are struggling with significant spiritual and mental health challenges, the answer is not an inward-focused ministry. There is nothing better for a student than embracing the demands of discipleship and God’s mission. Often, the answer is not less challenge but greater purpose.

I am convinced we should empower students for God’s mission much sooner than most ministries do. Rather than waiting until they feel fully prepared, we should give them opportunities to put their faith into practice from day one. In Chico, we invited freshmen to join us in outreach during their very first week on campus!

Our goal at Chico State was to help a student go from lost to laborer in one year. But after traveling to India and seeing our friends who are experiencing a church-planting movement, I’m convinced we should empower believers to start laboring even sooner. Last December, my Father, brothers and I led a training for 60 fired up Indian students and encouraged them to start groups among their peers. They immediately began applying what we taught, and already they have launched 40 groups and are seeing many come to Christ!

You only need to be one step ahead in order to share Christ and make disciples. New believers are often the most effective people in the world at sharing the gospel. Why? Because they have a raw passion for Christ, the most non-Christian friends, and they don’t know any better than to boldly share what God has done in their life!

A key to movement is empowering disciples to make disciples as quickly as possible while still providing encouragement and coaching. Empowering is one of the 4 top practices of a movement leader! In our discipleship school here on Oahu, we encourage students to find someone they can teach the discipleship lesson to the very next week after we teach it to them. I am convinced that one reason many ministries aren’t seeing multiplication is that they have bought into the myth that someone has to have “arrived” before they can start sharing Christ and discipling others.

Yes, we should exercise wisdom and caution when selecting those in higher levels of leadership. But far too many ministries end up smothering the fire of new believers when that very zeal could have led to whole groups of people coming to Christ!

The best person to reach a student with the gospel is another student. There is no better way for a student to get unstuck from what is holding them back than to get their eyes off themselves and onto Christ and His mission.

I am not advocating for imposing strict expectations or legalistic standards. I am simply challenging you to cast a God-sized vision for their lives and invite them into the adventure of following Jesus with reckless abandon.

We should never apologize for asking too much of students; we should apologize for not asking enough!

3. From Spiritual Highs To Sanctification

As I travel and speak on campuses across the nation, I get to see firsthand how God is moving among students. There is no doubt that sparks of revival are breaking out across the nation!

While the effects of revival are thrilling, I have also noticed a trend of students sharing dramatic before-and-after testimonies, communicating as if they no longer struggle. With any movement of God, there is always a danger of excesses and subtle doctrinal drift.

I have noticed a growing number of TikTok preachers who are engaging and well-spoken but desperately need a basic hermeneutics course.

In my attempt to keep up with what students are learning from, I am encountering everything from Antinomianism to extreme versions of Keswick “Higher life” theology. One influencer with millions of followers even went so far as to teach that we do not need to pray “forgive us our sins” in the Lord’s prayer.

When students embrace an unbiblical model of sanctification that promotes perfection over progress, it can easily lead to discouragement, hypocrisy, or doubt. Young people need to be taught that the pursuit of holiness is a lifelong process filled with ups and downs, twists and turns, and a daily battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

I praise God for all the powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit students are having as many experience miraculous, supernatural breakthroughs in their walk with God. God can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime, so let’s ask for and expect Him to do even more!

We need encounters with the Spirit, but those moments must be followed by the everyday Spirit-empowered process of sanctification. Otherwise, the fruit of revival may be short-lived. Revival needs tracks to run on, and disciples must engage in the ordinary means of grace God has provided for their ongoing spiritual growth and maturity.

Our goal is not merely to see students experience a spiritual high for a season. We want them to be thriving in their walks with Jesus fifty years from now!

That burden is what led me to write this brand new Bible study for college students called, Thrive: Cultivating a Faith That Endures. The goal is to help students discover how the gospel addresses the most common issues they face and shapes every area of life through the lifelong process of sanctification.

The aim is not merely to address problems but to cast a compelling vision for a life fully leveraged for God’s glory. When students embrace their identity in Christ and actively pursue sanctification, it cultivates a life marked by confidence, faith, peace, consecration, connection, discipline, and zeal for the glory of God.

The good news is that young people are hungry for God’s Word and weary of gimmicks, trends, and quick fixes. There has never been a better time to roll up our sleeves and raise up the next generation of laborers for God’s kingdom.

PS. Here are few endorsements from ministry leaders about the brand new Bible study resource Thrive: Cultivating A Faith That Endures

Learn more about Thrive and get bulk deals here!

I am thrilled to announce the launch of my brand new Bible study book for college students with Lifeway out now!

Click here to learn more from Lifeway website and get deals on bulk orders!

For over twenty years, I have been personally discipling college students and have noticed the same issues arise over and over again. These roadblocks, if addressed proactively with God’s Word, can position a student to not only survive the college years but to thrive in every aspect of life.

All of us have seen the statistics and even more personally, have witnessed the tragic stories of students whose faith was devastated after stepping on one of these landmines.

Identity issues, anxiety, purity, shame, isolation, doubt, distraction and burnout are all addressed directly with God’s Word in this resource.

As I have done countless times, I picture myself sitting down at a coffee shop with a student and one of these issues comes up in conversation. My response is always the same, “Well, let’s take a look at what the Bible says about this issue.” My goal is to help students uncover for themselves the gospel-centered depth found in foundational Bible passages related to each of these struggles.

This study is less about hot topics and more about reflecting on how the gospel shapes every area of life and how we cooperate with God in the lifelong process of sanctification. You will not find trendy advice or quick fixes in this resource, but something far better, an in-depth exploration of how the gospel of Jesus Christ intersects with the realities of college life. While I understand that each of these issues requires a holistic response, my prayer is that this resource will serve as a conversation starter and a guidepost toward biblical solutions.

While this resource does have a pastoral tone, my goal was not to stop there. The aim is not only to address problems but to cast a compelling vision for a life fully leveraged for God’s glory.

When a student embraces their identity in Christ and actively engages in the process of sanctification, it ignites a life marked by confidence, faith, peace, consecration, connection, discipline, and zeal for the glory of God.

This resource is designed to be used with minimal prep time in your college-aged small groups or one-on-one discipleship. There are group sessions and three guided personal study days each week that will deepen the convictions of your students. I am praying that God uses this resource in the lives of countless students, that they will be “rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.” (Col. 2:7)

Here are the topics covered with a weekly Bible study and 3 personal study days to work through each week.

1. From Conflicted to Confident (Identity Issues)

2. From Doubt to Faith

3. From Anxiety to Peace

4. From Compromised to Consecrated (Purity Issues)

5. From Shame to Freedom

6. From Loneliness to Connection (Strong emphasis on local church involvement)

7. From Distracted to Disciplined

8. From Burnout to Zeal

You can get deals on bulk orders at Lifeway!

