You Have the Word. You Have the Holy Spirit. Go.

By Theodore X.

Photo by Malvina Battiston on Unsplash

I spent fifteen years reading the Bible before I understood a word of it.

That's not quite right - I understood the words. I could follow the stories, quote the passages, argue the theology. But something was missing.

The hunger was there from age ten, when I had a quiet, personal encounter with God on my balcony one night. That hunger only grew. I went looking for ways to feed it - committed myself to the Catholic faith, pursued the idea of priesthood twice, read and read and read.

But for all that, the Word stayed at a distance. Familiar, but not quite alive.

Then, at twenty-five, alone in my living room, I was filled with the Holy Spirit.

I can’t really describe what happened, but I can tell you what changed: the Word of God became alive.

That combination - the Word and the Spirit together - has been the foundation of everything I've done since. We were never meant to operate solely by the Word or the Spirit. Together, everything opened up.

The Question That Wouldn't Leave Me

Not long after that, I started doing what felt completely natural: going out.

Praying for people in their homes, visiting the sick, talking about the Bible with anyone who was interested. We were a small group, fairly ordinary people, and it never occurred to us that this was unusual.

Then I ended up leading a congregation.

We had good services - two, three hours on a Sunday morning, strong worship, solid preaching, a real community of people. By any measure, it was going well.

But something nagged at me. A question I couldn't shake: why is it only me who is doing all of this?

I looked at what Jesus did, and I couldn't find the pattern I was living.

Jesus didn't reserve ministry for one or two qualified people. He got everyone doing it. He sent them out. He told them to go. And here I was, up on a platform every Sunday, the one who preached and prayed and led - while everyone else sat and received.

That bothered me for years. It still does, a little.

God used this discontentment to shape a conviction that guides everything I do: you can do it too.

What Happens When You Push People

I'll be honest about my method, because I'm not entirely sure it was the right one. Mostly, I just pushed people.

A man I'll call “Michael” - someone I walked with in the early years of ministry, who has since become an active street evangelist in his own right - told me years later what had moulded him most profoundly.

It wasn't the Bible studies or the teaching. It was the time I told him to pray for someone. He said he stood there thinking, ‘Lord, I can't do this. I don't know what to do.’

But he did it.

We just kept doing that. “You have the Word. You have the Holy Spirit. Go. Don't ask me how. Just go and do it.”

Over the years, we've kept getting the same report back: it worked.

I'm not sure that's the most methodical approach to discipleship. But here's what I've come to believe: there is no better tutor than the Word of God, and no higher power than the Spirit of God. I'm totally convinced of that.

And if that's true, the most important thing is starting.

Three Young Men And A Visiting Friend

The clearest picture I can give you of what this looks like in practice happened recently, and it didn't involve me at all.

There are three young men I've been walking alongside for some years now. They are brothers - the eldest about twenty-one. They meet regularly to read scripture and talk about what they're hearing from God. A while back, a friend came to visit from out of town. He joined their time together.

They gathered, as they always did, read scripture together - and at some point, they prayed for their friend. Afterwards, he said that as they prayed, he felt warmth.

That's it. That's the whole story.

And it's exactly what I saw when I first read the Word at twenty-five: ordinary people, available to God, doing what Jesus told his followers to do.

The Only Qualification

I've spent a long time thinking about why so many followers of Jesus hold back. Why do they wait to feel more equipped, more confident, more certain they have the right words?.

I understand the instinct. I felt it too, in the early years - even as I was preaching, I was quietly aware of all the ways I wasn't adequate.

But here's what I came back to, then and now: if God can do something through me, He can do it through anyone.

The Word that came alive in my living room at twenty-five is the same Word available to you.

The Spirit who showed up that night came because I was hungry and available - nothing more than that.

You have the Word. You have the Holy Spirit. That's the qualification.

Go.

---

Getting Practical

As you think about God's vision for your city and/or affinity group:

1) Read Luke 10:1–12. Jesus sends out seventy-two people - many of whom had no formal preparation - with minimal instruction and no guarantee of outcome. Where in your own life are you waiting to feel more ready before you take a step toward someone? What would it look like to go anyway?

2) Who is one person in your life right now - a neighbour, a colleague, someone you see regularly - that you've been hesitant to engage spiritually? What's the smallest possible next step you could take with them this week?

---

Born and bred in Southeast Asia, T. Xavier has thirty years of living as Kingdom worker in Europe and Asia - sometimes ‘full time’, sometimes tentmaking. He is currently serving with an urban Disciple Making Movement Team in his city.

© 2026 Theodore X. All rights reserved.