Holy Spirit’s Power in Disciple-Making

How we moved from functional cessationism to embracing the full Biblical teaching on the power of the Spirit.

One of the core values of our church is reliance—by which we mean reliance on the Holy Spirit to do what we cannot. Over the years, I’ve slowly become more emphatic that it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can make disciples. This is a post about what that looks like.

But first, a testimony. A couple weeks ago, my good friend Stephen called together a prayer meeting for key leaders in our church who were navigating a difficult pregnancy. At that point, there was serious concern about major development issues in the baby's brain, and subsequent visits had consistently generated bad news. The day after the prayer meeting at their house, they had another scan, and the results came back measuring almost normal. Two weeks later, the baby was born and has been sent home with a normal report, without any medical explanation.

I share their story with their permission because they recognize it as God’s gift of healing; to Him alone belongs the credit. Glory to God.

Notably, many of our younger disciples and students from the local university campus were invited to join in and pray. This is just part of our discipleship process as a family on mission.

The question is, how do we equip people to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit within a multiplying disciple-making context? Before I dive in, let me give some of my personal background.

Functional Cessationism in Disguise

As a teenager, I was exposed to both the best and worst of the charismatic world. Because of some negative experiences, I eventually veered toward a quiet or cautious teaching on the Holy Spirit. I figured, let’s focus on the core mission that everyone can agree on. Rather than offering better teaching to navigate the occasional excesses of charismatic expressions, I avoided the topic altogether or taught it with fear.

Meanwhile, in private, I regularly prayed in tongues. I was, in many ways, living a double life: a charismatic in private, but a functional cessationist in public ministry.

What do I mean by "functional cessationist"? Cessationism is the idea that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased after the New Testament was completed. Functional cessationism, however, is the belief in the supernatural power of the Spirit doctrinally, but the avoidance of it in practice. It’s the mindset that says, “If God wants to move supernaturally, He can, but I’m not going to do anything to help it.” (Note: this basically just ignores 1 Corinthians 12:31.)

Thankfully, cessationism is mostly fringe in the global church, despite some loud voices, particularly in America. That’s because it’s impossible to support from scripture without bending yourself into a pretzel. Even the idea of distinguishing between “sign gifts” (prophecy, tongues, etc.) and “non-sign gifts” (administration, helps, etc.) doesn’t hold water since no such distinction exists scripturally. All gifts of the Holy Spirit are signs; they build up and strengthen the church for mission. The gift of administration is no less supernatural than the gift of healing or tongues.

I think many church leaders are functional cessationists. We might not preach cessationism, but we act as though building the church depends entirely on our own work without specific and demonstrable supernatural aid. Or if we do mention the Holy Spirit, we often keep it vague and non-specific. Allow me to repeat myself: when we avoid encouraging or teaching about the supernatural empowering of the Holy Spirit, we become functional cessationists.

Rediscovering Power for Mission

Several years ago, through the voices of wise mentors and time in the scriptures, I became convinced that I had been too timid in teaching and equipping people to walk in the Spirit’s power. I was confronted by my own hypocrisy in practicing one thing in private and lacking the faith to teach the same thing in public. Today, I am convinced the power of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary for making disciples who make disciples.

The role of the Holy Spirit is not a fringe concept—it is the bedrock of the Great Commission. There is no Great Commission without the Holy Spirit. Jesus made this clear in Acts 1:8:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Notice the boundary of that statement? It’s “to the ends of the earth.” The Spirit was given to empower the Church until every people group has heard of Jesus. We need the supernatural just as much now as they did then.

The Holy Spirit Empowers the Mission

First and foremost, we need to keep the main thing the main thing: we are a missionary people. Our primary task is to make disciples by evangelizing lost souls. This must be our raison d'être.

Any discussion of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit must be rooted in the purpose of multiplying disciples. One of the most common missteps in charismatic circles is becoming more enamoured with the gifts, the experiences, or even the atmosphere than with the mission, the lost, or the Giver of the gifts Himself.

In our context, we begin discipling people with a focus on foundations like Lordship, scripture study, Gospel fluency and missional living before introducing the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why we emphasize missional clarity in our disciples before diving into deeper discussions of spiritual gifts. That said, in the long run, my hope is that as our movement grows more experienced in the supernatural that young disciples will be exposed early to a charismatic expression that is missionally grounded.

Equipping Every Saint

Much of the modern charismatic world has placed too much weight on powerful worship moments as the main setting for the Spirit’s work. I grew up in the era when ambient guitars became the marker of a powerful “Spirit-filled” worship song. I do appreciate a well-led worship moment, but the Holy Spirit isn’t restricted to operating in large gatherings under the guidance of specially anointed leaders.

In fact, most of the supernatural encounters in scripture happen in homes or small gatherings. So we’ve chosen to train all our missionaries in the theology of spiritual gifts and encourage them to be obedient to scripture in desiring them.

Just this past weekend, we hosted a training session for our missionaries-in-training that focused specifically on the work of the Holy Spirit. We do this so everyone is equipped to teach and model spiritual gifts in discipleship settings, not just pastors or leaders.

This allows us to fold in things like prophecy or tongues alongside practical examples of how the Spirit empowers us in the ordinary. It also allows us to develop clear guidelines for how to practice prophecy in a way that is biblical, encouraging, and grounded in the mission. We emphasize the authority of scripture, the need for encouragement, and the integration of the gifts into the larger goal of reaching the world, not just cultivating spiritual experiences.

Help in Our Weakness

The final aspect of how we integrate the Holy Spirit’s power is simple: we rely on Him because we are weak.

We are a young church, made up largely of bi-vocational leaders. That means our people are often short on time and life experience. By all human measures, we are not set up for effective ministry.

But the Holy Spirit helps in our weakness. Just like Peter stood up on Pentecost and preached one of the most powerful sermons in history, the Spirit can empower us to do what we could never do on our own.

Personally, I know I would have burned out long ago without the help of the Holy Spirit. He meets me in my weakness, and I am very weak indeed.

The church in Acts 2, where everyone shared what they had and lived with passion for the Gospel, wasn’t the result of great planning or strategy. It was the fruit of the Spirit’s move through a desperate and inexperienced group of people.

May we be just as desperate, just as dependent, and just as empowered by the Holy Spirit as they were.