About the Author

Paul Worcester serves as the National Collegiate Director for the North American Mission Board where he focuses on encouraging and equipping collegiate leaders on 1000+ college ministries across North America. At NAMB he pioneered an interactive coaching network that involves hundreds of leaders each year. He spends his days traveling to campuses leading trainings on evangelism, disciple-making and missions. Paul is the founder of several ministries including Christian Challenge at California State University, Chico which he led for many years seeing a movement of God with over 1,000 college students making professions of faith during his time there. Recently, his family moved to the North Shore of Oahu where they help invest in young leaders at Good Soil Discipleship School when he is at home. Paul also founded Campus Multiplication Network, an international and interdenominational coaching and resource ministry impacting leaders in many nations. He is a co-host of the GenSend Podcast with Shane Pruitt and Lacey Villasenor. He has authored several books for collegiate leaders and students including: The Fuel & the Flame: Ignite Your Life & Your Campus for Jesus Christ, 5 Leadership Principles For Collegiate Ministry, Tips For Starting A College Ministry, 3 Habits for Everyday Evangelism and Thrive: Cultivating A Faith That Endures with Lifeway. Paul has degrees from University of Oklahoma and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. His wife Christy is his dearest partner in life and co-laborer in ministry and they have two kids and an adorable french bulldog named Ollie. When he is not working, you can find him surfing or skateboarding with his kids or taking Ollie to go search for some crabs on the beach.

You can follow him at Paul Worcester and check out some of his free resources here: https://linktr.ee/paulworcester

My mentor, friend, and hero Max Barnett has recently received news of a life-threatening cancer diagnosis. This has given me an opportunity to reflect on his incredible life and ministry, spanning over 60 years of multiplying disciples on college campuses.

Max is one of the most spiritually impactful people alive today, yet he has largely flown under the radar, avoiding the spotlight. He is legendary in a few niche college ministry and disciple-making circles, but he has never sought the limelight or tried to climb the ladder of ministry success. Instead, he has been content to keep his head down and faithfully produce year after year and the results have been exponential.

At one point, a group attempted to count the men and women launched out from his college ministry at the University of Oklahoma and discovered over 100 collegiate ministries planted across the U.S. as a result. That is just scratching the surface... Entire networks, like The Salt Network, trace their legacy back to Max. That’s not to mention the thousands who have gone into long term international missions, church planting, pastoral ministry, and faithfully making disciples in the workplace.

More important than his impact for Christ is his humble, godly example. He is a modern day George Müller and I don’t say that lightly. There have been hundreds of miraculous answers to prayer and instances of supernatural provision that can be traced back to one humble man who has made abiding in Christ the top priority of his life.

He still spends an hour each day praying with a friend over the phone. I always make a point to send Max my prayer requests before an important training conference because I know he will faithfully labor in prayer for me. If you could visit his home, you would see walls lined with bookshelves packed to the brim with Christian books but even more impressive are the entire walls filled with his quiet time journals. For over 60 years, he has systematically read through the same Bible reading plan, carefully writing down his insights along the way. Any day I’m tempted to skip my own time alone with God, I hear Max’s words ringing in my ears…

“If you are too busy to spend unhurried time alone with God, you are more busy than God intended you to be.” Max Barnett

As I’ve traveled across the nation and world, witnessing various movements of spiritual multiplication (and reading everything I can get my hands on about the topic) I have discovered four simple practices that every movement leader shares. If you do these four things, you are guaranteed to see encouraging fruit from your life and ministry. Max Barnett modeled a simple, biblical, and transferable approach to disciple-making that is now bearing fruit across the world. Let’s take a look at these four practices.

1. Modeling

This is the single most important (and most neglected) practice for spiritual multiplication. The truth is, you reproduce who you are. If you want your people to bleed, you have to hemorrhage.

Your followers might do what you teach them to do, but they will ultimately do what they see you do. As Max always says, “Disciple-making is monkey see, monkey do.”

Can you honestly say with the Apostle Paul, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)?

Here’s a question I hope haunts you a little…

If every person in your ministry lived the exact same lifestyle you do, would you see a movement?

Max not only has a deep and abiding devotional life and has been used to personally disciple hundreds of students and collegiate leaders but he also makes it a point to personally share the gospel with as many people as he can. It seems like every student, neighbor, stranger, waiter, and hotel maid he encounters has a chance to hear about Jesus and is left with a gospel tract Max wrote titled “The Real Purpose of Life.” It’s rare to hear Max teach without hearing him emphasize the importance of living with an eternal perspective and the urgency of sharing the gospel with a lost and dying world.

Even though Max stepped down from the director role in 2004, I could take you to the University of Oklahoma Baptist Collegiate Ministry today, pull out a random student leader, and almost guarantee that this student has a consistent devotional life, is memorizing Scripture, and is seeking to share Christ with those around him. Why? Because from the very beginning of his ministry, Max committed to living out those values and then passed on those keystone habits to students one at a time.

2. Equipping

Most ministry leaders believe “equipping the saints” (Eph. 4:11–12) is important and primarily attempt to accomplish this through large-group teaching and preaching.

Teaching is essential, but few ministries slow down enough to provide effective training for their people.

Teaching can be done in mass, but training is most effective on a personal level. As Dallas Willard put it, “Disciples are hand-crafted, not mass produced.”

Programs don’t make disciples. Disciples make disciples!

Look under the hood of any exponential movement of spiritual multiplication and you will find just a few simple, reproducible principles, practices, and habits being passed on by individuals over and over again.

One of those habits Max emphasized most was Scripture memory. If you have been around Max for more than an hour, you will likely hear him either quoting Scripture or explaining the why and how behind this habit. His enthusiasm is contagious!

As a freshman at the University of Oklahoma, Max sat down with my brother and me at our first discipleship meeting and gave each of us a verse pack and a small stack of cards. He had us write our first memory verse (1 Corinthians 10:31) on one side and the reference on the other. Then he said, “This week, take this card with you everywhere you go and memorize this verse. I’ll test you on it next week.” I have to admit, the main reason I memorized that first verse was so I wouldn’t be the twin who didn’t have his verse down! But despite my mixed motives, after a few weeks of consistency, God began to deeply transform my mind and heart. The verses I was memorizing were like clean water washing out a dirty cup. Romans 12:2 describes it this way, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Each week, Max gave us a series of simple training objectives and assignments, building on what we had covered the week before. I am forever grateful for the intentional time he invested in us. To this day, when I disciple a student, I follow a similar pattern using many of those same simple, reproducible tools.

When equipping people, it’s important to slow down and keep things simple enough to ensure that each person you are training is actually gaining traction in their personal walk with God. This requires simplifying everything, incorporating repetition, and encouraging reproduction from the very beginning.

In our discipleship school here on Oahu, we encourage students to find someone they can teach the lesson to the very next week after we teach it to them. I recommend creating a list of basic training objectives to walk every disciple through. You want your disciples to live out the basics like the gospel, the lordship of Christ, daily time alone with God, Scripture memory, the Holy Spirit, prayer, evangelism, world vision, and fellowship.

I call them “training objectives” because the goal is for these truths to be fully integrated into the disciple’s life. Don’t move on beyond the basics until you are convinced there is real evidence of progress in the bottom line essentials of a vibrant walk with Jesus Christ.

