One Monday afternoon I was at work getting the newspaper my company produces ready to send to the printing plant. Suddenly a terrible summer storm blew through the area. High winds tore up trees like a gardener pulling up weeds.

In our newspaper office, we kept working through the storm until suddenly, BOOM! Everything went dark and silent. No lights. No computers. No phones. No air conditioning.

For an hour we waited for the power to return. We couldn't work without it. Finally, we decided to go home and come back when the power returned.

A coworker drove me home. None of the traffic signals were working. All of the businesses and homes looked dark. Everywhere trees had suffered broken limbs that had pulled down power lines. When we got two blocks from my house, we could drive no farther. Fallen trees had blocked the road. I walked the rest of the way.

My home was undamaged, but there was no power. I waited in the silent darkness for my family to come home.

I thought about how we take electricity for granted. When the clock radio wakes us up, we push aside our electric blanket, go into our bathroom and turn on the light. We wash with electrically heated water. We turn on our electric coffee pots and electric stove to make breakfast. We turn on the TV to catch the morning news. Whenever we flip a switch, electricity is always there.

But that Monday, it wasn't there. When my family got home, we couldn't cook. The house was hot with no air conditioning. So we went to a restaurant for a hot meal and cool air.

When the sun went down, we lit candles and got out flashlights, but there was little to do. Radios and TV required power. We couldn't even read our Bibles after dark because there was no light.

By 9 p.m. the power was restored at my office, so I went back to work. But when I got home after midnight, my house was still dark. Power was not restored at home until Tuesday afternoon.

Can We Have a Spiritual Power Outage?

None of us like being without electrical power. It's frustrating. But what about being without spiritual power?

At Pentecost we focused our attention on God's Spirit and how we receive it. But is it possible to take God's Spirit for granted and lose it? Can we have a spiritual power outage?

What is life like without God's Spirit? It's similar to being without electrical power in our physical lives.

1. We can't work. When the power went out at the office, we all went home. We couldn't work.

Without God's Spirit we can't do God's work! Jesus Christ did a great spiritual work when He walked the earth. But He said three times in the Gospel of John that He could do nothing of Himself (John 5:19, 30; 8:28). His works were done by God through the power of His Spirit. If Christ had been without God's Spirit, He could have done nothing.

If we don't have the Spirit of God, we cannot do the work of God.

2. We can't communicate. When the power went out at work, our phone system went dead. Radios and televisions don't work without electricity.

Without God's Spirit, we are cut off from God and can't communicate with Him. Romans 8:5-10 tells us that without God's Spirit, we are the enemies of God; we can't please God; we are not Christ's. How thankful we can be for God's calling and His plan to call all men!

3. We can't prepare our food. Without electricity for our stove, we couldn't cook. That made preparing something to eat difficult.

It takes God's Spirit to open our minds to accept the spiritual food offered by God through the Bible and inspired preaching and publications (1 Corinthians 2:10-14).

4. Food begins to spoil. Without electricity, food stored in refrigerators and freezers thaws, gets warm and begins to spoil.

If we lose God's Spirit, the spiritual knowledge that we have stored up will begin to spoil. We have seen people who knew God's ways and kept the Sabbath and Holy Days for years but gave them up when they left God's Church. The truth they had spoiled when they cut themselves off from God's Spirit.

All the food stored in our freezers will be for nothing if electricity is not restored in time. And years of obeying God will be for nothing if people cut themselves off from God's Spirit for too long a time (Ezekiel 18:24).

5. We're not comfortable. I've had power go out on hot, sticky summer days and in frigid winter ice storms. In either case, the house becomes uncomfortable very quickly. It soon becomes unbearably warm or unbearably cold.

With God's Spirit there is peace (2 Timothy 1:7). Christ called it the Comforter (John 15:26; 16:7, King James Version). Without it, life is not peaceful. Life is uncomfortable.

6. We're in the dark. Without electricity, we are in the dark.

Without God's Spirit giving us access to Christ and God, we walk in the dark, not knowing where we're going (John 12:35-36).

What Causes Spiritual Outages?

Summer storms with high winds and lightning strikes can cause electrical power outages. But what causes spiritual power outages?

1. Our sins. Isaiah 59:2 says our sins cut us off from God. After David sinned with Bathsheba, he prayed to God in Psalm 51:11, "Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me." David was afraid God would take away His Spirit because he sinned.

When we sin, we should quickly repent as David did in Psalm 51, before we find ourselves in a spiritual power outage.

2. Neglect. We also can lose God's Spirit by ignoring or neglecting it. You've heard the old expression, "Use it or lose it." In 12th grade I knew French well enough to read whole books in French without looking up hardly a word. Now I can hardly read a book in French without looking up most of the words.

The Spirit leads us into all truth (John 16:13). It produces fruit in us (Galatians 5:22-23). If we don't follow where the Spirit leads us, we will lose the Spirit through neglect.

Paul told Timothy, "Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands" (2 Timothy 1:6). Getting connected to this spiritual power source requires a laying on of hands, which is prescribed to follow repentance and baptism—Acts 2:38. To receive this spiritual power, young people in the Church should prepare to be baptized when the time is right.

A physical power outage is no fun. It's frustrating to live without electrical power. But a spiritual power outage is much worse! Let's not go through life in a spiritual power outage! UN