“The wind blozveth where it listeth.” (John 3:8)
The Spirit of God is sovereign. He moves as He pleases. We try to pour Him into our particular mold, but our attempts are invariably frustrated.
Most of the types of the Holy Spirit are fluid - wind, fire, oil, and water. We may try to hold these in our hands but they have a way of saying “Don’t fence me in.”
The Holy Spirit will never do anything that is morally wrong, but in other areas He reserves the right to act in exceptional and unconventional ways. For example, while it is true that God has given headship to man, we cannot say that the Holy Spirit cannot raise up a Deborah to lead God’s people if He wishes.
In days of declension, the Spirit permits behavior that ordinarily would be forbidden. Thus David and his men were allowed to eat the shewbread, which was reserved exclusively for the priests. And the disciples were justified in plucking grain on the Sabbath day.
People say that there is a definite, predictable pattern of evangelism in the Book of Acts, but the only pattern I can see is the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit.
The apostles and others did not follow a textbook; they followed His leading, which was often quite different from what common sense would have dictated.
For instance, we see the Spirit leading Philip to leave a successful revival in Samaria in order to witness to a lone Ethiopian eunuch on the road to Gaza.
In our own day, we must guard against dictating to the Holy Spirit what He can and cannot do. We know that He will never do anything that is sinful. But in other areas He can be counted on to do the extraordinary. He is not limited to a certain set of methods. He is not bound by our traditional ways of doing things. He has a way of protesting against formalism, ritualism and deadness by raising up new movements with reviving power. We should therefore be open to this sovereign working of the Holy Spirit and not be found sitting on the sidelines, criticizing.
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His more than over eighty-four works published in North America are characterized by a clarity and economy of words that only comes by a major time investment in the Word of God.
MacDonald graduated with an AB degree from Tufts College (now University) in 1938 and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School in 1940. During the 1940's he was on active duty in the US Navy for five years.
He was President of Emmaus Bible College, a teacher, preacher, and Plymouth Brethren theologian alongside his ministry as a writer. He was a close friend and worker with O.J. Gibson.
MacDonald last resided in California where he was involved in his writing and preaching ministry. He went to be with the Lord in 2007.