“In helping a young Christian grow, you need a step-by-step building program in mind. Develop specific objectives you want him to attain before he undertakes others. You want to see him go from taking in spiritual milk to partaking of spiritual meat.” Leroy Eims, The Lost Art of Disciple Making

You can read more about how to develop an intentional plan for disciple-making here

3. Empowering

As soon as possible, it’s essential to empower believers to get into the trenches of ministry. As freshmen at the University of Oklahoma, my twin brother and I were leading a Bible study for around 20 of our peers in the dorms. Max saw this, and instead of telling us to wait until we were more mature, he equipped and empowered us to be more effective with those we were ministering to.

We had a crowd and were sharing the gospel, but we needed the categories and encouragement to follow up and disciple those who were most responsive. Max had us listen to Born to Reproduce by Dawson Trotman and helped shift our thinking from simply doing ministry to actually making disciples. I am so grateful Max chose to empower us for ministry, even though we were young and immature in so many ways. We learned countless lessons in the trenches while being coached by the leaders at OU BCM.

If you’re leading a ministry, I want to challenge you to empower believers for evangelism, disciple-making, and ministry as soon as possible. Our goal at Chico State was to help a student go from lost to laborer in one year. But after traveling to India and seeing our friends who are experiencing a church-planting movement, I’m convinced we should empower believers to start laboring even sooner. Last December, my Father, brothers and I led a training for 60 fired up Indian students and encouraged them to start groups among their peers. They immediately began applying what we taught, and already they have launched 40 groups and are seeing many come to Christ!

You only need to be one step ahead in order to share Christ and make disciples. New believers are often the most effective people in the world at sharing the gospel! Why? Because they have a raw passion for Christ, the most non-Christian friends, and they don’t know any better than to boldly share what God has done in their life!

A key to movement is empowering disciples to make disciples as quickly as possible while still providing encouragement and coaching. I am convinced that one reason many ministries aren’t seeing multiplication is that they have bought into the myth that someone has to have “arrived” before they can start sharing Christ and discipling others.

Yes, we should exercise wisdom and caution when selecting elders and those in higher levels of leadership. But far too many ministries end up smothering the fire of new believers when that very zeal could have led to whole groups of people coming to Christ!

4. Encouraging

The final stage is encouraging and coaching others as they seek to share Christ and disciple others. Move from being the hero to becoming a “heromaker.” Even though I don’t see Max often, I always know he is just a text or phone call away. He provides encouragement, prayer support, and godly advice to men and women serving across the globe. I was just in Japan talking with a missionary being used by God to reach students in exciting ways, and he shared how Max recently gave him game-changing advice at just the right time.

While OU BCM never grew to the size of a mega-church, the influence and impact of those who have gone out reproducing Max’s DNA have touched hundreds of thousands of people. Max truly lived by the motto, “My fruit grows on other people’s trees.”

When launching a new ministry, your focus should initially be on the first two practices of modeling and equipping until there is some momentum. Once you have a batch of new believers and disciples, it’s time to shift your primary focus to empowering and encouraging disciple-makers, while still modeling the lifestyle you want to reproduce.

It really is that simple. Simple but not easy. Focus on these four practices, and I guarantee God will use you. It may start slow and small, but most things worth doing are that way.

I am always encouraged by this quote from Robert Coleman in the classic discipleship book The Master Plan of Evangelism. It perfectly describes the life and ministry of Max Barnett and is what I pray will be true of myself and everyone reading this article.

“Making disciples will be slow, tedious, painful and probably unnoticed by people at first, but the end result will be glorious even if we don’t live to see it. We must decide where we want our ministry to count. In the momentary applause of popular recognition or in the reproduction of our lives in a few chosen people who will carry on the work when we have gone.” Robert Coleman, Master Plan of Evangelism

Thank you Max, for your godly example, your strategic ministry, and most importantly your love for God, for me, and for so many others. I wanted to write this so you could read it and know that countless men and women are seeking to pass on your legacy to the next generation and carry forward your mission to…

“To know, love, and glorify God, and to be used of Him to raise up qualified laborers, in significant numbers, as fast as possible, to help fulfill the Great Commission.” Mission Statement of Max Barnett

Click here to watch a recent interview I did with Max Barnett (See Session 1) as well as links to his messages and relevant discipleship resources.

This is part 4 of a 4 part series on Experiencing The Spirit-Filled Life. Make sure to check out part 1, 2 and 3 before jumping into this one.

We are filled with the Spirit by faith. God’s desire is for every follower of Christ to be completely overflowing and empowered by the Holy Spirit, so much that the Spirit’s work becomes the defining characteristic of your life! He wants to saturate every aspect of your life, enabling you to walk in holiness and bear eternal fruit for His glory. Not only should you desire this but you should expect it! I believe that a lack of expectation is the forgotten factor when it comes to experiencing the Spirit’s work in our lives.

Most believers settle for a subpar experience of the Holy Spirit because they settle for a less than Biblical expectation.

My brother-in-law, Pastor Brian Hamilton, put it this way in a text to me on the topic, “The height of our expectation often determines the depth of our pursuit, and the depth of our pursuit often determines the breadth of our experience.”

My twin brother, Pastor David Worcester, said it this way, “We don’t lower our expectations to match our experiences; we raise them to the level of God’s promises.” I’ve got some wise bros!

Being filled with the Spirit may or may not come with certain feelings, experiences, or supernatural manifestations. While dramatic encounters are possible (and welcome when genuine) most often His work is gentle and subtle, supernaturally enabling us to live in ordinary obedience, faithfully sharing Christ, and serving the church.

“What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:11-13

It is important to understand that this incredible promise from Jesus is directed towards those who are already believers!

Theologian Wayne Grudem put it this way, “Luke 11:13 encourages believers to ask God for the Holy Spirit’s continued work and influence in their lives, not to receive the Spirit for the first time, since Scripture elsewhere teaches that all believers receive the Spirit at conversion (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13). All believers have the Holy Spirit, but not all believers are filled with the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is not a one-time event but may happen again and again in the Christian life.”

“This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him.” 1 John 5:14-15

Is it God’s will for you to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Of course it is! It is actually His command. (Ephesians 5:18) Then it follows that if you ask for Him to fill you by faith then He will gladly do it based on His promise! (1 John 5:14-15)

The Welsh Revival

In 1904, God used a 26 year old coal miner from Wales named Evan Roberts to help spark a revival that impacted the world. Roberts had been praying for revival for years and was filled with faith and expectation for what God was going to do. At the first meeting with only 17 young people in attendance the spiritual dam broke when one teenage girl stood up and shared a simple testimony. Florrie Evans spoke with a tremor in her voice, “If no one else will, then I must say that I love the Lord Jesus with all my heart.” This simple testimony melted the hearts of her peers and many began to weep and spontaneously cry out to God. Journalist W. T. Stead would later write, “The pathos and passion of the avowal acted like an electric shock upon the congregation. One after another rose and made the full surrender and the news spread like wildfire from place to place, that the revival had broken out, and that souls were being ingathered to the Lord.” 1

This first meeting had only 17 people in attendance, but God met them in a powerful way. Twelve surrendered to Christ, and the movement quickly snowballed from there, with Roberts receiving more invitations than he could accept. Most of these meetings didn’t feature long sermons, but rather a simple, clear challenge to…

1. Confess all known sin to God.

2. Put away all doubtful habits.

3. Obey the Holy Spirit promptly.

4. Confess Christ publicly.

Roberts also put emphasis on expecting the Holy Spirit to move. “We must believe that the Spirit will come; not think He will come; not hope He will come; but firmly believe that He will come.”

God blessed this attitude of expectation and the revival saw over 100,000 conversions in less than a year and profoundly transformed the communities it touched! Here is how one historian described the impact of the movement…

Thousands of people were saved. Public houses became almost empty. Men and women who used to waste their money getting drunk were now saving it and giving it to the church.

Stealing and other offences became less and less. Often a magistrate came to court and found that there were no cases for him to try.

Men who blasphemed learned to talk purely. The miners put in a better day’s work but the pit ponies could not understand what had happened to the miners as they spoke to them more kindly. They were so used to being sworn at that they became disobedient!

People who had been careless about paying their bills or paying back money they had borrowed gave back all they owed.

People who had quarrelled forgave each other and were reconciled.

Society was changed and Wales became a God-fearing nation.

Newspaper reports of the Revival spread the news of the awakening and visitors touched by the Spirit of God took the flame to their home countries. The Revival spread, as ripples of water on a pond, to Europe first, then America, and eventually to all five continents. 2

Revival fame spreads revival flame! Revival historian J. Edwin Orr says, “There have been instances in the history of the Church when the telling and retelling of the wonderful works of God have been used to rekindle the expectations of the faithful intercessors and prepare the way for another Awakening.” I encourage you to study and share stories of revival to foster hunger among your church or ministry.

Revival Leads To Bold Action

“Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late – and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work.” A.W. Tozer

The Holy Spirit doesn’t fill us just so we can have a personal, mystical experience. He fills us so that we can share the gospel with lost people all around us (Acts 1:8) and serve the body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:4–6) A mark of a truly Spirit-filled believer is not isolation but sacrificial service.

In the Book of Acts, whenever people were filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke the word of God boldly. The need of the hour for reaching this next generation is not new methods for evangelism but new boldness!

This generation is flocking to ministries that unflinchingly roar the gospel and teach the hard truths about God’s holiness, sin, hell and Jesus as the only substitute and narrow way to eternal life. As I preach to thousands of college students each year, the messages that hit hardest are the old school ones about the urgency of eternity and the exclusivity of Christ. It’s a myth that students don’t care about eternal realities. I regularly see students huddled in prayer, weeping over the lostness of friends and family. As revival is stirring, the Spirit is producing a supernatural burden for the lost that fuels a boldness God is using in almost unbelievable ways. We’re not just seeing individuals saved, we are seeing whole friend groups come to Christ at the same time!

My wife Christy and I discipled a college student named Larissa last year through our Good Soil Discipleship School on the North Shore of Oahu. Part of her training included weekly evangelism at the University of Hawaii and daily prayer for B.O.B. (Burden for the lost, Opportunity to witness, and Boldness to share Christ.) When Larissa returned to Kennesaw State, God gave her a deep burden for her campus. She gathered a few friends for weekly evangelism and prayer walking, crying out for God to move. In time, they felt led to host a united night of student-led worship and gospel preaching at the outdoor amphitheater in the center of campus. Word spread organically, and hundreds of students showed up! That night, one bold student preached a raw, unfiltered gospel message, calling classmates to repent and trust Christ. Many came forward to surrender their lives to Jesus, while others confessed sin and were prayed over. What started with one student’s burden sparked a campus-wide move of God. When I think of these students, I’m reminded of Acts 4:13 “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”

Boldness in evangelism is one of the marks of the Spirit-filled life! Bill Bright put it this way, “Success in witnessing is taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.”

As you seek to “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16), don’t neglect the everyday means of grace that God has designed to fan the flames of the Spirit in your life. Consistent Bible intake, passionate prayer, active fellowship in a local church, and intentional ministry all play a role in your ongoing surrender and cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

Stop And Pray

Let me plead with you, take some time today to get alone with God and ask Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit. Confess any known sin in your life, surrender fully to His Lordship, and then ask Him confidently to fill you. Then step out in faith, trusting that the Holy Spirit will empower you to do whatever He calls you to do!

Go Deeper

This series is just scratching the surface into all the theological and practical implications of this topic. Drop any questions you have into the comments and I will consider addressing those in a future post. Also, my friend Drew Humphrey and I just signed a contract with B&H Publishers to write a book focused on prayer and personal revival that will cover many of these things! You will be encouraged by Drew’s story of revival at Baylor here. Pray for us during the writing process!

Here is a short list of books that have been extremely helpful on this topic!

The Calvary Road by Roy Hession – A short book on personal revival that is guaranteed to challenge and encourage you!

How You Can Be Filled with the Holy Spirit by Bill Bright – I was exposed to this classic discipleship tool in college, and it forever changed my life.

Ablaze For God by Wesley Duewal - This book is written for Christian leaders and weaves in stories from revival history and important challenges to live a Spirit-filled life. He has many other books on prayer and revival also including Revival Fire.

The Presence Centered Life by Bill Elliff - My friend Bill Elliff is one the greatest living experts in revival and awakening and has condensed his wisdom into this simple book. We also interviewed him on the Campus Multiplication Network podcast.

The Fuel and The Flame - At risk of sounding self promotional… This book by Steve Shadrach and I is specifically written for college students and focuses on practical ways you can experience personal revival and multiply disciples on your campus. Thousands of collegiate leaders across the world in multiple languages are using it to train student leaders!

This is part 4 of a 4 part series on Experiencing The Spirit-Filled Life. If you missed part 1, 2 and 3 make sure to check those out and subscribe for future posts on similar topics.

About the Author

Paul Worcester serves as the National Collegiate Director for the North American Mission Board where he focuses on encouraging and equipping collegiate leaders on 900+ college ministries across North America. At NAMB he pioneered an interactive coaching network that involves hundreds of leaders each year. He spends his days traveling to campuses leading trainings on evangelism, disciple-making and missions. Paul is the founder of several ministries including Christian Challenge at California State University, Chico which he led for many years seeing a movement of God with over 1,000 college students making professions of faith during his time there. Recently, his family moved to the North Shore of Oahu where they help invest in young leaders at Good Soil Discipleship School when he is at home. Paul also founded Campus Multiplication Network, an international and interdenominational coaching and resource ministry impacting leaders in many nations. He is a co-host of the GenSend Podcast with Shane Pruitt and Lacey Villasenor. He has authored several books for collegiate leaders and students including: The Fuel & the Flame: Ignite Your Life & Your Campus for Jesus Christ, 5 Leadership Principles For Collegiate Ministry, Tips For Starting A College Ministry, Do More With Less Time and Thrive: Cultivating A Faith That Endures with LifeWay. Paul has degrees from University of Oklahoma and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. His wife Christy is his dearest partner in life and co-laborer in ministry and they have two kids and an adorable french bulldog named Ollie. When he is not working, you can find him surfing or skateboarding with his kids or taking Ollie to go search for some crabs on the beach.

You can follow him at Paul Worcester and check out some of his free resources here: https://linktr.ee/paulworcester

This is part 3 of a 4 part series on Experiencing The Spirit-Filled Life. Make sure to check out part 1 and part 2 before jumping into this one.

“The full blessing of the Spirit comes to those who have learned to yield themselves entirely to Him. God asks of us only one thing—that we place ourselves unreservedly at His disposal.” Andrew Murray

Sin hinders the flow of the Holy Spirit in your life. Just like debris can clog up a pipe, sinful thoughts, attitudes, and actions clog up the Spirit’s work in your life. If you are not experiencing the fruit of a Spirit-filled life, start by examining your heart. If there is an area of your life where you are unwilling to surrender to the Lord then your prayer life will be hindered. “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” Psalm 66:18 Ask God to specifically show you what you need to confess, and turn away from it immediately. Use this prayer “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24

Don’t rush this process. Allow the Lord to show you what thoughts, attitudes, and actions are displeasing to Him. Sometimes He will put something on your heart that you need to clear up with another person. Be comprehensive but don’t overanalyze or become paranoid. God is more concerned about the attitude of your heart than you remembering every single sin you have ever committed. You can use this section of Psalm 19 as a guide for your prayers “How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:12-14

Step Into The Light

As a teenager, I developed a secret lustful habit that became a spiritual cancer eating away at every part of my life. Having this secret area of my life caused me to constantly feel guilty, insecure, and fearful of what others would think if they found out who I really was. I felt trapped. I am so grateful to God for leading me through a process towards freedom. The first step of freedom for me was just being honest about my sin with someone else.

When I was 18, I remember staying up late one night listening to one of my favorite Christian punk bands, Slick Shoes. I know it seems crazy that any good could ever come from Christian punk, but one of the lyrics, “I can’t do it on my own,” struck me about my need to get help. I was deeply convicted and I decided to do the unthinkable. Late that night, I confessed my shameful habits to my father. I was really scared because, let’s be honest, who wants to confess that kind of stuff to their dad? To my shock, he didn’t act surprised or disappointed in me at all. Instead he gave me grace and hope. That night was the first time I confessed this struggle to anyone. It felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. After being honest with my dad, I was free to be honest with my brother and other close friends. This was a scary step, but it helped me more than any other. James 5:16 says “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”

If you are struggling with an area of secret sin, you need to find someone you can be completely honest with. The darkness hates the light (1 John 1:79) God longs to forgive and heal you, but you must commit to start walking in the light. People will not be shocked if you are honest about your struggles. Just take pornography for example, a recent anonymous survey done by a great sexual recovery ministry called The Freedom Fight polled Christian college students involved in campus ministries and found ninety percent of males and fifty percent of females admitted to regular porn use. This is not just the lost but the young men and women in our Bible studies! Whatever your struggle is, you are not alone. “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 Our honesty not only helps us gain freedom but it encourages others to ask for help from others as well. I challenge everyone reading this to have someone you can have regular, honest accountability with.

Spiritual Breathing

My life was forever changed the first time I read How You Can Be Filled with The Spirit by Bill Bright as a college student. The simple yet profound illustration of spiritual breathing I learned from this booklet transformed my life. I still practice spiritual breathing everyday! I simply identify the anger, fear or jealousy I have allowed to enter my mind and heart, then specifically confess it to God. Like physical breathing, this is exhaling the bad air followed by inhaling a big dose of the fresh, clean air. I do this by thanking God for forgiving and cleansing me with the purifying blood Jesus shed on the cross for my sins. Then I pray something like, “Now please fill me with your Spirit. Control me. Help me abide in Christ. Work in and through me today, so that I can walk in faith and obedience.” I may or may not feel forgiven, but I can trust the promise that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Slaves of Christ

The next thing to do is surrender total control to God. It is often that last 10% of consecration that makes the difference between supernatural joy and power and constant stress and struggle. I am convinced that most followers of Christ live 80–90% committed to Christ. I know, because I lived that way for many years. Give yourself 100% to Jesus and watch Him flood your heart with supernatural joy!

In the Summer of 1947, four believers met to pray in a small cabin at Forest Home camp in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California. God showed up in a powerful way and that prayer meeting ended up lasting all night as tears flowed. That night God birthed a vision in their hearts for reaching college campuses as a key to reaching the world for Christ. The group in that room was Henrietta Mears, Richard C Halverson, Louis Evans and Bill Bright who would go on to found Campus Crusade for Christ (one of the largest missions organizations in the world now known as Cru) God made such a mark on them that night they made a covenant with one another calling themselves, “The Fellowship of the Burning Heart.” Taken from Jeremiah 20:9 “His Word burns in my heart like a fire.” Others who joined the Fellowship included Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Jim Rayburn (Young Life founder), J. Edwin Orr (Revival historian), Billy Graham, and more. These leaders wrote down the following commitments as a way to steward the movement of God they just experienced and to pass it on to others.

The Original Commitments of the Fellowship of the Burning Heart

• I am committed to Christian discipleship that is sustained solely by God alone through His Spirit; that the abiding life of John 15 is His way of sustaining me. Therefore, I pledge myself to a disciplined devotional life in which I promise through prayer, Bible study, and devotional reading to give God not less than one continuous hour per day (Psalm 1).

• I am committed to Christian Discipleship that begins with Christian character. Therefore, I pledge myself to holy living that by a life of self-denial and self-discipline, I may emulate those Christ-like qualities of chastity and virtue which will magnify the Lord (Philippians 1:20-21).

• I am committed to Christian Discipleship principally focused on winning the lost to Christ. Therefore, I pledge myself to seek every possible opportunity to witness, and be responsible for bringing at least one to Christ every 12 months (Matthew 28:19; Acts 1:8).

• I am committed to Christian Discipleship that demands nothing less than absolute consecration to Christ. Therefore, I present my body a living sacrifice, utterly abandoned to God, and His perfect will shall find complete expression in my life; and I offer myself in all sobriety to be expendable for Christ (Romans 12:1-2; Philippians 3:7-14).

The rest is history! Many of us, whether we know it or not, have been influenced by the men and women who made this pledge years ago. I know I have!

Bill Bright often described the need to live in consecration as intentionally choosing to be a “slave of Jesus Christ.” After an argument with his wife Vonette, Bill was so broken that he resolved to surrender every single attitude, action and decision to Jesus from that point forward. Here is how he described their decision…

“One memorable afternoon, Vonette and I, in our home in the Hollywood Hills, got on our knees and prayed, “Lord, we surrender our lives irrevocably to You. We want to do Your will. We want to love and serve You with all of our hearts for the rest of our lives.” We actually wrote and signed a contract committing our whole lives to Him, relinquishing all of our rights, all of our possessions, everything we would ever own, giving to Him, our dear Lord and Master, everything. In the words of the apostle Paul, Vonette and I became voluntary “slaves” of Jesus that Sunday afternoon, by choice, as an act of the will.

Approximately 24 hours after we signed the contract to be His slaves, He gave me a world-changing vision, which we call Campus Crusade for Christ. I believe that had there been no contract, there would have been no vision. For over 50 years, I have considered it my greatest honor to be a slave of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Is God truly sovereign in your life? Do you believe wholeheartedly that knowing and serving Jesus is more important than anything else? Are you willing, along with the apostle Paul, to voluntarily become a slave of Jesus out of your love for Him?”

Are you 100% consecrated to Christ? Stop right now to confess any known sin in your life and take time to ask God to help you live fully surrendered to Him.

This is part 3 of a 4 part series on Experiencing The Spirit-Filled Life. Make sure to check out part 1 and part 2 and part 4 here!

This is part 2 of a 4 part series on Experiencing The Spirit-Filled Life. Check out part 1 before jumping into this one.

How can we practically experience the Spirit-filled life? There is no exact formula, but there are heart postures God consistently blesses. The first of these is Desperation.

Hunger

“Your yearning for God must supersede all other desires. It must be like a gnawing hunger and a burning thirst.” Billy Graham

Jesus said in Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” In John 7, we see the invitation of Jesus to all who are longing for more. “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” He said this about the Spirit.” John 7:37-39

What does it mean to have “rivers of living water” flowing from within us? The Greek word potamoi does not describe a quiet stream or gentle trickle, but a flood that could break through a dam! Jesus isn’t just offering us a little spiritual refreshment, but supernatural overflow! The Holy Spirit doesn’t just calm our souls; He fills us until the life of God overflows, even impacting others!

Is that your experience of the Holy Spirit? Do you long for that sort of overflow in your life?

God comes where He is wanted. A.W. Tozer provides a challenging thought…

“God waits for the hungry heart. The degree of fullness in any life accords perfectly with the intensity of true desire. We have as much of God as we actually want. One great hindrance to the Spirit-filled life is the theology of complacency so widely accepted among gospel Christians today... I have often said that a Christian is as full of the Holy Spirit as he wants to be. We can beg to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We can talk about it, but until we are willing to empty ourselves, we will never have the fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives.” A.W. Tozer

D. L. Moody, one of the greatest evangelists in American history, has a fascinating story about hungering for a deeper experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit. He was already a fruitful evangelist when a growing desperation began to grow in his heart. Two older women in his church kept telling him they were praying that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit. At first, he didn’t understand why they kept telling him that. God was already using his preaching, people were coming to Christ and things were going well. Yet their words stuck in his head and caused a holy discontent to grow.

Moody began to spend more time alone in prayer seeking God fervently. One day as he walked alone through the streets of New York City, God answered. This is the way he described what happened…“I was crying all the time that God would fill me with His Spirit. Well, one day, in the city of New York—oh, what a day!—I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name… I can only say that God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand. I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths, and yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience if you should give me all the world.”

Since that experience, Moody constantly challenged believers everywhere he went to be filled with the Spirit. When asked why he spoke so often about being filled, he replied, “Because I leak.” While he did not insist that everyone needed a dramatic experience like his own, he encouraged people to desire and expect more of the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives not as a one-time event, but as an ongoing way of life.

“God commands us to be filled with the Spirit, and if we are not filled, it is because we are living beneath our privileges.” D.L. Moody

Humility

“For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Isaiah 57:15

The primary source of our lack of desperation is good old-fashioned pride. If you think you can be a faithful Christian on your own strength, you are deceived. That’s called being self-righteous, and it is deeply offensive to God.

God won’t fill you up if you are already full of yourself!

Roy Hession, in the classic The Calvary Road (required reading on this topic) put it this way, “Just as water seeks to fill the lowest place, so the moment God finds you humble and empty, His Spirit flows in.”

I am convinced that one of the greatest hindrances to revival in our generation is secret pride among spiritual leaders. Why? Because the Lord has dealt with me on this issue more than once!

Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs put it bluntly, “The soul that is most emptied of itself is the most capable of receiving grace.” The first key to being filled with the Spirit is desperate dependence on Him. Missionary hero Hudson Taylor said it best, “God wants you to have something far better than riches and gold, and that is helpless dependence upon Him.”

The recent outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Asbury University is a powerful case study in how God honors hunger and humility. On February 8, 2023, a routine chapel service overflowed into a full-blown revival that ultimately impacted people around the world. My friend Zach Meerkreebs preached a simple sermon on authentic love from Romans 12 and closed with a challenge “Do not leave here until you experience the love of God so that you can pour it out.”

A handful of students took him up on it and stayed in the chapel, crying out to God for more. Zach even texted his wife, saying he was disappointed with his message and was heading home for a nap. He never got that nap. The students continued praying for hours, some texted friends who joined them, and it eventually snowballed into thousands of students worshiping and praying around the clock for sixteen straight days!

Over the course of the movement, thousands of people from around the world flocked to the small town of Wilmore, Kentucky and millions more watched on simulcast and followed on social media. One student perfectly captured the depth of the hunger they were experiencing, “In God’s presence you are satisfied like nothing else in the world, yet you hunger for more and more of Him.”

This hunger for God was paired with an emphasis on “radical humility” that saturated the entire revival. Celebrity pastors and worship leaders offered to come and participate, but the leaders stewarding the moment chose to keep students front and center, leading the way with raw passion and humility. News of the revival inspired students from other campuses to host similar times of prayer and worship, some going around the clock for multiple days with exciting stories of God moving. Eventually, the campus had to resume classes and the students returned to their routines but the impact on the students was real and lasting!

Are you desperate for the help and empowerment of the Holy Spirit in your life? If not, take a few moments and ask God to give you a deeper hunger and thirst to experience the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Make this prayer by A.W. Tozer from The Pursuit of God your own.

“O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.”

This is part 2 of a 4 part series on Experiencing The Spirit-Filled Life. Check out part 1 , part 3 and part 4 here!

About the Author

Paul Worcester serves as the National Collegiate Director for the North American Mission Board where he focuses on encouraging and equipping collegiate leaders on 900+ college ministries across North America. At NAMB he pioneered an interactive coaching network that involves hundreds of leaders each year. He spends his days traveling to campuses leading trainings on evangelism, disciple-making and missions. Paul is the founder of several ministries including Christian Challenge at California State University, Chico which he led for many years seeing a movement of God with over 1,000 college students making professions of faith during his time there. Recently, his family moved to the North Shore of Oahu where they help invest in young leaders at Good Soil Discipleship School when he is at home. Paul also founded Campus Multiplication Network, an international and interdenominational coaching and resource ministry impacting leaders in many nations. He is a co-host of the GenSend Podcast with Shane Pruitt and Lacey Villasenor. He has authored several books for collegiate leaders and students including: The Fuel & the Flame: Ignite Your Life & Your Campus for Jesus Christ, 5 Leadership Principles For Collegiate Ministry, Tips For Starting A College Ministry, Do More With Less Time and Thrive: Cultivating A Faith That Endures with Lifeway. Paul has degrees from University of Oklahoma and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. His wife Christy is his dearest partner in life and co-laborer in ministry and they have two kids and an adorable french bulldog named Ollie. When he is not working, you can find him surfing or skateboarding with his kids or taking Ollie to go search for some crabs on the beach.

You can follow him at Paul Worcester and check out some of his free resources here: https://linktr.ee/paulworcester

A few years ago, my daughter Evelyn was asking questions about Jesus. I was trying to help her five-year-old mind grasp the truth that Jesus is fully God and fully man which is trickier than you might think! Then my son Owen walked by, overheard our conversation, and made it even more complicated “Don’t forget the Holy Spirit. He is God too!”

Good point, Owen! And if we are honest, that’s a reminder most of us need because we forget the Holy Spirit far more than we would like to admit.

The Holy Spirit is not an abstract force to wield or a tingly feeling you might get during a moving set of worship music. He is fully God. And when you put your faith in Christ, He comes to live inside of you. That’s a mind blowing reality most Christians believe on paper but rarely reflect on.

For many, this is a missing piece in their Christian life! Why is that? Many get uncomfortable when the Holy Spirit comes up because they have experienced strange behavior in certain ministry settings or had negative experiences with those who insist on a certain type of manifestation or dramatic encounter.

The truth is that every genuine follower of Christ has already been indwelt by the Holy Spirit (batteries are included) and therefore has the potential to be filled with and empowered by His presence as the defining characteristic of their life!

This is God’s plan for you. It is not an optional add-on or a special upgrade reserved for ministry leaders or “super Christians.” No, it is commanded and expected of every follower of Christ. AW Tozer put it this way “The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people.” In the book of Acts, being “Spirit-filled” was one of the most common positive descriptors used.

Let me ask you a question to reflect on honestly… Are you sure you are filled with the Holy Spirit right now?

Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” The Greek word translated “be filled” literally means to fill to the brim or bring to completion. Here, it’s written in the present imperative, which points to a continual action, not a one-time event. It could literally be translated as, “keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit.” Living Spirit-filled is an ongoing process not a one-time event.

This command is in context of Paul’s list of practical instructions to walk in love and holiness including “walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time,” Ephesians 5:15-16 which I unpacked in my previous post.

The reality is that the faithful Christian life is not just difficult, it is impossible! Contrary to what your favorite influencer may say, you are not enough. Left to our own devices each of us will royally fail every single time.

You are not enough but God is enough. You don’t have what it takes but God has unlimited power available to you!

In Ephesians 1:15-23 Paul prays that the eyes of their heart would be enlightened, which is much more than mere intellectual understanding. The Greek word for “enlightened” is a passive participle, meaning this is something that only the Holy Spirit can do for you. Puritan Thomas Watson put it this way, “Every grace is a divine spark lighted in the soul by the Holy Spirit.” The prayer here is that the Spirit will help you see, savor and experience all God has for you from the core of your being.

The phrase that always amazes me in this passage is “and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength. He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens” Ephesians 1:19-20

It is easy for me to believe that God has immeasurable greatness in Himself, but this is teaching that this power is available “toward us who believe.” The same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead is available to you and me. That is a mind blowing amount of power! Last time I checked, that was more than enough power to help you overcome any struggle with sin or face any challenge God has allowed in your life.

I am convinced that one reason many followers of Christ live defeated and spiritually impotent lives is because they don’t fully grasp the power that is available to them through the Holy Spirit.

The Christian life is not about trying harder in our own strength. It is about tapping into the unlimited power of God through the Holy Spirit!

“Value above all things the Holy Spirit. Put your entire dependence on Him. Pray for fresh grace. Venture not into the world without a fresh store of His hallowed influence. Seek to be filled with that blessed Spirit.” Charles Spurgeon

So what does it look like, practically, to pursue a Spirit-filled life?

This is the first of a four-part series in which I’ll share three essential attitudes that will help you cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Click here for part two on Desperation and part 3 on Consecration and part 4 on Expectation!

Take a moment right now to ask God to open the eyes of your heart to who the Holy Spirit is and the power He has available to you. Ask Him to fill you, empower you, and guide you today.

About the Author

Paul Worcester serves as the National Collegiate Director for the North American Mission Board where he focuses on encouraging and equipping collegiate leaders on 900+ college ministries across North America. At NAMB he pioneered an interactive coaching network that involves hundreds of leaders each year. He spends his days traveling to campuses leading trainings on evangelism, disciple-making and missions. Paul is the founder of several ministries including Christian Challenge at California State University, Chico which he led for many years seeing a movement of God with over 1,000 college students making professions of faith during his time there. Recently, his family moved to the North Shore of Oahu where they help invest in young leaders at Good Soil Discipleship School when he is at home. Paul also founded Campus Multiplication Network, an international and interdenominational coaching and resource ministry impacting leaders in many nations. He is a co-host of the GenSend Podcast with Shane Pruitt and Lacey Villasenor. He has authored several books for collegiate leaders and students including: The Fuel & the Flame: Ignite Your Life & Your Campus for Jesus Christ, 5 Leadership Principles For Collegiate Ministry, Tips For Starting A College Ministry, Do More With Less Time and Thrive: Cultivating A Faith That Endures with LifeWay. Paul has degrees from University of Oklahoma and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. His wife Christy is his dearest partner in life and co-laborer in ministry and they have two kids and an adorable french bulldog named Ollie. When he is not working, you can find him surfing or skateboarding with his kids or taking Ollie to go search for some crabs on the beach.

You can follow him at Paul Worcester and check out some of his free resources here: https://linktr.ee/paulworcester

I have always had mixed feelings about New Year’s resolutions. On one hand, I shouldn’t need an arbitrary date on the calendar to motivate me to live more intentionally. But this time of year does provide a natural rhythm of slowing down and reflection, so I am all for any excuse to evaluate my life and set fresh habits and goals.

Recently, on my 42nd birthday (I can’t believe I am already this old!) I spent time praying and reflecting on what the Lord might have me focus on. I believe He directed me to this passage.

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,” Ephesians 5:15-18

Look Carefully How You Walk

When we lived in Northern California, we used to hike up in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. I remember my son Owen who was about seven at the time walking across a log nearly twenty feet above a rocky, fast-moving river. Not my best parenting moment but I had probably just read Wild At Heart and something about being out in nature with your son taps into a man’s primal desire for adventure… While the decision to cross the log was questionable at best, I can promise you both of us were completely locked in. There was no room for distraction and no margin for error.

That image fits perfectly with Proverbs 4:25–27 “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.”

It’s very likely Paul had this passage in mind when warning the Ephesians. He was trained as a Pharisee, so he had Proverbs memorized.

Redeeming The Time

The phrase “making the best use of the time” can also be translated as “redeeming the time.” This is probably the most accurate rendering of the original Greek, which literally means to “buy back.”

In the ancient context, this term was used for buying someone back from slavery. The command here implies a deliberate, urgent, and aggressive action. Imagine someone you love is being held as a slave, and you had the chance to buy them back. You would stop at nothing and pay any price to redeem them. That is the kind of intensity Paul is calling us to when it comes to how we use our time!

The ironic thing about using the phrase “redeeming time” is that once it is gone we can never get it back!

“The greatest waste in all of our earth, which cannot be recycled or reclaimed, is our waste of the time that God has given us each day.” Billy Graham

Time is your most valuable asset. So why do so many of us (myself included) waste time, or even “kill time”? Pause for a second and think about that phrase “to kill time” It’s a strangely morbid way to describe wasting something so precious. Benjamin Franklin, though not a Christian, showed common grace wisdom when he said “Do not squander time, for that’s the stuff that life is made of.” Puritan John Owen put it even more bluntly, “Time is the great measure of our opportunity, and the great means of our duty. Every moment lost is an opportunity of grace lost.”

Kairos Moments

The Greek word translated as time here is kairos, which is not the same as chronological time (chronos). Some translations put it as “making the most of every opportunity.” Kairos refers to the right or critical moment, an urgent opportunity that calls for decisive action! When you are down by two points and have five seconds on the clock, you gotta give the ball to Jordan, that is a kairos moment!

Last week, I was out walking my dog Ollie and chatting with a neighbor and the topic of spiritual things came up. I was reminded that I had prayed that morning for an open door just like this. In Colossians 4, Apostle Paul uses the same word, encouraging believers to take advantage of every opportunity to share the gospel. “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” Colossians 4:5

When you have an opportunity to share Christ with someone, that is the ultimate kairos moment. A moment that could change their eternity!

Let’s go into each day trusting the sovereignty and providence of God, looking for those once-in-a-lifetime moments to share Christ, encourage others, and disciple those around us.

Redeeming your time isn’t about stressing over achieving epic levels of productivity. There’s actually a hyped-up, worldly version of maximizing your time and “10Xing” every aspect of your life that goes too far and is more about glorifying yourself than abiding in Christ and living for His glory. Godly living isn’t frantic; it’s focused on being sensitive to the Holy Spirit and zealously responding to every opportunity God places in your path.

We should develop a bias toward action when it comes to sharing Christ and serving others. Adopt the motto of John Wesley, a man who helped spark the first Great Awakening.

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

Jonathan Edwards and Holy Zeal

Another major influence in the first Great Awakening was Jonathan Edwards, America’s greatest theologian. At just nineteen, he wrote seventy resolutions that shaped the trajectory of his entire life and, in many ways, influenced the American church and our nation. You can read them all here but I will list a few that stood out to me…

“Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration... Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.” Resolution 1

“Resolved, to be continually endeavoring to find out some new invention and contrivance to promote the glory of God.” Resolution 2

“Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.” Resolution 5

“Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.” Resolution 6

“Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.” Resolution 7

“Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world (heaven), as I possibly can, with all the power; might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.” Resolution 22

Edwards reviewed all 70 of his resolutions each week! This was not just the idealism of a teenager. No, he lived these out zealously and was used to help bring revival to America and beyond.

His biographers report that Edwards worked thirteen hours a day and still found time to love and lead his family while pastoring his church with excellence. He was fully interruptible by his wife and eleven children.

He was known to take long walks or horseback rides in nature for prayer and meditation, to clear the “cobwebs from his mind,” and then return to work with focus.

His writing output was unreal. I asked AI to illustrate it creatively, the closest comparison was writing the entire Bible twelve times or producing a 300-page book every six months for thirty years. Clearly, there are levels to this…

What a loser, right? He should have ruthlessly eliminated more hurry from his life. Honestly though, I think we need to bring back the Puritan work ethic. I’m not saying you should be working thirteen hours a day, but our generation is so obsessed with comfort that we’re losing our zeal. I would love to see more people who are genuinely zealous and industrious for God’s kingdom.

Don’t hear me wrong. It is essential to take a sabbath and create healthy rhythms of rest and play. I prioritize all those things myself. I am just concerned the pendulum has swung too far towards pampering ourselves and drifted away from Biblical productivity. A.W. Tozer once said “How utterly terrible is the current idea that Christians can serve God at their own convenience.”

The Days Are Evil

The backdrop and context of our lives in this fallen world is darkness and spiritual warfare. I don’t think I need to convince you of that. Just turn on the news or open your newsfeed, and you will get your fill of dark and discouraging things. John Piper put it this way, “Life is war. That’s not all it is. But it is always that.”

Some people get uncomfortable when the topic of spiritual warfare comes up. They would rather not think about all that. It reminds me of the classic line from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Theoden: “I will not risk open war.”

Aragorn: “Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not.”

It is actually wise to take a realistic view of the world. You will develop much more resilience and will be able to battle discouragement and depression by taking a realistic and eternal perspective on life.

“It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind,” Ecclesiastes 7:2

Living With Eternal Perspective

“Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs!” Jonathan Edwards

Living with eternal perspective is one of the mega themes of the New Testament.

Last month on our way home from a mission trip home to India, my son Owen and I had a seven-hour layover in Japan. We rented a tiny sleeping cubicle that had just enough room for us to lie down for a nap. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was better than the hard tile floor in the crowded airport. Now imagine we spent thousands of dollars upgrading that space with luxury furniture, appliances, and a giant flat screen TV all to make ourselves more comfortable for a few hours. That is how most people live their lives. Investing in worldly things while neglecting the eternal.

This world is a layover. Eternity is our home.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21

This year let me challenge you to look carefully at how you walk, redeem the time and live with holy urgency because eternity is real, and the days are evil.

Reflect

What areas of your life do you need to pay more careful attention to? Are there any distractions or foolish patterns you need to leave behind?

How can you be more intentional with redeeming your time? Are there any goals you would like to make for how you will invest your time?

How can you prepare for the “kairos moments” the Lord will provide for you this year? How can you cultivate a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit for maximizing those opportunities?

Are your priorities and daily life marked by eternal perspective? What practical habits or commitments can you make to prioritize eternal things?

To go deeper into goal setting check out this article I wrote for the Gospel Coalition called “3 Questions For Setting God Centered Goals.”

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About the Author

Paul Worcester serves as the National Collegiate Director for the North American Mission Board where he focuses on encouraging and equipping collegiate leaders on 900+ college ministries across North America. At NAMB he pioneered an interactive coaching network that involves hundreds of leaders each year. He spends his days traveling to campuses leading trainings on evangelism, disciple-making and missions. Paul is the founder of several ministries including Christian Challenge at California State University, Chico which he led for many years seeing a movement of God with over 1,000 college students making professions of faith during his time there. Recently, his family moved to the North Shore of Oahu where they help invest in young leaders at Good Soil Discipleship School when he is at home. Paul also founded Campus Multiplication Network, an international and interdenominational coaching and resource ministry impacting leaders in many nations. He is a co-host of the GenSend Podcast with Shane Pruitt and Lacey Villasenor. He has authored several books for collegiate leaders and students including: The Fuel & the Flame: Ignite Your Life & Your Campus for Jesus Christ, 5 Leadership Principles For Collegiate Ministry, Tips For Starting A College Ministry, Do More With Less Time and Thrive: Cultivating A Faith That Endures with LifeWay. Paul has degrees from University of Oklahoma and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. His wife Christy is his dearest partner in life and co-laborer in ministry and they have two kids and an adorable french bulldog named Ollie. When he is not working, you can find him surfing or skateboarding with his kids or taking Ollie to go search for some crabs on the beach.

You can follow him at and check out some of his free resources here: https://linktr.ee/paulworcester

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